Earl Sampson

Earl Sampson is a black man from Miami Gardens, Florida, who, beginning in 2008, was repeatedly arrested by police for trespassing while he was at his own place of employment. His federal civil rights lawsuit against the city was settled under undisclosed terms in 2015.

Incidents The Miami Gardens Police Department convinced the owner of the Quickstop convenience store, Alex Saleh, to sign up for "The Zero-Tolerance Zone Trespassing Program". Afterwards police began targeting black customers who were standing in line to buy items at the store. Police officers also focused their attention on Sampson, whose only criminal conviction was for marijuana possession.

During the five-year period from 2008 to 2013, Sampson was "unlawfully stopped-and-frisked, searched, seized, and/or arrested 288 times," for a total of 63 arrests, 33 of which resulted in court action. He was also searched over 100 times and jailed at least 56 times; the majority of these events occurred at the Quickstop.

Sampson pleaded guilty to the trespassing charges filed against him, since pleading not guilty would have meant remaining in jail, posting bond, meeting trial dates, and spending money. In response, Saleh installed 15 cameras in his store, and used the resulting videotapes to prove that Sampson was behaving properly when targeted by police. In 2012, Saleh filed a complaint with the State Attorney, but the office declined to investigate the claim.

A portion of a February 2015 This American Life episode, "Inconvenience Store", Act One of "548: Cops See It Differently, Part Two," chronicled the Sampson incident. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic wrote, "Neither a public defender nor a judge was able to spot or stop this miscarriage of justice either. No one inside the system successfully exposed or remedied the abusive situation. Things only changed for Sampson when the store owner got video evidence and took it to the media." Many of the officers named in the lawsuit continued to work for the MGPD after the settlement. Miami Gardens Mayor, Oliver Gilbert, and City Manager, Cameron Benson, announced they would launch an investigation into the incident, and that "any officers who violated laws will be disciplined — up to and including being fired." His lawsuit was unsuccessful.