Political Quotes

“today I am introducing legislation in the Senate that would prohibit the use of racial profiling by Federal, State, or local law enforcement agencies. The End Racial Profiling Act, ERPA, had been introduced in previous Congresses by former Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and I am proud to follow his example. I want to thank Senators Blumenthal, Durbin, Gillibrand, Kerry, Lautenberg, Levin, Menendez, Mikulski, and Stabenow for joining me as original co- sponsors of this legislation. Racial profiling is ineffective. The more resources that are spent investigating individuals solely because of their race or religion, the fewer resources are being directed at suspects actually demonstrating illegal behavior. Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff stated in response to questions about the December 2001 bomb attempt by Richard Reid that ``the problem is that the profile many people think they have of what a terrorist is doesn't fit the reality . . . and in fact, one of the things the enemy does is to deliberately recruit people who are Western in background or in appearance, so that they can slip by people who might be stereotyping.'' Racial profiling diverts scarce resources from real law enforcement. In my own state of Maryland, in the 1990's, the ACLU brought a class- action lawsuit against the Maryland State Police for illegally targeting African-American motorists for stops and searches along Maryland's highways.…”