Norwich ― State human rights officials are investigating a city woman’s complaint that her arrest after a Nov. 24, 2019 incident followed a pattern of police harassment based on her race.

Linda Brown, 59, of 57 Roosevelt Ave., who is Black, said she continues to suffer from anxiety whenever she sees police.

“I believe that I have been and continue to be targeted by the Norwich Police Department due to my race and color, Black,” Brown wrote in her complaint to the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

The agency does not comment on pending investigations. Brown said she was notified that an investigating officer has been assigned to her complaint, and a conference with the involved parties is scheduled for Aug. 1.

Norwich Police Chief Patrick Daley said he could not comment on the pending complaint.

On the cold, rainy evening of Nov. 24, 2019, Brown was called to her daughter’s home by a neighbor who had heard a loud argument between Brown’s daughter and her boyfriend in the downstairs apartment. Brown drove to the house to pick up her 5-year-old grandson. Police arrived as she prepared to leave.

Police body camera video of the incident shows that police blocked her exit, and blocked her from closing her driver’s side door.

Police body camera videos show Brown screaming and shouting obscenities at officers and demanding their names and badge numbers. She turned her radio up and honked the horn. She shouted that officers were raising her anxiety by being so close and wearing guns, insisted she had done nothing wrong and wanted to go home with her grandson.

Puzzled at her actions, officers could be heard voicing concerns for her 5-year-old grandson in the back seat and whether she was OK to drive. At the house, a tenant told police Brown had no part in the earlier domestic argument and was not there at the time.

Brown’s daughter, Queen Anderson, who was pregnant at the time, came to the car, and Brown calmed down. Officers allowed both women to drive away, “pending an arrest warrant,” officers wrote in the affidavit.

In a supplemental police report, Officer John Tangney wrote that officers decided to investigate further to determine if there was probable cause to seek an arrest, “due to the agitated state of Brown, Anderson’s pregnancy and the presence of a juvenile child.”

Brown turned herself in Jan. 31, 2020 after learning of the warrant on charges of breach of peace and interfering with police. She said she found it humiliating and traumatic to be fingerprinted and processed. It was her first arrest.

The charges were nolled, or not prosecuted, by the state’s attorney’s office, and Brown filed her CHRO complaint Feb. 20, 2020, on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brown was arrested again July 5 of this year in an unrelated incident following an altercation with her brother. She was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct and interfering with police. The arrest blotter report said Brown resisted officers as they handcuffed her and spit at them, “causing some of her saliva to go on an officer.”

Brown said she was treated roughly by police during the arrest.

Brown told The Day that the mere sight of uniformed police officers or cruisers triggers her anxiety. She can’t bear to have officers nearby. She blamed years of traffic stops and alleged racial profiling for her anxiety and is in therapy.

Brown credited her husband, Balla Sanyang, for his support in helping her deal with her anxiety.

“Sometimes, she comes home crying about it,” Sanyang said. “The way she’s feeling, she’s always crying.”

Brown said she filed the CHRO complaint, because she wanted “the frequent motor vehicle stops” to end. She described several incidents, most of which resulted in no charges.

She said an August 2019 incident, four months prior to her arrest, cost her a good-paying job as an independent life skills trainer with a private client.

She said she was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt, which was false. Brown said the stop took over a half hour, as she asked for a police supervisor, and Brown insisted she get her client out of the car and let her sit in the shade. Afterward, Brown said her eight-year client fired her, saying she was tired of the frequent stops.

Brown said she contacted the woman, and she did not respond to requests to be interviewed by The Day.

Brown admitted she was uncooperative and belligerent with officers during the Nov. 24, 2019 incident.

“My anxiety just got the best of me.” But she said police had no reason to detain her for over a half hour, or charge her, when she was not involved in the initial incident.

“You get to the point where you just get tired of being harassed by the police,” Brown said.

c.bessette@theday.com