
          The People Behind the Profile: Stories of Racial Profiling
          
            
              StaffStaff
            
          
          Vol. 24, No. 3-4, 2002 p. 8
          
          The Campaign Against Racial Profiling is a project of
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nationwide non-partisan
organization of 300,000 members dedicated to preserving and defending
the principles set forth in the Bill of Rights. Started in 1999, the
Campaign Against Racial Profiling has been instrumental in raising the
issue of racial profiling and making the term "DWB, "or "Driving While
Black," a household word. Through litigation, legislation, education,
outreach, and media awareness, CARP addresses racial profiling in all
its forms and against all racial and ethnic groups, including Latinos,
Asians, and native Americans, and, post-9/11, the targeting of Arabs,
Muslims and South Asians by federal and state enforcement agencies. Following is a selection of stories of racial profiling in the South compiled by the ACLU.
          Florida - In 1997, Aaron Campbell was pulled over by Orange County
sheriff's deputies while driving on the Florida Turnpike. He was wrestled to the ground, hit with pepper spray, and arrested. It turned out that Campbell was a major in the Metro-Dade Police Department and had identified himself as such when he was pulled over for an illegal lane change and having an obscured license tag. Said Campbell, "The majority of people they are searching and humiliating are black_people. That's why I was so angry. I went from being an ordinary citizen and
decorated officer to a criminal in a matter of minutes."
          Georgia - William Baker, an African-American businessman and candidate for the Treutlen County Board of Commissioners, was followed by the Johnson County sheriffs deputies for eighteen miles before they pulled him over, searched his car and belongings for drugs, and ticketed him for following another car too closely.
          Kentucky - Dejuan Wheat, a former University of Louisville basketball
star, was pulled over while driving in downtown Louisville late one night in 1998. The officers, who claimed they were looking for a truck like his, made Wheat get out of his vehicle while they searched it and ran warrant checks. When a black officer recognized Wheat, the officers let him go.
          Texas - A video installed in compliance with Texas' new racial
profiling law captured the beating death of legal immigrant Luis
Torres by Baytown PD in late January 2002. Mr. Torres was extremely
ill and disoriented, but the video shows him calmly speaking and
cooperating with officers Micah Aldred, Bert Dillow and Sgt. Rodney
Evans; he clearly does nothing to provoke them before an officer
leg-whipped his feet out from under him, knocking him to the
ground. Torres did struggle as officers subdued him. One officer could
be heard to say, "Put your knee on his neck." After he was handcuffed,
the officers continued to pummel Mr. Torres into submission. When the
officers realized he was "turning colors," they attempted to
resuscitate him. Even before the investigation had begun, Baytown
interim Police Chief Byron Jones said he believed the officers
followed proper procedure and Harris County District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal has said he will not seek to indict the officers.
          West_Virginia - On April 30, 2002 at 9:45 pm, three African-American college students were pulled over in Charleston for failing to signal when changing lanes. They were stopped by nine police officers with their guns drawn and were handcuffed and forced to kneel on the ground while their car was thoroughly searched. They were released without being charged for their failure to
signal when changing lanes.
        
