On February 27, 2001, President Bush expressed his firm opposition to racial profiling–the targeting of individuals by law enforcement officers on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. “Racial profiling is wrong,” he said, promising to “end it in America.”
Now, more than three-and-a-half years later, Bush has failed to support a single legislative effort to ban this discriminatory practice. And not surprisingly, his Republican partners in the House and Senate have followed suit, refusing to take action against racial profiling.
In a recent study, Amnesty International found that roughly 32 million people reported that they have been victimized by racial profiling in the United States. The practice has afflicted people of all professions from all walks of life.
A new bill, recently introduced in Congress, “The End Racial Profiling Act of 2004,” which currently has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate and 124 in the House, would serve as a big step in the right direction by outlawing racial profiling at all levels of law enforcement, tightening exemption loopholes, and requiring agencies to collect comprehensive data.
Click here to send a letter to your elected reps asking them to support the Act, click here to find contact info for your local media to ask the press to report on this important new bill, and click here for a list of AI’s suggestions on how you can help end racial profilling in America.
