POLICE STRATEGY UNDER SCRUTINY

Christian Pioneers In Protest Meets To Discuss Racial Profiling

A tension filled the room Sunday evening. The tension didn't exist between
the people in the room. It existed between the people and an abstract
concept that has permeated humanity through time. "I wish I could say
racial profiling used to exist," said Mariah Wooten, a federal public
defender who drove from Nashville to her native Clarksville for a forum
about the topic. "I can't. Racial profiling exists today."

About 75 people gathered at Burt-Cobb Community Center Sunday evening for a
forum hosted by an infant group -- Christian Pioneers in Protest.

The discussion glided actively for about two hours and centered on Wooten's
keynote speech.

The night's discussion focused on racial profiling by police -- what many
people call "driving while black or brown" -- but the forum's attendees
also mentioned profiling outside law enforcement, like in schools.

Attendees mentioned a few local cases, but the gathering wasn't specific to
Clarksville.

"Many of the officers will go too far," Wooten said. "The real question is,
'Why the stop?'"

She described a tactic during which police make "pretextual" stops -- that
is, they find a reason to stop a car (rolling through a stop sign or
weaving) after they suspect criminal behavior, sometimes because of skin color.

She said police use the strategy to find more severe criminal activity, and
courts often support the tactic.

She didn't reserve her comments for white officers only.

Wooten defined three types of racial profiling:

a.. Drug trafficking -- People deemed to be suspects because of their color
and their surroundings.

a.. Out-of-place -- People deemed to be suspects because they're of color
and in a "white" neighborhood.

a.. Urban control -- A widely accepted strategy to stop people on minor
traffic offenses to uncover larger crimes. Wooten argued racial profiling
- -- and the term has been bantered concerning the War on Terrorism -- is a
corrosion of the Fourth Amendment.

Profiling was accepted in the 1980s as a way to target drug dealers (people
of color driving expensive cars in poor neighborhoods, for example).

"And I ask, 'At what price?'" Wooten said. "We're losing rights more and
more, and we're accepting it because of fear."

The gathering also served as a platform to dissuade apathy among local
black people. Several people, including Wooten and Clarksville police
Detective Tony Blakely, who was on the forum's panel, urged people to raise
their voices, primarily with their votes.

"One of the things we in the black community have to do is to report
(abuses)," Blakely said.

"A lot of times, we quit too soon."

Added Wiley Moore: "We need to quit begging and stand up."

Wanda Smith, president of Christian Pioneers in Protest, said she was
excited by the turnout and the message -- "You can't be angry. You have to
be willing to be persistent."

Following various complaints of racial profiling, the group formed on Feb. 13.

Among its goals are elimination of racial profiling, poverty, drug
trafficking and racism.