Date: 10 May 1999 07:11:35 -0000
From: Electronic Drum 
Subject: ARTICLE: [BRC-NEWS] N.J. admits police target Black, Latino drivers

Electronic Drum

from our illustrious family member Art McGee

[Moderator: Two important comments: (1) No, this isn't quite the same
story you read last month in the mainstream press, (2) Thank you to
Workers World for capitalizing the word "Black". Most mainstream news
sources disrespect Black people by using "black" in lowercase. --AM]

--------------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 13, 1999
issue of Workers World newspaper
--------------------------------

NEW JERSEY

GOV'T ADMITS POLICE TARGET BLACK, LATINO DRIVERS

By Greg Butterfield

Protest is growing in New Jersey over the now-admitted State Police policy
of "racial profiling"--the singling out of Black and Latino motorists for
abuse. It has been the common practice of state troopers--not only in New
Jersey, but nationwide--for many years. 

But the now-blossoming movement to end this form of police brutality was
sparked by the April 23, 1998, shooting of four unarmed young men--three
Black and one Latino--by two white New Jersey troopers. 

The Black Ministers Council of New Jersey organized a demonstration
outside the State Capitol in Trenton on the anniversary of the shooting.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who led mass civil-disobedience actions against
police brutality in New York, said he would conduct similar protests in
Trenton if community demands are not met by May 10. 

The four men were on their way to a basketball camp in North Carolina when
they were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike and shot at by the cops.
Two of the men, Rayshawn Brown and Leroy Grant, were asleep in the van
when they were shot. Keyshon Moore and Danny Reyes were shot while raising
their hands. 

Afterward, the men were forced to lie in a ditch and were strip-searched
before paramedics were allowed to help them, according to a civil-rights
lawsuit filed on their behalf April 23. The two cops also face criminal
charges, but have not been indicted. 

"It's been a hard-fought year for all of us," Leroy Grant told the
Associated Press. "We don't know why we got shot.  We still don't know why
the van got stopped." 

RACISM: A STATE POLICY

On April 21, Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and state Attorney
General Peter G. Verniero released an official study which found that
"Minority motorists have been treated differently than non-minority
motorists during the course of traffic stops on the New Jersey Turnpike.
We conclude the problem of disparate treatment is real--not imagined." 

According to the report, 77.2 percent of motorist searches were of Black
and Latino drivers, and only 21.4 percent were of whites. 

"We do not believe that any reasonable person in New Jersey is surprised
at all today to hear this acknowledgment," said the Rev. Reginald Jackson,
executive director of the Black Ministers Council. 

Verniero continues to deny any prior knowledge of the racist abuses of the
State Police, who are under the direction of his office. For years--first
as Governor Whitman's chief of staff, and later as attorney general--
Verniero aggressively defended the police against brutality charges. 

Before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Trenton April 26, Verniero
refused to take responsibility. "Based on briefings I received, I did not
consider ['racial profiling'] important," Verniero testified. 

The next day, he angered Black and Latino legislators by boycotting a
hearing they organized to gather community testimony about "racial
profiling." But damning evidence continued to spill out. 

Philip J. Moran, the attorney for State Trooper Emblez Longoria, testified
there. Two months before the shooting of the men in the van, Moran said,
his client heard a police supervisor coaching the same two cops to stop
Black motorists. 

Longoria could not appear himself. Under State Police regulations, he is
restricted from speaking publicly about the matter. 

DeShantel Tribbet, a Black woman, told of her experience at the hands of
state troopers. Tribbet was verbally abused, thrown against a police van
and arrested in front of her frightened 4-year-old son. 

UNION OPPOSES MOTEL `PROFILING'

On April 27, the Newark Star-Ledger broke the story of a State Police
program enlisting motel employees to snitch on "suspicious"
guests--particularly Latinos and Spanish- speaking people, hotel workers
said. 

David Feeback, president and business manager of Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Local 69 in Seacaucus, said his members protested when hotel
management tried to force them to join the program several months ago. 

"We didn't want our members participating in anything that had any
undertone of racial profiling," Feeback told the Star-Ledger. 

Meanwhile, the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups
called on Congress to enact the Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act
introduced by Rep. John Conyers to help curb "racial profiling"
nationally. 

The Conyers bill would require the U.S. Justice Department to study
routine traffic stops by local police. Preliminary studies have shown that
African Americans make up less than 15 percent of drivers, but account for
72 percent of all routine traffic stops, said the April 17 Amsterdam News. 

The United States Justice Department concluded its own investigation of
the N.J. State Police in late April. The federal study found enough
evidence to sue the State Police for violations of civil rights. But on
April 30, Washington announced it was entering negotiations with New
Jersey officials to reach a quiet out-of-court settlement. 

                         - END -

(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not
allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., New
York, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)


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