Pubdate: Wed, 23 May 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: Laurence Arnold, Associated Press CONGRESS TARGETS RACIAL PROFILING Bush Support Helps Drive To Outlaw Focusing On Suspects Based On Race WASHINGTON -- Encouraged by the Bush administration, lawmakers who tried last year to launch a nationwide study of racial profiling are now moving to outlaw the disputed law enforcement practice nationally. With state legislatures around the country grappling with the issue, some say Congress should stand back rather than jump in. Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate to the House of Representatives, has proposed withholding some highway funds from states that do not ban racial profiling, the practice of targeting suspects based on race or ethnicity. A group of Democrats led by Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Rep. John Conyers of Michigan is preparing legislation that would make grants to police departments contingent upon how they monitor and stop racial profiling. Federal efforts to combat racial profiling got a boost in February when President Bush declared, "It is wrong, and we must end it.'' Attorney General John Ashcroft then endorsed legislation, proposed in the last Congress by Feingold and Conyers, requiring state and local law enforcement agencies to collect traffic stop data. David Harris, a law professor working with Feingold and Conyers, said the lawmakers no longer want to settle for studying whether racial profiling happens. "There is wide acknowledgment that this is a reality faced every day by people of color,'' said Harris, who teaches at the University of Toledo in Ohio. "The question now is, how can we approach it in a concrete way that will make a difference?'' Convening a hearing on the topic Tuesday, Congressional Black Caucus chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, said she hoped ``to create the necessary will for this Congress and this administration to immediately end the practice of racial profiling.'' At least 15 states have taken action to stop or study racial profiling, and 20 others have legislation pending. California, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Oregon have banned the practice. Susan Parnas Frederick, director of the law and justice committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Congress should continue to let states address the issue. "To have this strong arm of the federal government come and squash all those efforts just doesn't seem fair,'' Frederick said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens