RACISM IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE DEBATED

ATLANTA (AP) -- It's becoming a familiar tale of "driving while black" -- a
carload of black men is pulled over by police who want to search for drugs
even though there is no evidence the men are carrying drugs.

In this case, one of the men in the car was a Washington, D.C., public
defender who sued the Maryland police and won a settlement. Robert Wilkins
spoke about the 1992 incident during an American Bar Association discussion
Sunday about racism in the criminal justice system.

Bill Lann Lee, the Justice Department's acting civil rights chief, told the
audience, "We are talking about civil rights violations" in such incidents.
"These stories are legion."

Lee said such practices also are bad law enforcement because while police
might find small-time couriers, they may be "missing very big fish."

Lee said Attorney General Janet Reno is "convinced that you can have law
enforcement that's sensitive to these issues, avoid racial profiling, and be
effective."

"If we allow racial discrimination to occur, then we're just undermining the
whole community policing concept," Lee said.

The moderator of the discussion, American University law professor Angela
Jordan Davis, asked, "How is it that the issue of racism in criminal justice
is still so pervasive in 1999?"

"Don't prosecutors have the power in fact to dismiss these cases" if they
involve unfairness based on race, Davis asked.

University of Houston law professor Sandra Guerra said focusing on
prosecutors might not work. "Prosecutors can't identify all the people who
should have been stopped who weren't stopped," she said.

Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell L. Griffen, a member of the
audience, suggested, "The buck can stop with judges" who can throw out cases
involving racial profiling.

Griffen said some type of cost should be imposed on those responsible for
race-based prosecutions. "Racism so far doesn't cost anybody anything in
this system except the victims," he said.

Phillip Jackson, a prosecutor in Atlanta, wondered from the audience, "How
do we fix these things as a group? People vote for politicians who are going
to be tough on crime."

Wilkins suggested, "You can say you're tough on crime and still have an
agenda that's smart on crime."

Wilkins said the settlement in his case required the Maryland state police
to report on searches they conducted along Interstate 95. The results showed
a high share of black motorists being searched, although drugs were found on
them no more frequently than on white motorists.

The disparity showed up even though the police knew of the reporting
requirement, he said. "It changed my view, unfortunately, for the worse
about whether the legal system can address these kinds of issues."

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