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.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens