Posted on 08/13/2003 10:20:09 AM PDT by chance33_98
Civil Rights Groups Call Governor Insensitive To Minorities
PROVIDENCE -- A report by civil rights groups has charged Gov. Don Carcieri with insensitivity to minority groups, but the governor's office called the claim misplaced.
The report charged Carcieri has regularly given short shrift to the interests of nonwhites, and has failed to consider their views in decision making.
Carcieri denied the claims, saying he has tried to reach out to all Rhode Islanders.
"Anybody who doesn't think I'm sensitive to minorities doesn't know me or understand me," Carcieri said.
The governor's office said it is setting up a meeting with the Rhode Island Civil Rights Roundtable, one of the groups that issued the report.
The organizations behind the report include the Rhode Island Affirmative Action Professionals, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, Progresso Latino, the National Organization for Women, and groups representing immigrants and other minorities. The groups planned a Wednesday news conference to discuss the report.
In the last few months, Carcieri has tarnished Rhode Island's civil rights track record, the 17-page report said.
The groups cited a series of instances in which they said Carcieri has ignored nonwhite Rhode Islanders or acted against their interests.
They included passing over a black female judge for a state Supreme Court seat, giving North Smithfield an exemption to a state civil-rights law, raiding the Narragansett Indians' smoke shop, and cutting off undocumented immigrants from drivers' licenses.
The groups said the governor missed an opportunity by choosing Family Court Judge Paul A. Suttell, a white man, for the Supreme Court, over Superior Court Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, a black woman.
Carcieri said he is committed to "appointing members to the judiciary who represent racial, ethnic and gender diversity" and said minority applicants shouldn't be discouraged because he passed over Thompson.
The groups also charged Carcieri has not responded to a recently released two-year study that showed that Rhode Island police forces disproportionately stopped or searched vehicles driven by nonwhites in more than half the state's cities and towns.
Carcieri said he opposes racial profiling and signed a pledge against the practice in March.
The groups said the governor ignored both years of negotiations and highway safety by unilaterally ending the issuance of licenses to immigrants lacking Social Security numbers by letting them use Individual Tax Identification numbers from the federal Internal Revenue Service instead.
Affected are undocumented immigrants, most of them in the U.S. illegally. The groups said Carcieri's move would make the roads less safe, because the immigrants will drive anyway, without meeting license requirements.
Carcieri said he was reacting to the IRS, which told the state that it does not verify the identity of people applying for the tax numbers.
What about the rest of the "undocumented immigrants"? Are they here legally? Did somebody steal their green cards?
The groups said Carcieri's move would make the roads less safe, because the immigrants will drive anyway, without meeting license requirements.
Yes, breaking the law does seem to be the M.O. of the typical "undocumented immigrant".
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