Blast from the past

Back in 2001 when this mailer went out, Mike Bloomberg made a big deal about putting an end to racial profiling. So much for that.

UPDATE: A federal judge has ruled stop-and-frisk unconstitutional.

They really think this is a good idea?

From the NY Post:

A suspected gangbanger and iPhone thief arrested at a Queens subway station would still be on the loose under a City Council bill to prevent cops from searching for suspects by ethnicity, the NYPD said yesterday.

Louis Barragan, 17, allegedly a member of the Sureno 13 gang with a lengthy rap sheet, was busted Wednesday evening by cops who heard a description on the radios that included the word “Hispanic.”

The use of ethnicity — along with gender and age — as a “determinative” factor in arrests and other police action would be illegal if the City Council passes a bill sponsored by Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn). It is one of four proposed bills targeting stop-and-frisk.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said cops would never have been able to close in on Barragan without a proper description of the suspect.

“How could they? The bill prohibits law-enforcement action ‘that relies, to any degree, on actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender,’ ” Browne said, quoting part of the bill.

Voter registration to include race?

From the NY Post:

A Bronx assemblyman wants to force voters to identify their race and ethnicity on voter-registration forms, The Post has learned.

But Democrat Peter Rivera's bill is being panned even before it's been introduced.

Critics fear that the data could be used by campaigns for targeted mailings or to avoid reaching out to certain voters.

Rivera, however, defended the measure, saying it merely aims to make sure that voters are not underrepresented.

The information collected, he insisted, would be kept in a public database and help officials, organizations and historians to analyze populations and race.

Hikind to introduce racial profiling bill

MYFOXNY.COM - A local member of the New York Assembly will be reintroducing legislation that would allow law enforcement officials to use ethnic profiling among other techniques to spot potential terrorism suspects.

"There is no question that the government has a compelling interest in protecting the lives and safety of its citizenry from terrorist attacks," says Assemblyman Dov Hikind , a Democrat of Brooklyn. "The history of modern terrorism has taught us that these attacks are repeatedly executed by young Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin. This is not a time for political correctness."

He says that using ethnic profiling is not unconstitutional, because he says a "compelling governmental interest" in using it to save lives.

Hikind says that police officers should be allowed to consider a person's race and ethnicity among other factors when deciding who to stop, question and search, including "wearing heavy clothing in warm weather; carrying a briefcase, duffle bag or backpack with protrusions or visible wires; displaying nervousness and/or inappropriate sweating; an inability or unwillingness to make eye contact; and chemical burns on clothing or stains on hands."

He plans to reintroduce the legislation, which he first proposed in 2005, when the legislative session reconvenes in Albany in January.