No progress on
profiling
Posted nj.com April
11, from the Web, April 12, 2007
I thought it was an April Fool's joke
when I read the comments of the State Police and the Black Ministers Council in
the April 1 article "State Police see decrease in complaints of profiling."
Apparently, leaders of those groups see the drop in complaints, from 106 in 2005
to 86 in 2006, as evidence of reform.
Yet there is little evidence to suggest that these statistics reflect progress
against racial profiling by the State Police. As the article says, none of
the complaints made since 1999 has been upheld by the police, and none of the
628 officers accused of profiling has been disciplined. Why would people
keep filing complaints when complaints are uniformly denied?
Further, given the State Police's view that all complaints are invalid -- since
none was substantiated -- why would they conclude that the drop in complaints
suggests a drop in profiling?
Ample evidence demonstrates that profiling on the Turnpike's southern end is
still at the level it was in 1998 when four African- American students were shot
on the Turnpike and the attorney general determined that racial profiling is
"real, not imagined."
By Edward Barocas, Newark
The writer is legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New
Jersey.
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