EXCERPTS FROM STATEMENT ON DECISION TO DROP CRIMINAL CHARGES

Following are excerpts from a statement yesterday by the New Jersey
attorney general, John J. Farmer Jr., announcing that he was dropping
criminal charges against 128 suspects who claimed to be victims of racial
profiling:

The decision to dismiss these cases was difficult for two reasons. First,
let's be clear; the defendants in these cases may have prevailed in their
motions to suppress, but they are criminals nonetheless. All were carrying
some form of contraband for distribution in communities in this and other
states. It is, accordingly, impossible to view them as victims.

Second, the decision to dismiss these cases was difficult for the reason
that the issue of racial profiling itself is difficult: we are judging
trooper conduct by post-reform standards, under which race or ethnicity may
not be considered at all, when the conduct in question occurred at a time
when state policy — and federal constitutional law — permitted the
consideration of race as one factor among others that an officer could
consider. It is difficult, if not impossible, to discern which cases
involved intentional targeting of minorities when other drug courier,
profile-related factors existed to justify the stop.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, my decision to move for dismissal is
compelled by the following considerations. First, I acknowledge the fact
that although state policy prohibited the discriminatory targeting of
minorities by state police, the division, and this department, possessed
information that, in retrospect, should have caused a greater degree of
scrutiny earlier. We — this department, and the Division of State Police —
have admitted this repeatedly. We all wish that we could change history. We
all wish that the issue had been addressed differently.

Second, there is no question that some of the cases involve problematic
conduct by individual troopers. These cases are being referred for further
internal investigation and, where appropriate, discipline, including
termination.

We recognize the need to account for the past. We have laid bare the truth.
We have waived otherwise applicable privileges, and have subjected
ourselves to levels of scrutiny and criticism unheard of in the rest of
this nation. But as we attempt to move forward, we are beset by the
debilitating consequences of our candor: opportunistic litigation and the
disruption of belated legislative hearings which — however well motivated —
will, by forcing us once again to reinhabit the past, necessarily hinder
our efforts to move forward.

Enough. It is time to move on, to push this issue past competing but
equally divisive political and economic agendas. . . . We simply cannot
have our state troopers double-clutching in the performance of their duties
because of a fear of second-guessing based on a history we are trying to
move beyond. As attorney general, I am increasingly troubled that the
determination of some to exploit tensions for political or economic
reasons, rather than to strive to ease them, will lead to nothing but
further tragedy.