Racial profiling is a fancy term for an old practice known as institutional racism, discrimination and just plain old prejudice against people of color that has existed in this country since slavery. Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement agents rely on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion in deciding whom to target for criminal investigations. This practice violates our nation's core values, and our basic constitutional commitment to equal justice under the law. Police should not and may not use race, ethnicity, or religion as a basis for criminal suspicion.
Americans began to understand the concept of racial profiling in the late '80s and early '90s as advocacy groups and the media began to uncover ways in which people of color are harassed on a regular basis by police for no reason. Millions of innocent motorists on highways across the country are victims of racial profiling. The "War on Drugs" and more recently "the War on Terror" have given law enforcement an excuse to target people who fit their image of a "drug courier," "gang member," or "terrorist." Prior to 9/11, African-Americans, Native Americans and Latinos were often the targets of police profiling. And since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, law enforcement has intensified the profiling and harassment of South Asians, Muslims and Arabs based on their national origin, ethnicity and religion.
Racial profiling is the first step down the long road of a criminal justice system that results in the heavily disproportionate incarceration of people of color, especially young men, for drug-related crimes, and of Arabs, Muslims and South Asians for suspicion of terrorism. This despite the fact that people of color are no more likely than whites to use or sell drugs, and Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians are no more likely than whites to be terrorists.
President Bush vowed to end racial profiling, calling it "wrong in America." But current law enforcement guidelines do little to stop officials from relying on race or ethnicity when deciding to initiate traffic stops or other investigative activities. Policies primarily designed to impact certain groups, however, are ineffective and often result in the destruction of civil liberties for everyone. Singling out African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Arabs and South Asians for special law enforcement scrutiny without a reasonable belief that they are involved in a crime will result in little evidence of actual criminal activity and wastes important police resources. Racial profiling makes us all less safe, by diverting limited law enforcement resources by targeting innocent individuals for government scrutiny.
In the coming weeks, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) are expected to introduce the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 (ERPA), which will prohibit federal law enforcement agencies from engaging in racial profiling and encourage states to adopt the same type of ban on the practice. The legislation will also permit victims of racial profiling to take legal action and requires states to establish procedures for victims to file complaints against police officers who racially profile. In addition, the bill provides data collection demonstration and best practice incentive grants to state and local law enforcement agencies
We can and MUST be both safe and free in America. However, by allowing racial and religious bias to decide who is detained by law enforcement, we betray that fundamental promise of equal protection under the law. Therefore, we urge Congress to pass ERPA and finally take the first step toward ending racial profiling in America.