Albany

Patrick Belibi was walking down Western Avenue, just a few doors from his apartment, when he heard the footsteps.

Belibi looked over his shoulder, he says, to see a police officer running toward him with gun drawn. The officer grabbed and handcuffed Belibi, then hauled him to a waiting squad car.

"He held me by the neck and put me against the car," Belibi said. "He was yelling questions at me."

Where are you going?

Belibi was going to meet friends at Washington Park, just a few blocks away, for a cookout.

Where do you live?

Belibi lives right there, within sight of where the car was parked, in a student-dominated part of Albany's Pine Hills neighborhood.

Who are you?

Belibi is 26 and from Cameroon, on Africa's west coast. He's here on a Fulbright scholarship. He's earning a master's degree at the University at Albany.

The officer searched Belibi's bags, filled with cookout supplies, and detained him, handcuffed, for about 10 minutes as other cops moved through the neighborhood, Belibi says. Then, the officer apparently decided the student had done nothing wrong.

"He just released me and walked away," Belibi said.

There was no explanation, Belibi says. No apology or explanation. And when Belibi tried to ask why he'd been detained, he says, the officer angrily threatened to put him back into custody.

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Belibi tried to return to his apartment but another officer standing near the building ordered him away, he says, so he quickly left the neighborhood.

This happened a week ago, at about 5 p.m. on a beautiful Sunday. Afterward, Belibi tried to forget about the incident. He returned to his normal life, which consists largely of studying and volunteering for a literacy group. He's here to learn, not make waves.

"I told myself that this is reality in the United States," Belibi said. "It can happen."

But unlike many people treated gruffly by police, Belibi benefits from a network of former Fulbright scholars who went abroad when they were young and now welcome the foreign students brought here by the program. They're asking for answers.

"We're appalled that this happened to Patrick," said Lynne Ogren, president of the Fulbright Alumni Association's local chapter. "We feel very protective of him."

Ogren and others who know Belibi believe he deserves an explanation, if not an apology.

"They had no reason to think Patrick was part of anything. He was just on the street," Ogren said. "I can't help but think there's some kind of racial profiling going on here."

So what happened? What's the police answer to Belibi's statements?

So far, the department isn't talking.

A spokesman for Albany police would only say the matter is "the subject of an internal investigation." The department declined to comment further, refusing even to say why police were in the area.

With so little information available, it's difficult to assess the incident. We really can only assume police were confronted with a threatening situation and were searching for a dangerous person.

But remember that Belibi says he was released without a word while police remained on the scene. If the situation was dangerous, shouldn't police have been concerned about his safety?

"None of them protected me," he said.

I should point out that a goal of the Fulbright program is to increase international understanding, to give future leaders from other countries a sense of American life. The hope, of course, is that the students leave with lasting positive memories.

So let's ponder what Belibi is likely to remember about Albany.

He'll remember that some police treat law-abiding residents with disrespect. And he'll remember that even an accomplished scholar can be randomly handcuffed, without explanation or apology.

Belibi says he was already wary of crime in his neighborhood.

Now he's wary of the police, too.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill