Pubdate: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Joseph P. Fried FOLLOWING UP REFLECTING ON PROFILING, AND FAMOUS LAST WORDS Was he part of the problem, or a scapegoat in the fallout? Either way, Carl A. Williams found his 35-year career with the New Jersey State Police - the last five as its leader - swiftly ended in 1999 after a newspaper quoted him as saying that cocaine and marijuana traffickers were most likely to be members of minority groups. Gov. Christie Whitman ousted him as state police superintendent as a coalition of black legislators, ministers and civil rights advocates called his statement racist and demanded his removal. The article, in The Star-Ledger of Newark, came amid intense controversy over accusations that state troopers looking to make drug arrests regularly engaged in racial profiling by singling out minority drivers for stops and searches on the state's highways. Even before his published remarks, which the governor called inconsistent with efforts to improve the troopers' image, Mr. Williams had been accused by critics of refusing to acknowledge what they called a long history of racial profiling by the troopers. His supporters noted that it was not until a month after she fired him that Governor Whitman conceded that some troopers engaged in such profiling. Last week, Mr. Williams, 61, was pithy in his view of his dismissal. "I was sacrificed," he said. "I just quoted reality" in the 1999 article. He recalled that he had also said in the article that his linking of various groups to certain kinds of drug trafficking was based on government statistics, that predominantly white motorcycle gangs appeared to control the methamphetamine market, and that racial profiling stops were wrong and that he would not condone them. Still bitter over his dismissal? "It wasn't one of the nicest things that happened to me in my life," he said. Mr. Williams said he spends his time volunteering, traveling and exercising. "Being in good shape," he said, "helps keep my sanity." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D