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Trial sets off debate on racial profiling
Daily Herald ^ | January 21, 2000 | Steve Warmbir

Posted on 05/28/2012 1:28:55 PM PDT by Brown Deer

The buzzword in police stations and courtrooms this week is racial profiling -- the practice by police of stopping drivers based solely on the color of their skin.

The issue has been spotlighted after a federal court judge asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Mount Prospectr police department of possibly racially targeting Hispanic drivers and violating their civil rights.

The allegations of racial profiling arose during a trial in federal cour in which a former Mount Prospect police officer was awarded $1.2 million for being discriminated against. He was fired in 1995. The outcome has raised the question of how often the practice happens in the suburbs.

Police chiefs say rarely, and only by individual officers who are disciplines when caught. Critics, though, see a systemic problem.

One way to answer the question is to collect data on the race of people stopped by police.

That's the crux of a proposal by state Sen. Barack Obama, a Chicago Democrat.

Last week, Obama introduced legislation that would require all police departments, including the state police, to report the race of every person they stop to the Illinois secretary of state.

Neither the name of the person nor the name of the officer would be included, Obama said.

"The intent of my bill is not to paint any kind of police department as racist in broad strokes," Obama said.

Rather, the first step to finding where a problem may be is to have the data in hand, Obama argued.

Police chiefs, as a group, have no problem with collecting the data but do have a problem with putting the burden on the officer to determine the driver's race.

"Don't put it on the police officer to say this person is this race or that race," said Paul Dollins, manager of government relations for the state association of chiefs of police.

While Dollins concedes in most cases it would be easy for the police officer to determine a person's race, there are times when an officer might not. And forcing the officer to question a person about his or her race could add pressure to an already tense situation, Dollins argued. Dollins instead suggests that each person's race can be listed on the driver's license at the driver's request.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: obama; racialprofiling
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1 posted on 05/28/2012 1:28:59 PM PDT by Brown Deer
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To: Berlin_Freeper; Hotlanta Mike; Silentgypsy; repubmom; HANG THE EXPENSE; Nepeta; Bikkuri; Plummz; ...


0bama introduces legislation which requires police officers to determine race of all people they stop.
2 posted on 05/28/2012 1:30:52 PM PDT by Brown Deer (Pray for 0bama. Psalm 109:8)
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To: Brown Deer

I grew up in a small town where our local cop might stop a strange car in town simply because he didn’t recognize it. Race didn’t have anything to do with it.


3 posted on 05/28/2012 1:32:26 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Brown Deer

What’s it called when a cop stops a white person?


4 posted on 05/28/2012 1:34:19 PM PDT by bgill
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To: bgill

I give up......


5 posted on 05/28/2012 1:45:58 PM PDT by brivette
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To: bgill
What’s it called when a cop stops a white person?

Social Justice.
6 posted on 05/28/2012 1:47:35 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Brown Deer

If a young white man drives into an all black neighborhood late at night would he attract police attention? The assumption would be that he was looking to buy drugs.


7 posted on 05/28/2012 1:53:58 PM PDT by Freestate316
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To: Brown Deer

The former community organizer was making sure that the police did not act stupidly.


8 posted on 05/28/2012 1:57:00 PM PDT by Freestate316
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To: Brown Deer

Brought to us by the same geniuses who have little old ladies, people in wheelchairs, and children being groped by the TSA because that’s the most rational way to catch Muslim terrorists.


9 posted on 05/28/2012 2:09:49 PM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Brown Deer
Obama introduced legislation that would require all police departments, including the state police, to report the race of every person they stop to the Illinois secretary of state.

Wasn't that when Obama was a senator? Most crimes in America are committed by Blacks and Hispanics.....many are in gangs plus another bunch of committees studying the gang mess is already in place: The National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC). You have White gangs, Muslim gangs, really bad gangs in prison...instead of weight lifting equipment......

10 posted on 05/28/2012 2:10:15 PM PDT by yoe (Proud to be part of the Tea Party movement.....!!!!!)
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To: Freestate316

There is seldom any reason to call the police when a white family, ventures into a black neighborhood in the evening.. Save time and call an ambulance..


11 posted on 05/28/2012 2:17:01 PM PDT by carlo3b (Home, is where the heart is..)
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To: Brown Deer

Liberals get their knickers so deeply in a twist that they refuse to acknowledge that the majority of crime is committed by “certain ethnic groups.”

Sorry about that, but sometimes the truth hurts.


