[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 78 (Thursday, May 27, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1128-E1130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            EXPOSING RACISM

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 27, 1999

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, in my continuing efforts to 
document and expose racism in America, I submit the following articles 
into the Congressional Record.
                                  ____
                                  

    Reports: State Officials Will Admit That Racial Profiling Exists

       Trenton, N.J. (AP).--State law enforcement officials this 
     week will grudgingly admit that state troopers unfairly 
     target minority motorists, according to published reports.
       Officials in Gov. Christie Whitman's administration told 
     several newspapers that a report prepared by the Attorney 
     General's office will acknowledge that some troopers have 
     engaged in the practice known as racial profiling.
       The same officials said the state will drop its appeal of a 
     1996 court decision asserting that troopers demonstrated race 
     bias in making arrests along the New Jersey Turnpike in 
     Gloucester County.
       Attorney General Peter Verniero's office said his findings 
     on the State Police's training and practices are due out 
     Tuesday or Wednesday.
       The report is expected to confirm what civil rights 
     activists said they have known for years.
       ``Racial profiling is the worst-kept secret in New 
     Jersey,'' Black Ministers Council of New Jersey executive 
     director Rev. Reginald Jackson told The Star-Ledger of Newark 
     for Tuesday's editions. ``I don't think anybody reasonable 
     will say that it doesn't happen.''
       State Police leaders have consistently argued that the 
     agency does not engage in racial profiling. The issue cost 
     State Police Superintendent Col. Carl Williams his job 
     earlier this year and threatens to impact the political fate 
     of both Whitman, who is expected to run for the U.S. Senate, 
     and Verniero, who has been nominated for the state Supreme 
     Court.
       State officials face a Wednesday deadline to decide if they 
     want to continue their appeal of the 1996 decision in state 
     Superior Court in Gloucester County. The court decision, 
     which could affect dozens of pending criminal cases, found 
     evidence of racial profiling.
       The newspaper reports come one day after state officials 
     announced official misconduct indictments against the two 
     troopers involved in last year's controversial shooting along 
     the Turnpike in Mercer County.
       Troopers John Hogan and James Kenna allegedly made false 
     statements on the race of motorists they pulled over. Such 
     data was being gathered in a State Police traffic stop survey 
     prompted by the 1996 court decision.
       Authorities said the indictments against Hogan and Kenna 
     were not directly related to their involvement in the 
     shooting near Exit 7A. Three young minority men were wounded 
     when the troopers fired 11 shots at their van. The troopers 
     said the van had backed up toward them suddenly.
       Lawyers for Hogan and Kenna have said the pair are being 
     used as scapegoats in the broader debate over racial 
     profiling. Another lawyer who often represents troopers, 
     Philip Moran, suggested that the real blame lies with the 
     State Police top brass.
       ``The problem with this is that they indict the troopers at 
     the bottom end,'' Moran told the Philadelphia inquirer for 
     Tuesday's editions. ``They don't indict the supervisors--who 
     taught them to profile, who required them to profile, and who 
     congratulated them for profiling.''
       The four occupants of the van have said they plan to file 
     civil rights lawsuits against the troopers and the State 
     Police.
       The indictments against Hogan and Kenna may prompt courts 
     to dismiss criminal charges against 26 minority defendants 
     arrested by the two troopers in the past two years. Attorneys 
     representing those suspects said prosecutors will be 
     reluctant to call Hogan and Kenna as witnesses now that they 
     face charges themselves.
       ``I don't think these cases will ever go to trial,'' 
     defense lawyer John Weichsel told The Record of Hackensack 
     for Tuesday's editions.
       Sources told The Star-Ledger that the Attorney General's 
     report will recommend sweeping reforms and continued 
     monitoring of the State Police.
       The state legislature's Black and Latino Caucus on Tuesday 
     will host the second round of its three-day hearings on 
     racial profiling Tuesday in Newark.
                                  ____


  Base Officials Investigate Racial Epithets Drawn on Sleeping Marine

       Jacksonville, N.C. (AP).--Officials at Camp Lejeune are 
     investigating allegations that three white Marines drew 
     racial epithets on the face and arm of a black Marine 
     assigned to their unit.
       A 20-year-old black Marine whose name has not been 
     released, reported to city police last week the other Marines 
     wrote the words ``KKK'' and ``nigger'' on his forehead and 
     ``Go back to Africa'' on his left arm as he slept in a motel 
     room.
       The Marine told police April 11 he work up and found the 
     scrawls on his body.
       The three white Marines had left the motel when officers 
     responding to the call arrived, ``but they left behind the 
     drawing tools apparently used as well as photos they took of 
     the victim as he slept,'' said Deputy Police Chief Sammy 
     Phillips.
       An Onslow County magistrate determined the white Marines 
     could have been charged with assault inflicting injury and 
     ethnic intimidation, a felony. But the victim decided not to 
     press charges.
       Instead, he asked Onslow County Magistrate Shelby Jones to 
     contact his battalion commander.
       ``When he made that decision, I found no probable cause. I 
     did tell him that if the military did not take care of it, 
     the state would,'' Jones said last week.
       Maj. Scott B. Jack, a spokesman on base, said the battalion 
     commander has investigated the allegations and is considering 
     disciplinary action.
       ``The Marine who was subjected to this indignity has 
     expressed his satisfaction with the action currently being 
     taken by his command,'' Jack said.
       A staff judge advocate is reviewing the case to determine 
     whether it should be turned over to the Naval Criminal 
     Investigation Service.
       All four Marines are from the same unit currently deployed 
     with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Mediterranean.


