AN IGNOMINIOUS END

Imagine this. You're driving in a van on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1998.
Suddenly, you see in your rear view mirror the flashing lights of a New
Jersey State Patrol car. You wonder, am I speeding? Am I driving erratically?

Little do you realize that the troopers stopping you, John Hogan and James
Kenna, have decided to pull you over for one reason. No, you weren't
speeding or driving erratically - but you are guilty - of driving while
black or Latino.

With this stop and others, the troopers had decided to go down a dangerous
path - for them as profilers - and for you, the profilee. This stop,
however, would put their supervisors, the New Jersey taxpayers and the
governor, Christine Todd Whitman, in the blazing heat of a profiling scandal.

The troopers, in their injected fear, shot into the van 11 times, hitting
three unarmed men. Fortunately, they lived. If they hadn't, the truth might
never have been known. That shooting led to an investigation of the State
Patrol's training, and sure enough, the troopers had been trained to stop
black and Latino drivers.

It was thought blacks and Latinos were more likely to be involved in drug
trafficking. Your first thought might be to say, "That makes sense." But
does it? If you stop more blacks and Latinos than whites, how would you
ever know?

Statistics, which were hard to come by for federal authorities because
there was an effort to stall the investigation by the state's attorney
general, told a different story.

They showed that although blacks and Latinos were stopped more frequently,
the instances of them being guilty of anything, much less drugs, was no
more than whites.

For imagination's sake, let's say blacks and Latinos fit the inaccurate
stereotype. It wouldn't take the traffickers long to figure out that the
safest way to get their drugs through would be to use a white guy in a sedan.

This troopers' mistake cost the taxpayers of New Jersey $12.9 million. It
cost the troopers their jobs. After pleading guilty to obstructing the
investigation, the judge let them off clean. Well, almost. No probating, a
fine of $280 and no jail time. They also agreed never to seek police work
again.

Judge Charles E. Delehey, according to a New York Times report, said, "You
are victims of not only your own actions but of the system which employed you."

His decision made almost everyone mad; the victims, of course, but also the
troopers' attorneys. They pointed to the lack of prosecution for any of the
superior officers.

That background -- in light of Sept. 11 and our newfound tolerance for
profiling, even among African Americans and Latinos -- should give us pause.

It is easy to accept profiling if you are not the one being profiled. Some
say the Secret Service agent, on the president's detail, who was ejected
from a flight because he has an Arabic surname and was carrying a weapon
(that's what Secret Service men do), should have let the insult slide
instead of seeking legal recourse.

That's easy to say, but we weren't put off that plane. We aren't Secret
Service agents who undergo what may be the most extensive background
investigation in the world. We aren't assigned to protect a president and
hadn't vowed to put our bodies between the leader of the free world and a
bullet. And some wonder why he is upset.

His anger has nothing to do with questioning his Arabic background. It has
all to do with questioning his patriotism and loyalty to the United States.
How many of us would stand for that?

I understand some profiling is going to happen, particularly now. I
wouldn't begrudge officials for being more cautious after Sept. 11. I hate
to tell Americans of Arabic backgrounds to get used to it, but African
Americans and Latinos take profiling as part of life.

Profiling will never be right, because it's too easy. It relies on
generalization, not information. You end up missing what you are looking
for because your eyes are trained in one direction. No one saw Timothy
McVeigh coming, did they?

Charles E. Richardson's columns appear Tuesday and Friday. He can be
reached at crichardson@macontel.com or 744-4342.