COLUMN ON RACIAL PROFILING REVERBERATES ON MANY NERVE FIBERS

My column last Sunday decried the governor's veto of a bill to measure
the extent of racial profiling by law enforcement.

The huge reader response favored my point. Here are excerpts from a
variety of opinions:

I read your Sunday column at breakfast and just broke into tears. . .
. So I wrote a letter to Governor Davis and enclosed your article. I
asked him why, since he could walk in the farmworkers' shoes, he
couldn't walk in yours, too.

AGGIE ROBINSON
Palo Alto
~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a law student here at USC and a black female, I know only too well
the problems of DWB. Going in tears to my mother, asking her why I am
always followed slowly by police and eventually stopped when I'd done
nothing wrong. I remember my mother's anger, her beloved hands curling
into fists and her words: ``I have worked so damned hard to provide a
life here (an affluent suburb of L.A.) and we are constantly being
punished for it!

MONIQUE JEWETT
Los Angeles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We could all multiply your examples, but the stunning thing is how
unaware non-blacks (or at least non-minorities) are of the
discrimination and victimization that takes place. After a talk by a
visiting NYU professor in our African and African-American lecture
series, a white student came up to our assistant director quite
chagrined to learn that racism still existed in America. He thought
we'd passed laws to eliminate that sort of thing.

PROFESSOR JOHN RICKFORD
Stanford University
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So now you are suggesting that we should have affirmative action in
our legal system. I suppose the solution is to have black police for
blacks, white for whites, Chinese for Chinese etc. Your article is
racist, bigoted, demonizes the police and is out of Farrakhan's book.

J. BLACK
via e-mail
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Using skin color as an excuse for discrimination or underachievement
or ``racial profiling'' . . . only serves to highlight the habitual
ignorance Negroes have endured for generations. And as demonstrated by
your column, you only serve to amplify the stupidity. We all suffer
discrimination in one form or another. But you seem to think it only
happens to Negroes, yeah sure. Your argument is stale. And ignorant.
Bottom line, why don't you people stop your (expletive), grow up and
compete on merit. Then, and only then, will you succeed like the rest
of us.

User256127@aol.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree with you totally. It's not because I'm black, because I'm not.
. . Our son is a law-abiding citizen with a good job, but he
happens to look young. He drives a lowered car that is all fancy, and
he gets stopped every single day. . . . He has never had a speeding
ticket and never had any warrant out for his arrest. . . . I am so
tired of the police doing this to children. . . . I wish that you
would write an article about how they stop anybody -- not just because
of DWB -- driving while black -- but also driving while young.

HELEN JOHNSON
San Jose
~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not sure that requiring police to keep records of race for each
stop will do much to help. . . . Somehow, the individual officer has
to develop an attitude that recognizes the rights of every citizen.

RALPH BRITTON
Palo Alto
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those of us who are white and have African-American sons worry, too. .
. . I wouldn't want to be in a cop's shoes any day of any week.
However, I find it hard to believe that the police officers in our
area are so regularly threatened by young African-Americans that they
feel they must treat them in such an inhumane way.

LAURA MANTHEY
San Jose
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A profound article -- my words exactly. Being a Puerto Rican living in
San Jose, my husband was stopped many times -- they even put a gun to
his face because they were looking for someone that looked like him.
Our sons are at risk and, yes, we are all concerned.

SCARLET
phone message
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contact Loretta Green at lgreen@sjmercury.com or (650) 688-7565. Fax
(650) 688-7555. .