12 posted on 05/28/2012 2:41:34 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: carlo3b

True in most cases. I grew up around Philly, and the Philly cops had a field day arresting suburban white guys buying drugs in the Badlands (North Philly) and seizing their vehicles. My wife and I helped out a homeless guy and his three little boys. They begged in Center City during the day and slept in an abandoned rowhouse in North Philly at night. People in that neighborhood always thought we were police or social workers. The dad told us to never be there after dark, because we would be shot for being white.


13 posted on 05/28/2012 2:41:57 PM PDT by Freestate316
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To: Jack Hammer

Even longtime race pimp Jesse Jackson said that when he walked down a city street at night and saw a group of teenagers, he was always relieved when they were white.


14 posted on 05/28/2012 2:44:36 PM PDT by Freestate316
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To: Freestate316

“Even longtime race pimp Jesse Jackson said that when he walked down a city street at night and saw a group of teenagers, he was always relieved when they were white.”

Shhhhh - we’re not allowed to say that, Big Brother is watching!


15 posted on 05/28/2012 2:49:47 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: Brown Deer

So mandatory reporting of race is ok but no question of immigration status can be asked because that’s inherently racist.

Is that about right?


16 posted on 05/28/2012 2:53:58 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Brown Deer
Wow, Mt Prospect, IL. My family lived in next door town Arlington Heights from 1956-1967, and I went to Prospect High School, 1963-1967.

We used to go to the first McDonald's Drive-In down the road, in Des Plaines, after school for 10¢ burgers, 5¢ fries and 15¢ shakes. You could eat like a p-i-g/pig for >$1.00, back then.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/73427/The-first-McDonalds-restaurant-opened-by-Ray-Kroc-now-a

I don't remember seeing any minorities in all those years, unless they'd come out of Chicago to work for contractors or landscapers. They'd probably get stopped on the busy Northwest Highway (US Rt 14) which ran east-west thru many towns from the city. I was back in 1987 for my 20yr HS Reunion, and it's changed so much I got lost trying to find my old neighborhood and home.

Profiling was - and still is - a valid police technique, IMO.

17 posted on 05/28/2012 3:10:32 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (All liberals & most demoncraps think that life is just a sponge bath, with a happy ending.)
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To: Brown Deer

Thank you for this thread on racial profiling.

In our VERY PC World the last thing that should be revealed is what is the most obvious - - - a person’s race.

It is the less obvious that concerns Obama the most now.

The RINOs says that Obama is now engaging in “class warfare.”

But is it really “class warfare” or that most evil of all hidden crimes? Yep! You guessed it, Obama is “economically profiling” millionaires and billionaires, except Warren Buffet, of course. Well, obviously George Soros. And then Obama’s Holllywood and Athletic friends. But I digress!

Yes indeed! Economic Profiling is not something that can be left to just anyone! Economic Profiling is not an obvious act of sleuthing. For example, who would know that certain highly paid, but underworked Federal Officials named Pelosi, Reid, and Obama1, or 2 (I lose count) are closet MILLIONAIRES!

This has to stop! Call in Timmy Gee, Obama’s current Sheriff of Nottingham! Let Timmy Gee do the economic profiling of these Millionaires who have not been paying their fair share!

What - - - ? Huh - - - ? I see - - - .

Excuse the interruption folks, but I have just been informed that anyone who shifts Federal Money to his friends is guilty of stealing from the Government, otherwise known as “earmarking,” or “investing.” This changes everything!

BTW, if Robin Hood stole from the Government, then would that make the Solendra Deal a Robin Hood type of theft?

Sheriff of Nottingham Timmy Gee will tell us whether or not Obama stole from the Government, and therefore is Robin Hood, disguised as a foreign, illegal Occupant of the White House, and officiating as the incumbent Marxist Dictator. That disguise sure fooled the Liberal Agenda Media!


18 posted on 05/28/2012 3:12:29 PM PDT by Graewoulf ((Dictator Baby-Doc Barack's obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND U.S. Constitution.))
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To: Brown Deer

Frankly, isn’t it true that we all profile people within our area every time we go out in public, including the police? And yes, race is one factor. If fact, why do the 911 operators always seem to ask about race? The police always want to know the race of perps as they interview people that have witnessed a crime - therefore, they have expectations that the witnesses were aware of that factor, thus it’s something that practically everyone - more likely everyone - does - profile as life goes by.

We should but pretending that it’s not done. Actually, it’s necessary. Even Home Land Security wants us to profile, although they say to just be aware of people around us that are doing strange stuff.


19 posted on 05/28/2012 3:23:04 PM PDT by unique1
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To: bgill
What’s it called when a cop stops a white person?

Depends on how much Cherokee ancestry they claim, I reckon.

20 posted on 05/28/2012 3:23:42 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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