Attorney General Ashcroft's
Remarks at the American Society of Newspaper Editors Luncheon (excerpts)
"...I've also begun work on the issue of
racial profiling. This was a concern of mine in the United States Senate. Of
recent campaign finance reform fame, Russ Feingold, the senator from the state
of
Too often -- and incidentally, any incidents
make the incidence too often -- people have been stopped for "driving
while black," rather than having made some infraction, and it's time for
us to put an end to treating people based on their race and to apprehending
them or otherwise asking them to encounter the law enforcement community in a way
which is disrespectful merely because they are not of one race or another.
The Justice Department, of course, is
undertaking a review of all federal law enforcement agencies and policies with
regard to race, to make sure that we don't inappropriately deal with people
based on their race. It's unacceptable for the federal government to do so. I
think it's wrong for any government to do so. I believe it to be a breach of
the constitutional rights of individuals if they are interfered with or
otherwise treated in a way which singles them out because of their
race..."
Source:
"Attorney General Ashcroft's Remarks at the American Society of Newspaper
Editors Luncheon" U.S Department of State, International Information Programs