DRUG-WAR VIOLATIONS

To the Editor:

Re "Racial Profiling Was the Routine, New Jersey Finds" (front page, Nov.
28) and "Supreme Court Bars Roadblocks Set Up to Search for Drugs" (front
page, Nov. 29):

A state trooper policy in which 80 percent of vehicles searched belong to
African-American and Latino drivers is difficult to present as anything
less than systematically discriminatory. When the justification offered is
that this policy was encouraged by the Drug Enforcement Administration and
the Department of Transportation as part of the "war on drugs," one can't
help but be alarmed.

These events are an indication of the extent to which the rights of
American citizens have been eroded by a "drug war" so misguided that it
propels federal agencies to collaborate with law enforcement in promoting
policies that violate constitutional and civil rights.

SHARDA SEKARAN

New York, Nov. 29, 2000