Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jun 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: Donna De La Cruz,  Associated Press Writer

ACLU: DRUG WAR BASED ON RACE

NEW YORK (AP) The war on drugs has significantly increased the number of
traffic stops based on race throughout the country, the American Civil
Liberties Union said in a report released Wednesday.

"Skin color has become a substitute for evidence in a way that really
resembles Jim Crow justice on the nation's highways," ACLU Executive
Director Ira Glasser said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's "Operation Pipeline" has trained at
least 27,000 law enforcement officials on how to spot drug couriers on
highways and has unfairly created a perception that blacks, Hispanics and
other minorities are more likely to possess drugs, Glasser said.

The ACLU said the practice is so common that minority communities have
given it the derisive term "driving while black or brown." The ACLU has
filed lawsuits in Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and Oklahoma challenging
racial profiling.

DEA officials in Washington did not immediately return calls for comment.

The ACLU's 43-page report is largely a collection of case studies from 23
states rather than a statistical analysis.

It was released to rebut police denials that racial profiling exists, said
David Harris, a law professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio and an
author of the report.

"By laying out the facts in such detail in this report, we hope that we can
now get beyond `Is there really a problem?' to `What are we as a nation
going to do about it?"' Harris said. "We don't suggest that this will be
easy, only that it is necessary if we are to call ourselves a democratic
nation."

The ACLU is calling on police departments to voluntarily begin documenting
incidents of racial profiling. Some already have, such as the departments
in San Diego and San Jose, Calif.

In April, North Carolina became the first state to pass a law requiring
data collection on all traffic stops. Similar bills have been introduced in
Congress and in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.
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