A Black Oklahoma man is suing police after repeatedly being pulled over for alleged traffic violations that have left him handcuffed and held at gunpoint only for him to be let go minutes later.
Saadiq Long, 52, is a military veteran with no criminal record yet he ended up on a government terrorist watch list, prompting the potentially deadly police encounters.
“I’ve been stopped four times in basically a month,” Long told an Oklahoma police officer during a recent traffic stop.
Long’s attorneys say he’s endured violations of his constitutional rights and civil liberties by government agencies for more than ten years.
“Saadiq Long is a law-abiding American citizen, he was born here in Oklahoma and served his country in the Air Force for 11 years. He pays his taxes, works hard, and provides for his family. They are frightened that one day when Saadiq gets in his car to go to work or run errands he won’t come home,” Long’s attorney Hannah Mullen said during a news conference.
Video shared by Long’s attorneys shows some of the traffic stops he recorded himself in recent years. In one video, Long is seen with his hands up as a swarm of at least five officers approached his vehicle with their guns drawn.
Long’s federal lawsuit claims his Fourth Amendment rights are being violated by Oklahoma police by initiating traffic stops and detaining him based solely on his name listed on the Terrorism Screening Dataset (TSDS).
The TSDS was created in 2003 by the FBI and maintains the U.S. government’s consolidated terrorist watchlist. People on the list are “known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.” The list is available through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), a system local and state law enforcement agencies regularly use.
The FBI says 98 percent of people on the list are non-U.S. persons. The list has more than a million entries and an overwhelming number of people…
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