39 BLACK U.S. ATTORNEYS DESCRIBE WARNING SONS ABOUT
RACIAL PROFILING

(Atlanta) - Passing down a fear like an heirloom, black fathers give
their sons a warning.

In what is often a rite of passage for some black fathers and their
teenage sons, Richard Deane sat down with Jonathan Deane, 15, earlier
this year and explained that he may be stopped by police simply
because he is a young, black male.

Three years ago, when Deane's older son, Ricky, also was about to
claim his driver's license, the two had a series of the same kind of
grave, if awkward, chats. The father's words hung heavy with the
lessons of life, and the son often responded with single words: ``OK.''

This father-son snapshot might serve as just another reminder of the
sometimes frayed trust between police and the minority community,
except that Deane is a U.S. attorney, the chief federal law
enforcement officer in Atlanta and the northern portion of Georgia. He
warned his sons about the dangers of the system, yet he is the system.

He remembered telling Ricky: ``You need to be aware that
there's at least a likelihood that you'll be stopped by the police.''

Deane is not the only black U.S. attorney issuing this warning to his
son.

Saul Green, the U.S. attorney in Detroit, cautioned about racial
profiling - when police stop someone based on their race instead of
their actions - in a conversation last year with his son, Tarik. A
competitive swimmer and National Honor Society member, Tarik has
passed his 6-foot-1- inch father in height.

``I just had to explain to him that as he drove around and moved from
Detroit and into the suburbs to be particularly careful, because as a
young black man there would be circumstances where he would catch the
attention of law enforcement because he was a young black man,'' Green
said. ``Part of what struck me in having the conversation was the
unfortunate need to, in very stark terms, tell him that racism exists
and he might very well be subject to it.''

Neither man spoke about these conversations outside the family. Then,
in December, they recounted them to law-enforcement professionals and
academicians from across the country at a Washington meeting.

The Justice Department had gathered the group to talk about the
problem, whether perceived or real, of race-based traffic stops. Rep.
John Conyers, D-Mich., had proposed legislation that would require
police to record the race of every motorist they stop. As each
participant was asked to speak for two to three minutes, the police
chiefs sounded understandably defensive.

```Our officers don't do this. They don't profile on race,''' said
Green, repeating some of the comments. ``So when it got to me it
seemed it was important to strike the balance. Here I am a member of
law enforcement, a person who truly is part of the system, believes in
the system ... and yet I had to have this discussion with my son
because as a father I felt it was important that he have all the
warnings for his safety and well-being.''

Afterward, several police chiefs thanked Green and Deane for the
personal testimony, ``the kind of thing that brings it home,'' Deane
said.

Attorney General Janet Reno mentioned the exchange, though not the
names, in an address last month at the National Press Club.

``When even a U.S. attorney who is African American feels he has to
instruct his son to be cautious of the police when he drives, we have
a problem,'' Reno said.

Charles Wilson, the U.S. attorney in Tampa, attended the December
meeting and credited Deane's and Green's comments with influencing
Reno to speak.

``One of the advantages of having black Americans in these positions
of leadership is that we have input into decision-making, and we have
a voice in setting law-enforcement policy,'' Wilson said.

Law-enforcement officials and leaders in the black community agree
they face a widespread difficulty but differ over the cause.

Civil rights groups brandish statistics showing that police dis
proportionately stop or search minority drivers. The New Jersey
Attorney General's Office studied two state police posts and reported
last month that, while officers stopped twice as many white drivers as
they did blacks, blacks were twice as likely to be searched.

Police leaders acknowledge that some black motorists think
they're being stopped because of their race, but they contend
that officers are not doing a good enough job of explaining to
drivers the reason for stopping them.

Chief Ron Deziel in the virtually all-white Detroit suburb of
Dearborn, Mich., said racist officers exist and must be weeded
out. Officers, however, sometimes have to consider race.
``If a high percentage of the drug trafficking in a particular area
is being conducted by minorities, an officer can't ignore that,'' he said.

Deane, a soft-spoken man with a beard and receding hairline, knew that
as each of his sons reached the age of car keys that he would lose
some control over their lives. So Deane tried to tread the thin
fatherly line and parcel out the benefits of his own experience
without being overbearing.

``You have to prepare your children to live with and live in the
greater community in a fashion in which they'll be safe and treated
with respect,'' Deane said. Parents, regardless of race, can't ``stick
your head in the sand about the possibility of [their children] having
encounters with the police.''

With both sons, Deane advised them to be calm and cooperate. If
something seems unfair, live with it until your parents can deal with
it. In the course of giving that counsel, he raised the possibility of
racism.

``I think he was not particularly surprised to hear me say that,''
Deane said, recalling a conversation with Ricky, now a horticulture
student at Georgia Southern University. ``It was not some moment of
profound exchange.''

Teenagers don't reveal a lot in such situations, agreed
Green.

``It was, `OK, Dad. I understand,' '' he recalled.

Both Deane and Green remembered, as college students, unpleasant
encounters with police during the late '60s and early '70s. In his
sophomore year of college, Deane and a friend were stopped -
``rousted'' without cause, he said - by police in his hometown of
Macon, Ga. One of the officers had Deane's friend up against the car
and was uttering ``a lot of profanity, a lot of use of the `N- word.'
''

The two men, however, also can claim long-standing ties to their
community and law enforcement. Deane was an assistant U.S. attorney in
Atlanta for 14 years and a federal magistrate for four. They have
spoken little about their personal experiences in public because they
are interested in enlightening the law enforcement community, not
antagonizing them. (Both men declined a reporter's requests to
interview their sons.)

``We're not looking to be confrontational about this,'' Deane said.
``Our interest is in educating people that this is a core issue.
[Racial profiling] is a tool that ought not be used.''

Deane has a full-time staffer whose sole job is to work with Georgia
and Atlanta area law-enforcement agencies. She consistently reinforces
the message of not using race as a proxy for legitimate suspicion.
Green and Deziel are organizing a law-enforcement summit with
community leaders to ensure that the state's new mandatory seat belt
law is not used as an excuse to stop minority motorists, as civil
rights groups fear.

Racial profiling ``is an unfortunate part of life. But it doesn't
prevent me from having good solid, strong relationships with law
enforcement,'' Green said.

It has become an unfortunate legacy that both of these federal
prosecutors can remember their fathers warning them about encounters
with police. Now they have done the same.

Their hope is that this tradition will end with their
generation.