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Contributing Writer Racial profiling - right or wrong? Racial profiling consists of the law enforcement practice of taking the race of a potential suspect into account in deciding whether to initiate investigation of that suspect. We all say that we would never think that was OK. We wouldn’t do that ... Of course, even our government says it's wrong. Feb. 27, 2001 President George W. Bush clearly said, "It's wrong, and we will end it in America. In so doing, we will not hinder the work of our nation's brave police officers. They protect us every day - often at great risk. But by stopping the abuses of a few, we will add to the public confidence our police officers earn and deserve.'' Attorney General John Ashcroft agreed verbally Feb. 28, 2002: "This administration ... has been opposed to racial profiling and has done more to indicate its opposition than ever in history. The President said it’s wrong and we’ll end it in America, and I subscribe to that. Using race ... as a proxy for potential criminal behavior is unconstitutional, and it undermines law enforcement by undermining the confidence that people can have in law enforcement.” Bush did put a policy in place. The New York Times stated this new policy represents the first time the federal government imposed across-the-board guidelines on racial profiling. It governs the conduct of 70 federal law enforcement agencies. A narcotics agent, for instance, cannot focus on a specific neighborhood simply because of its racial makeup, the policy states. However, there is a small catch to this. The exceptions will apply to investigations involving terrorism and national security matters. “The policy lays out two distinct sets of guidelines: a broad prohibition on profiling in traditional and often routine law enforcement investigations; and a looser set of standards for national security cases,” said Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times. Let’s get this straight: Racial profiling is wrong. The president and America will not stand for it, except when we are talking about terrorism and national security. Then, racial profiling is fine. It sounds a little bit to me like we want to have our cake and eat it too. Remember, Ashcroft said, “Using race ... as a proxy for potential criminal behavior is unconstitutional.” Terrorism is definitely potential criminal behavior. Ashcroft also said, “(Racial profiling) undermines law enforcement by undermining the confidence that people can have in law enforcement.” By saying it is okay to use racial profiling in terrorism and national security are we not undermining the FBI and the confidence we can have in them? I ask you again: is racial
profiling wrong or right? Our government does not even really know, so
I guess it will be hard for us to know either.
ŠThe Voice 2007 Revised 01/13/2008 03:16:50 PM — http://www.uamont.edu/Organizations/TheVoice/5_11/racial.htm |
