Pubdate: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. Contact: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Author: Cindy Rodriguez, Globe Columnist RACIAL PROFILING ONLY 'DESCRIBES' ITS PERPETRATOR New Jersey State Police superintendent Colonel Carl Williams was dead wrong when he stated in a newspaper article a week ago that a majority of drug traffickers in his state are black and Latino. What he should've said is blacks and Latinos are more likely to be arrested by his troops. His cavalier attitude is why Governor Christine Todd Whitman fired his sorry self. Like too many ineffective police leaders, Williams concocted an ugly untruth about two communities that gets repeated so often, it almost sounds like gospel. In Massachusetts, Latinos are sent to prison on drug charges at a rate of 81 times that of whites, according to a 1998 study by the state attorney general's office. For blacks, the rate was 39 times that of whites. That's because they're all aspiring Pablo Escobars, right? Wrong. Figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that blacks get shoddy treatment under the law when it comes to drug offenses. In 1994, the most recent year for which figures were available, 38 percent of those arrested for drug trafficking were black and 62 percent were white. The stats don't include Latinos. When it came to convictions, blacks had a much higher rate: 63 percent of the convictions in state courts, compared with 37 percent for whites. Now, the scary part: 52 percent of the convicted blacks got prison sentences, compared with 38 percent of convicted whites. And, on average, blacks were given a longer maximum sentence: 68 months compared with 54 months for whites. Why the unfair, dare I say racist, treatment? It's because street-corner dealers in communities of color are easy targets for police. It's because Latinos and blacks, who are disproportionately represented among the poor, end up getting court-appointed lawyers who treat their cases in assembly-line fashion. It's because of racial profiling - a practice Williams's troops allegedly used. The US Justice Department is investigating allegations that New Jersey State Police pull over drivers for DWB or DWL - Driving While Black and Driving While Latino. The investigation was spurred after a county judge in 1996 found that brown-skinned drivers are 4.8 times more likely than whites to be stopped on the lower half of the New Jersey Turnpike. Though Williams denied his force used racial profiling, several troopers have filed discrimination lawsuits against the State Police, saying they were trained to spot black and Latino motorists. Williams reasoned that because 63 percent of the drug suspects arrested in New Jersey were black or Latino, ''it's most likely a minority group involved with'' drug trafficking. With that kind of logic, why don't police set up shop in minority communities and do all their arrests there? Clearly, if police stop more blacks and Latinos, chances are they're going to find drugs. Clearly, poor communities are ravaged by the drug culture. There, marijuana and crack are consumed to numb despair. But it's the recreational users - yuppies and bored rich people - who create the demand for drugs. Statistics reported by the American Bar Association show that 75 percent of all drug users are white. The real enemy of the drug war is leaders like Williams. They poison us with faulty statistics and mislead their troops, making them think they're going to make the big bust if they catch the dude with dreadlocks driving the Pinto. Big-time dealers are savvy about racial profiling, so they find ''mules'' that police wouldn't suspect - women and white people. Though there are a lot of hard-working officers trying to catch the ones responsible for bringing drugs into neighborhoods - suburban and urban alike - there are too many who get off on cuffing juveniles, pawns used in the game. The war on drugs shouldn't be fought in Lawrence, or Framingham, or Roxbury, where teenage dealers carry packets of crack hidden under their tongues. It should be fought at the borders. Help the governments of Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic establish legitimate industries. The thousands of Peruvians and Colombians who toil in coca fields would gladly leave for better-paying jobs. Take the billions spent on building new prisons and pour that money into after-school programs. Pay mentors who will keep juveniles out of the street trade. And, find police superintendents who won't mislead their officers into thinking they're going to win the drug war by cuffing the kid ditty-bopping down the street. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck