WABE
Michelle Wirth
The Obama administration came out with new guidelines on racial profiling for federal law enforcement officers Monday. Several civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and the NAACP say the policy is a step in the right direction. However, the organizations are also concerned the guidelines don’t go far enough.
The new profiling policy includes gender, religion and sexual orientation. Previously, only race and ethnicity were covered. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke about the new guidelines while in Atlanta last week.
“This will institute rigorous new standards and robust safeguards to help end racial profiling once and for all.”
But civil rights organizations are not quite as enthusiastic. Francys Johnson is President of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP.
“It’s an important step, in terms of rebuilding trust between communities of color and the government, which is tasked with serving and protecting those communities, but it’s not nearly enough.”
Johnson is against exemptions in the policy that still allow profiling at airports and along the borders by Homeland Security officers.
That also concerns Azadeh Shahshahani. Shahshahani is the Director of the National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project at the ACLU of Georgia.
“They say that this guidance does not apply to activities at the border, and not only at the border, but within 100 miles of the border, and also in the area of national security there are also some problematic exceptions, which especially if you’re Latino, Muslim, or African-American, a person of color, you could potentially be subjected to profiling.”
The new guidelines come after the high-profile deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Their deaths sparked a national conversation on race and policing, and led to protests, including here in Atlanta.
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