Racial Profiling in Twista Tour Bus Raid?

[MaxFly]

After having his tour bus pulled over yesterday by Michigan State Police on suspicion of drug trafficking, Twista's manager, who was on the scene, calls it a case of racial and rapper profiling.

The tour bus carrying Twista was pulled over by several Michigan State Police officers early yesterday (September 19) after police allegedly ran the vehicle's plates and saw the bus was registered to Entertainment Coach of America. Police have suggested that the company has been known to traffic narcotics in the past, including incidents involving other artists. Officers searched the bus, resulting in a traffic jam on Interstate 94 outside of Detroit, MI, and also forced Twista to miss a scheduled radio appearance to promote his latest album, Adrenaline Rush 2007.

Twista's manager, Rawle Stewart, spoke exclusively to SOHH to give his account of an incident in which he feels the rapper was unfairly targeted.

"We were on our way to do Adrenaline Rush radio and were pulled over around 3 p.m," Stewart recalled. "What started out as a 2 car stop turned out to be 6 or 7 Michigan State Police officers searching the bus. We got the bus from Platinum Charter Line but I guess they ran the plates and saw that it was still registered to ECA and said that they had had other incidents with rappers and that company trafficking drugs so they immediately assumed that we had drugs on the bus."

The search yielded no drugs or illegal substances and Stewart says that not so much as a ticket was even issued to either the rapper, the driver, or any of his entourage. Stewart says the officers recognized the rapper and then began to direct all of the comments to him.

"I think it was a case of profiling because they immediately assumed we had drugs and told us they found residue, but was letting us off with a warning?" said Stewart. "They knew who they pulled over because they saw the Dub Magazine [with Twista on it] and said, 'That's you.' It was so petty. When it was all said and done, we didn't even get a ticket. They gave us a lecture like, 'In Michigan we don't tolerate that and if you come through our state again, you will get locked up.' There's people on the interstate passing by like, Is that Twista? They said to us 'This may help your career or it may hurt your career, but we don't tolerate that in Michigan.'"

SOHH contacted the Michigan State Police, who neither confirmed nor denied the incident.

http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/12602