Posted on 05/28/2012 1:28:55 PM PDT by Brown Deer
The buzzword in police stations and courtrooms this week is racial profiling -- the practice by police of stopping drivers based solely on the color of their skin.
The issue has been spotlighted after a federal court judge asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Mount Prospectr police department of possibly racially targeting Hispanic drivers and violating their civil rights.
The allegations of racial profiling arose during a trial in federal cour in which a former Mount Prospect police officer was awarded $1.2 million for being discriminated against. He was fired in 1995. The outcome has raised the question of how often the practice happens in the suburbs.
Police chiefs say rarely, and only by individual officers who are disciplines when caught. Critics, though, see a systemic problem.
One way to answer the question is to collect data on the race of people stopped by police.
That's the crux of a proposal by state Sen. Barack Obama, a Chicago Democrat.
Last week, Obama introduced legislation that would require all police departments, including the state police, to report the race of every person they stop to the Illinois secretary of state.
Neither the name of the person nor the name of the officer would be included, Obama said.
"The intent of my bill is not to paint any kind of police department as racist in broad strokes," Obama said.
Rather, the first step to finding where a problem may be is to have the data in hand, Obama argued.
Police chiefs, as a group, have no problem with collecting the data but do have a problem with putting the burden on the officer to determine the driver's race.
"Don't put it on the police officer to say this person is this race or that race," said Paul Dollins, manager of government relations for the state association of chiefs of police.
While Dollins concedes in most cases it would be easy for the police officer to determine a person's race, there are times when an officer might not. And forcing the officer to question a person about his or her race could add pressure to an already tense situation, Dollins argued. Dollins instead suggests that each person's race can be listed on the driver's license at the driver's request.
Absolutely. The profiling might be simply limited to having the situational awareness that there are people who look and or act differently in your vicinity. It isn't racism (which involves a sense of superiority over another group based on superficial parameters), but an awareness that you are among people who are not part of your usual associates. That awareness might be based on appearance or actions or both, but being aware of people among you who are different is an old survival mechanism that is part and parcel of human nature. It doesn't imply hostility, but at least some healthy curiosity is warranted.
We're all xenophobes to some extent, it's hardwired in.
Yes, the story is from January 2000.
back to chasing blue haired old ladies in wheel chairs
Excellent points! Plus rich humor.......*~*
Awww, - - - , shucks. Thanks.
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