ENDING THE DRUG WAR COULD DEFUSE A DANGEROUS SITUATION

While I found Jeffrey Goldberg's piece on racial profiling enlightening
(Commentary section, Aug. 1), it is past time to ask what racial profiling
is and whether it exists.

The question now is: How can police do their jobs without adding to the
perception that they are out to get a particular group?

A simple way exists to reduce the volatility of this situation: End the war
on drugs.

Most of the stories told by police in the article revolved around drug-law
enforcement. It should come as no surprise that questions regarding civil
rights are raised when police try to determine who is a drug suspect and
who isn't. Since people involved in drug transactions participate freely
and there is no victim to report these activities, it is necessary for
police to operate on hunches and intuition.

These substitutes for hard evidence are not certain, so for every single
suspect who is actually caught with drugs, there will be several innocent
suspects who quite logically assume they were profiled for no reason other
than their race.

The bitterness of these innocents is understandable, as is the bitterness
of police, who have been given the impossible job of enforcing drug laws
that anyone could be breaking at any time without drawing the least bit of
attention to themselves. In order to reduce the infinite universe of drug
suspects, the police create profiles designed to target those people police
be lieve are more likely to be breaking drug laws than other people.

American drug laws have always been intertwined with racial stereotypes
(the opium-smoking Oriental, the Mexican marijuana user, the black crack
addict), so it's not surprising police accept these stereotypes as a basis
for their profiles, even though an illegal drug user is more likely to be
white than any other race.

Sadly, as long as the drug war continues, these resentments will continue
to fester.

Ending the drug war won't make the animosity go away completely, but it
could start to defuse a dangerous situation before it explodes.