Let’s Get a State Law to End Racial Profiling

Much has been said about the abhorrent and uncivilized practice of racial profiling by police throughout the country, especially here in California.

There is great debate about which of two state Senate bills (SB 78 or SB 66) provide the best strategy to gather data to solve the problem of the police practice of stopping people solely based on race. The truth is that neither bill provides a perfect solution.

While state Sen. Kevin Murray’s (D-Culver City) first bill is meritorious, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed it once and pledged to veto it a second time. Murray’s latest bill, SB 66, should be supported because our communities need help with this problem now. This measure would:

* Make a clear statement that racial profiling is abhorrent to a democratic society and must be eliminated.

* Make racial profiling illegal in California.

* Mandate added training for all police in California and appropriate the necessary funds for the training in the budget.

* Mandate community input and participation through a blue ribbon commission appointment by the governor.

* Mandate that any person stopped by police in California and not cited or arrested be issued a complaint card by the officer without having to request it. This card will contain the officer’s name, official badge number and a phone number where people can call to file a complaint if they believe they have been mistreated or stopped unfairly. Should the officer fail to offer the card, he or she has violated the law and can be prosecuted.

This last point bears repeating: Currently, many complaints are lost because people being stopped are intimidated by the police or the officers do not provide them with their badge number (or cards), even when requested. Once this measure becomes law, a citizen will no longer have to request the officer’s card or badge number; this card will be issued automatically. A formal complaint can then be filed from the sanctity and security of the person’s own home and community.

As complaints are filed, SB 66 would allow specific data collection identifying those officers who violate civil and human rights. It would significantly shift the balance of power in every police stop in California and would contribute greatly to eliminating racial profiling throughout the state.

We in communities of color who have been victimized by racial profiling must respectfully disagree with the position taken by colleagues and organizations--no matter how great our historical alliances have been--that SB 78 (the first bill) is the only solution to this problem. We must be open to other solutions to our problem and not get boxed into thinking that the only way to end racial profiling is by general data collection.

Our families and friends are being physically assaulted, intimidated and disrespected now, and we need a solution now. We need immediate help, not philosophical help. We need responsible leadership to provide immediate relief for our people who are victimized each and every day.

If we are open to only one solution and determine that nothing less is acceptable, then the answer is not data collection at all, but a civilian police review board, which the community has been advocating for more than 30 years. After all, our real problem is police misconduct, not just racial profiling.

Let’s not forget the people whose lives have been destroyed in the LAPD Rampart scandal, the vicious misconduct perpetrated on us by the CRASH unit, the “battering ram,” the “choke hold” and so on. We must be true to the principles of sound, responsible leadership that our community has entrusted to us. This latest bill by Murray is a new and innovative approach to solving our problem.

We should all applaud Murray and Gov. Davis for their commitment, courage and relentless pursuit to fashion a bill that will produce immediate and, hopefully, long-term change within our communities.

The true test of legislative leadership is whether Murray can write solid legislative public policy and get the governor to sign it into law. We must be mindful that the legislative process is neither a creative writing class nor an essay contest. It does our community no good to have a creatively written bill if all it does is sit unsigned on a shelf in Sacramento while our people suffer. We have alternatives we can pursue and get immediate results.

I absolutely believe there are some community issues that, based upon principle, require us to make no compromises. This is not one of those issues.

Murray’s bill, SB 66, which the governor will sign, is a good one. It not only defines the problem, it gets us directly to solutions. Murray’s first bill, SB 78, still is alive in Senate committee. I challenge anyone to see if they can get the bill out of committee and signed; I would support that. The purpose of general data collection by police departments throughout the state, as would be required under SB 78, is to prove that racial profiling does exist. We already know that it does. Yet some people think it would help reinforce that point by compiling the data. I’ll go along with that because I’m for anything that helps us deal with this problem. However, I’m not willing to rule out other alternatives that also may help alleviate our problem. We must be both practical and realistic.

We must move the issue forward in a quantum leap. The one thing that SB 66 doesn’t do is wait around, compiling general data in order to file a lawsuit to mandate some change.

I call upon citizens and community leaders throughout the state to unite and not engage in destructive and counterproductive leadership. Real leaders don’t just talk about issues, call press conferences or make personal attacks on colleagues with whom they disagree, or pander to the confused. Real leaders get things done.