Criminal Justice

Some Troubling Numbers on Racial Profiling

by Matt Kelley

category: Racial Profiling

Published July 02, 2009 @ 02:24PM PT

The ACLU has submitted a new report to the U.N. on racial profiling in the criminal justice system, and the findings ain't pretty. The report points out that the international community defines racial profiling as a human rights violation and alleges that the U.S. isn't fulfilling its obligation under a U.N. treaty to end racial discrimination.

"Racial profiling remains a widespread and pervasive problem throughout the U.S," said Chandra Bhatnagar of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), lead author of a new report sent to a U.N. rights body this week.

The report points out to Operation Front Line, an anti-terrorism program aimed at deterring and uncovering terrorist plots among immigrant groups in the U.S. in the months before the 2004 presidential election. A review of the program found that "foreign nationals from Muslim-majority countries were 1,280 times more likely to be targeted than similarly situated individuals from other countries."

But the U.S. isn't the only country breaking the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Some new numbers from France paint a similar picture on the other side of the Atlantic.

A new report from the Open Society Institute finds that black people are six times more likely to be stopped by French police than whites, people who look to be of Arab descent are seven times more likely to be stopped.

Several Bush-era policies that allow and encourage racial profiling and are still in place across the country, and advocates have urged the Obama administration to take immediate action.

Though the Obama administration seems willing to change course, it is not clear when it will take concrete steps. Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that ending racial profiling was a "priority" and that profiling is "simply not good law enforcement".

Bhatnagar told the Inter Press Service this week that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the Obama administration’s response to his and other rights groups' call for a reversal of the Bush policies on racial profiling.

Download the ACLU's full report here.