California's racial profiling law is 'terrible' legislation, police officials say

By Kim Christensen and Matt Hamilton, Los Angeles Times

California is about to tackle head on the charged issue of racial bias in law enforcement.

Gov. Jerry Brown this weekend signed legislation mandating that California law enforcement agencies collect — and make public — data on the racial makeup of all those encountered by police.

For civil rights activists, Brown's action was a big step toward protecting minorities from racial profiling.

For many in law enforcement, the measure creates a massive new bureaucratic headache that will do little to illuminate the question of whether police treat minority groups fairly.

Read the story here.

Arizona violating treaty ratified by U.S.

CNN.com
By Chandra Bhatnagar, Special to CNN
May 21, 2010 10:51 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Chandra Bhatnagar: Experts say Arizona law will lead to increased racial profiling
Law violates Constitution as it makes any Latino a potential criminal suspect, he says
Bhatnagar: It's also a blatant violation of U.N. rights treaty, signed and ratified by the U.S.
He says it's time for U.S. to extend rights it expects from other nations to its own people

Editor's note: Chandra Bhatnagar is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program and principal author of "The Persistence of Racial and Ethnic Profiling in the United States," recently submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
(CNN) -- On the heels of the passage of Arizona's racial profiling law, tens of thousands of people from all over the country have marched in support of human rights and against the legislation.
That law, SB 1070, requires Arizona law enforcement agents to determine the citizenship status of people they stop if the officer has an undefined "reasonable suspicion" that the person is not in this country lawfully.

Full Story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/05/19/bhatnagar.arizona.violation/index.html

Charges dropped against black Harvard scholar

Associated Press

By MELISSA TRUJILLO,

Associated Press Writer

Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 41 mins ago

BOSTON – Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested at his home near Harvard University after a report of a break-in.
The city of Cambridge issued a statement saying the arrest "was regrettable and unfortunate" and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
"This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department," the statement said.
Supporters say Gates — the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — was the victim of racial profiling.
Officers responded to the home Gates rents from Harvard after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry," according to a police report.
Gates' lawyer, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, said the professor had returned from a trip overseas with a driver, found his front-door jammed and had to force it open. He was already inside, calling the company that manages the property, when police arrived.

Full Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly

[SJW Note: Now I understand why we need a Fourth Amendment. When they can come into your home, demand ID and after it is produced, call more police... Is this a post-racial society?]

Profiling and Harvard police

The Boston Globe
September 2, 2008

IF UNADDRESSED and unresolved, the intermittent charges of racial profiling on the part of Harvard University police officers could undermine confidence in the nation's top- ranked educational institution. University president Drew Gilpin Faust made a smart move last week by turning to an independent police review committee for answers.
There should be plenty of research opportunities for former Suffolk County district attorney Ralph Martin, who is heading the six-member committee. Black students and faculty at Harvard complain that they draw unwarranted police attention. Police queried students at a field day last year sponsored by two black student groups, though the participants had a permit. A prominent black professor has been mistaken for a robbery suspect. Last month, two Harvard officers were placed on administrative leave after a confrontation with a black high school student who was working on campus.
Harvard Police officers receive the same academy training given to recruits who join major municipal police departments. And minority officers comprise a respectable 22 percent of the 65-member force. But that is no guarantee of success when dealing with the concerns of minorities on or off campus. The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association is now designing a curriculum to counter racial profiling with help from the State Police and police leaders from Boston, Woburn, Brookline and other municipalities. University police at Harvard and elsewhere should be integrated into this effort.
The age and experience of campus police officers could be a significant factor, according to Northeastern University criminologist Jack McDevitt, a national specialist on racial profiling. Campus officers who are marking time while awaiting appointments to city police departments, says McDevitt, may be inviting problems by looking for action where little exists. Universities often fare better with older or more experienced officers whose idea of a good day runs more along the line of helping a foreign dignitary than conducting a foot chase. [To read the entire editorial, go to: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/09/02/profiling_and_harvard_police/ ]

Ethnic Profiling Alleged at Georgetown

Inside Higher Ed
April 30, 2008

A graduate student filed suit against Georgetown University on Tuesday, alleging discrimination and unlawful search and seizure when campus police detained him while he was attending a friend’s graduation ceremony last year. Two months later, the university issued a report responding to the student’s initial complaint stating that the officers had followed proper policies.
The student, Kambiz Fattahi, is in his final year at Georgetown’s graduate security studies program while also working for the BBC’s Persian Service, according to the complaint. After the incident in May, Fattahi wrote a first-person piece that appeared on the BBC News Web site describing the sequence of events. “I was there to support a graduating classmate. Sitting in the front row among proud parents, family and friends of graduating students, I was captivated” by the words of Bernard Bailyn, the Harvard historian giving the commencement address, he wrote.
“Nations and people do have dominant characteristics, and it’s a good time, a necessary time, to think briefly about our own essential characteristics. What others think about us, how we see ourselves, and how we actually are, matters,” Fattahi quoted the professor as saying. But, he wrote, “the sense of awe did not last long. Two portly university security guards brought me back to reality.
“‘Please come with us,’ one of them ordered. He caught me off guard. When I asked why, he told me, ‘You’re making some people here nervous.’”
“It was disturbing to think that nothing more than my Middle Eastern appearance had aroused someone’s suspicion. More shocking was the blunt inquiry of one of the guards about my national origin,” he continued; he was born in Iran and holds dual Iranian and American citizenship. “After showing forms of identification, including my card from the BBC Persian Service, he commented: ‘So, you’re from Persia. Aren’t Babylon and the Tigris River in Persia?’” (They are in Iraq; Persia refers to present-day Iran.)
He wrote at the time: “Officials at Georgetown say they have strict policies prohibiting racial and ethnic profiling, and have begun an investigation into the matter.” That investigation resulted in a report backing the officers — who deny that they mentioned Babylon or the Tigris River — and stating that the questions on national origin were intended to “see if he needed a translator,” the lawsuit said. Fattahi speaks fluent English.
“Georgetown officials took these allegations very seriously and immediately began a review of the matter. The incident was fully investigated by the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action (IDEAA), with input and cooperation from the complaining individual,” says a statement on Georgetown’s Web site dating back to August 2007. “... The investigation determined that Georgetown University’s Department of Public Safety officers responded in an appropriately calibrated way to reports from an audience member that an individual was behaving in a suspicious manner during the commencement ceremony on May 18. In response to that information, and given the heightened security status on campus at that time, officers responded by taking appropriate and necessary steps to engage and to request identification from the individual.” [To see the entire story, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/30/profiling ]