Posted on 04/05/2012 2:50:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As the nation focuses on the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced today that he will hold a hearing on racial profiling in America.
A Durbin spokesman said that the hearing “has been in the works for a number of weeks prior to” Martin’s death, but he expects the case to be discussed during the hearing, which is scheduled for April 17. Durbin chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.
“I think it is certainly expected that it will come up,” the spokesman said, adding that the Martin case is not the focus of the hearing, nor does it come in response to the incident.
The case was not mentioned in a hearing advisory.
The racial profiling hearing is the first since before 9/11, Durbin’s office said. It will focus on “state immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona that subject Hispanic Americans to heightened scrutiny, discriminatory law enforcement against African Americans and anti-terrorism efforts that target American Muslims,” a release said.
“The hearing will also examine proposed solutions to racial profiling, including the End Racial Profiling Act, closing loopholes in the U.S. Department of Justice’s racial profiling guidance, and the Justice Department Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of federal civil rights laws to prevent profiling by state and local law enforcement agencies,” according to the advisory.
Martin, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who reportedly told a 911 operator that Martin was suspicious. Martin’s parents believe Zimmerman murdered their son because he was black and wearing a hooded sweatshirt in a gated community where his father’s girlfriend lived.
Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense, and, under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, prosecutors gave Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt and released him.
The shooting and lack of an arrest has sparked protests across the country and a demand from the Congressional Black Caucus for a federal investigation, which is now under way. On Thursday, the CBC unveiled a resolution to honor Martin and also called for a repeal of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
To me, it appears that Trayvon Martin did not die as a result of racial profiling. If he did not try to beat up Zimmerman, he would still be alive, and everyone would be happy.
“state immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona that subject Hispanic Americans to heightened scrutiny”
I don’t know about Alabama. Arizona’s doesn’t. But don’t let facts ruin your paranoid fantasies.
"You would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings"- Dick "Dachau" Durbin
Republicans need to stay quiet on this one for now. They can address it after the election and after they take over the Senate and increase their seats in the House. I believe that Durbin is setting them up.
You can BET THE FARM that they will try to pass Legislation further protecting the inner-city tribal parasites, and the Illegal parasites, to vote for the (D) and continued pandering in the 2012 Election.
It is NOT Racial Profiling if ALL Voters are asked for photo ID before they're allowed to Register, and WHEN they are attempting to Vote.
We are such a bunch of idiots to put up with this. Everyone “profiles”, they always have and always will. “Based on my experience a person with the following characteristics and appearance . . . . is likely to be friendly or dangerous or not from around here.” Blacks do it just as much as Whites. When two thugs on the corner say, “That’s a likely looking mark coming down the street.” They are profiling. When Jessie Jackson looks around and is reassured to see a white walking behind him on the street at 3:00 AM, he is profiling.
So why don’t we stop this moronic B.S.?
IMO....
Oh for crying out loud...
12 years ago, my state started making police officers fill out MANDATORY racial profiling forms on every self initiated contact, whether on a traffic stop or a pedestrian check.
12 years later, there is no tangible, actionable evidence of racial profiling by police officers yet the perpetually aggrieved continue to cry “racism!” at every turn.
Officers have been accused of racial profiling despite the traffic stop being at night on a vehicle with tinted windows.
Oh, and white people that come to the black neighborhoods to buy heroin don’t scream about being racially profiled...
As an Arizonan, I’d like to say, FUDD!!! Worry about that sewer you’re from and we Arizonans will worry about Arizona.
Yup....it would be a drug deal goin' down, in that case, though.
Is he going to subpoena Roseanne Barr and the TV networks?
The two questions the Republicans need to ask and have answered are: “If the TSA used racial and religious profiling at the airports, rather than insisting on inspecting people completely outside the terrorist profile, how many tens, or hundreds of billions of dollars would the US save, with no appreciable loss to our security?”
And, “European nations racially and religiously profile, and it works very well for them, at much lower cost. So why is the US different?”
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