Racial profiling on the part of many police departments seems obvious to those who are profiled, as well as to many of us who interact regularly with the victims of profiling. An officer's true motivation is easy to conceal since officers are more likely to say "I pulled him over because his tire touched the fog line" than "I pulled him over because he's black and his tire touched the fog line." Statistical evidence of profiling seems compelling to some, less so to others.

In Palo Alto, however, there's no ambiguity at all, thanks to a police chief who made departmental policy abundantly clear:

Police Chief Lynne Johnson [during on October 30 interview on KGO-TV] ... said she instructed her officers "to make contact with African-Americans in Palo Alto," adding: "When our officers are out there and they see an African-American, in a congenial way, we want them to find out who they are."

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Around the time of our last presidential election, Homeland Security decided that 2,500 foreigners, mostly Muslim, within the nation's boundaries should be viewed as a potential threat to national security. And so they were investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The internal reports show that immigration agents questioned the foreigners about what they thought of America, whether violence was preached at their mosques, and whether they had access to biological or chemical weapons.

Some of the foreigners were detained for immigration violations, but there is no evidence that any were charged with a crime against national security. While ICE claims it did not single out foreigners for interrogation based on their race, ethnicity, or religion, nearly four out of five came from Muslim-majority countries. It certainly appears that the government's suspicions were based on religious profiling rather than facts that suggest an actual reason to suspect threatening behavior. [more ...]

In any individual case, it's difficult to prove that racial profiling motivated a traffic stop. Law enforcement agencies seize upon that difficulty to argue that racial profiling doesn't occur. That was the response of the Los Angeles Police Department to a report (pdf) by Ian Ayres and Jonathan Borowsky for the ACLU of Southern California. Among the report's significant findings:

Per 10,000 residents, the black stop rate is 3,400 stops higher than the white stop rate, and the Hispanic stop rate is almost 360 stops higher. Relative to stopped whites, stopped blacks are 127% more likely and stopped Hispanics are 43% more likely to be frisked.

Despite the absence of empirical evidence that black or Hispanic drivers are more likely to violate traffic laws than white drivers, the LAPD refuses to acknowledge that the statistics reveal an underlying problem of racial profiling. [more ...]

Wisconsin's Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen, is a dutiful Republican who wants to be noticed. In a blatant attempt to suppress newly registered voters, Van Hollen sued the state to force local clerks to perform laborious cross-checks of new voter registrations and drivers license records. Fortunately, he isn't very good at what he does.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled Thursday that Van Hollen had not shown any laws had been broken. She further ruled that Van Hollen didn't have the power to bring the lawsuit even if he'd identified violations of the law.

Despite Van Hollen's pleas for an expedited judgment, Judge Sumi took her time and reasoned her way to a sound decision. Van Hollen says he'll appeal, but at this point he's just making unnecessary noise.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is calling attention to racial disparities in the treatment of felony drug cases in Cuyahoga County.

In Cuyahoga County, white people are more likely to have their felony drug charges reduced to misdemeanors -- or to get treatment as an alternative to any conviction -- than black people charged with the same crime.

The Plain Dealer found:

[S]ince 2000, a black person has been 12.7 times more likely than a white person to be sent to a state prison from Cuyahoga County on drug charges.

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Some stories are just too good. Remember all those times you thought, "I know they're doing this, but I can't prove it," yet kept silent because you didn't want to be perceived as cranky? Turns out, they were really doing it!

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Glenn Greenwald has a comprehensive take on the story.

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While keeping in mind today's critique of the government's various data-mining programs by the National Research Council, see if you can contain your outrage (no need to bother, really) as you read this:

The Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases that track terrorism suspects, the state police chief acknowledged yesterday.

Activists were classified as terrorists in Maryland because they publicly opposed the death penalty or the Iraq war. They were identified by law enforcement officers who spied on them as they engaged in constitutionally protected protest.

[more ...]

There is no evidence that the Bush administration's reliance on data-mining has made the nation safer, but plenty of evidence that the practice endangers our privacy and burdens those who are victimized by the government's inevitable mistakes.

The National Security Agency’s program for wiretapping terror suspects without warrants, the screening of suspicious airline passengers and the Pentagon’s ill-fated Total Information Awareness program, shut down by Congress in 2003 because of privacy concerns, have all relied on aspects of data mining.

But in a 352-page government study released on Tuesday, a committee of the National Research Council warned that successfully using these tools to deter terrorism “will be extremely difficult to achieve” because of legal, technological and logistical problems. It said a haphazard approach to using such tools threatened both Americans’ privacy rights and the country’s legitimate national security needs.

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Complaints of racial profiling are multiplying in Seattle, according to the president of the Seattle-King County branch of the NAACP.

"This is a pervasive problem," [James Bible] said, adding that the message to youth has become "you're all perceived as gang members until you prove differently."

A news conference yesterday cited instances of unequal and disrespectful law enforcement targeting black youth. One example:

[Marcus] Whitehurst, who is black, was pushed up against the patrol car, told he was nothing but "garbage" and advised that he was "not welcome in this neighborhood." His white friends were allowed to stand there, untouched.

No surprise here:

Charges will be dropped against journalists who were arrested during the Republican National Convention protests and cited with unlawful assembly.

Despite the St. Paul mayor's assurance that the decision to drop charges serves "the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press," the charges are being dropped because they would have gone nowhere. It isn't unlawful to assemble (the First Amendment protects that right) particularly when journalists "assemble" to do their jobs as reporters (also protected by the First Amendment). The arrests were merely to keep the journalists from reporting on the tactics used by law enforcement to quash dissent. They were never intended to result in prosecutions.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had sued AT&T over its participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless electronic surveillance program, only to have Congress throw a wrench in it by passing a law giving the telecoms retroactive immunity, has filed a new lawsuit against President Bush, Dick Cheney and the Government, taking a different approach.

. "For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and databases of customer records. Our goal in this new case against the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."

In addition to suing the government agencies involved in the domestic dragnet, the lawsuit also targets the individuals responsible for creating, authorizing, and implementing the illegal program, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The complaint is here (pdf). I encourage everyone to read at least the prelimary statement that outlines the scope of the old TSP (Terrorist Surveillance Program) and how it continues to be used today. Your e-mails, phone records and more are subject to being swept up in this dragnet surveillance program.[More...]

Florida deserves credit for liberalizing its voting laws to restore voting rights to ex-felons who have finished their sentences. Florida deserves criticism for failing to take the new law seriously.

Fred Schuknecht, the director of administration for the Florida Clemency Board, acknowledged in an interview that there was a backlog of 60,000 former felons who could potentially have their rights restored, but must first be reviewed by the agency. Despite the fact that 3,500 newly released prisoners are added to the caseload every month, the Legislature cut 20 percent of the staff devoted to felony voter restoration cases, Mr. Schuknecht said.

With a presidential election on the horizon, what a perfect time to cut the staff needed to restore voting rights. Way to go, Florida.