Political Quotes

“last week I introduced 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, S. 1670, had been introduced in previous Congresses by our former colleague, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and I am proud to follow his leadership. I thank my colleagues, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Durbin, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Kerry, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Levin, Senator Menendez, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Stabenow, for joining me as original cosponsors 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 that are being directed at suspects actually demonstrating illegal behavior. In response to a question about the December 2001 bomb attempt by Richard Reid, Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated: 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 that 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.…”