file photo Ridgewood bus station
NJ Transit investigating racial-profiling complaint in Paramus incident
Friday, August 16, 2013 Last updated: Saturday August 17, 2013, 10:23 PM
BY KAREN RO– USE
STAFF WRITER
The Record
NJ Transit’s civil rights division is investigating a black customer’s complaint that he was racially profiled by a bus driver who refused to talk to him and instead called Paramus police — who told him he couldn’t board the driver’s bus because he made her “nervous.”
Alonza Robertson, a 45-year-old media relations manager at a New York accounting association, said he was humiliated, made to feel like less of a man and illegally denied access to public accommodations, in what he believes was a racial profiling incident.
He said the bus, filled with passengers, pulled off, leaving him in an empty parking lot on a Sunday in 85-degree weather, and forced to pay for a $45 cab ride home.
NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. said the agency is aware of Robertson’s complaint and is investigating. The agency “takes these allegations seriously and upon receipt of the customer complaint our agency immediately launched a full investigation — led by NJ Transit’s Office of Civil Rights,” he said. “This investigation continues at this time.”
He said the customer service department also is involved, and the agency is looking into why police were called to the scene.