     
                                  ____
   Waco, Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary Keeps Nearly One-Third of 
                        Jasper Students at Home

       Jasper, Texas (AP)--The school week is getting a later 
     start for many students living near the East Texas scene of a 
     dragging death.
       Almost one-third of Jasper students stayed home, fearful 
     that white supremacists would use the anniversary of the 
     Branch Davidian fire in Waco and Oklahoma City bombing to 
     stage another violent event.
       Shannan Holmes sent her 8-year-old daughter, Meagan, to the 
     baby sitter with her little brother, Monday instead of the 
     second-grade class at Parnell Elementary.
       ``I just wanted the peace of mind,'' she told the Houston 
     Chronicle. ``There's all kinds of nasty rumors going around, 
     but I just thought it was better to be safe. It's just one 
     day.''
       Ms. Holmes said that her daughter could return to school 
     today. Earlier this month, state officials revealed that a 
     racist prison gang member called other like-minded 
     individuals to gather in Jasper on the anniversary of the 
     Oklahoma City bombing and Branch Davidian fire for ``Jasper 
     tractor pull and drag racing event.''
       Officials interpreted that to be a veiled reference to the 
     June 7 murder of a Jasper black man, James Byrd Jr., whose 
     body was found torn in two after being dragged behind a 
     pickup truck for nearly three miles.
       A pretrial hearing is scheduled today for the second of 
     three white men accused in the murder of James Byrd Jr.

[[Page E1129]]

       But at the Jasper County Courthouse on Monday, activity was 
     slow. A handwritten sign taped inside the front door reminded 
     the last person out to lock up.
       An investigation found nothing to the inmate-generated 
     threat, the school superintendent said Monday.
       Nevertheless, worried parents kept 1,080 students, or 32 
     percent of those enrolled at Jasper's two elementary schools, 
     the middle and high school, at home on Monday, said Doug 
     Koebernick, superintendent of the Jasper Independent School 
     District.
       ``Some parents picked up on that, so in the interest of the 
     safety of their children, parents kept them from school,'' 
     Koebernick said. ``It was just rumor generated.''
       John William King, 24, an avowed white supremacist, was 
     convicted and sentenced to death in February for Byrd's 
     murder. Co-defendant Lawrence Russell Brewer, 32, faces the 
     same fate when his capital murder trial begins May 17. A 
     trial for the third defendant, 24-year-old Shawn Allen Berry, 
     has not been scheduled.


     
                                  ____
         Defense Begins Case in Trial of Two White Supremacists

       Little Rock, Ark. (AP)--Defense attorneys for two white 
     supremacists accused of murder and conspiracy to set up a 
     whites-only nation have tried to deflect the prosecution's 
     incriminating testimony by suggesting that others were 
     responsible for the crimes.
       This week, the defense gets to provide jurors a clearer 
     view of its strategy for freeing Chevie Kehoe and Daniel Les, 
     both 26, of the charges in federal court.
       Kehoe, of Colville, Wash., and Lee, of Yukon, Okla., are 
     charged with racketeering, conspiracy and murder. They are 
     accused of killing three members of Arkansas gun dealer 
     William Mueller's family as part of the plot.
       Prosecutors say the two wanted to overthrow the federal 
     government to set up a new nation in the Pacific Northwest, 
     resorting to polygamy, gun trafficking, armed robbery, 
     bombings and murder to carry out their plan.
       The defense, which claims Kehoe and Lee are not dangerous 
     racists, was scheduled to begin its case today.
       Defense lawyers decided to delay opening statements until 
     after the prosecution rested, which it did last Tuesday after 
     Cheyne Kehoe, Kehoe's younger brother, testified to what he 
     said Chevie told him about he and Lee murdering an Arkansas 
     family three years ago.
       Federal prosecutors and defense lawyers haven't been able 
     to discuss the case because of a gag order. But during a 
     hearing, Lee's lawyer, Cathleen Compton, argued that the 
     government had little physical evidence to connect the men to 
     the crimes or show that they were part of any grand 
     conspiracy.
       ``I think, without any disrespect to the court or anyone 
     else, if these boys were in charge of conspiring to overthrow 
     the government, we're all safe,'' Compton said.
       Prosecutors called more than 150 witnesses and wheeled in 
     shoulder-high stacks of exhibits. They are seeking the death 
     penalty.
       In the indictment, Chevie Kehoe and Lee are accused of the 
     January 1996 robbery and deaths of Mueller, his wife, Nancy 
     Mueller, and her 8-year-old daughter Sarah Powell. Other 
     crimes mentioned in the indictment include a 1996 bombing of 
     the Spokane, Wash., City Hall; a 1997 Ohio shootout with 
     police that was videotaped and broadcast nationally; and the 
     slayings of two associates.


     
                                  ____
             Four Men Plead Guilty to Cross Burning Emredon

       Alexandria, LA. (AP)--Four men pleaded guilty Monday to 
     setting crosses afire in front of a north Louisiana home 
     whose white owners took in an interracial couple and their 
     family seeking refuge from a hurricane.
       Gary Delane Norman, 25; James Norris Friday, 23; Matthew 
     Ryan Morgan, 19, and Huey Kenneth Martin, 18, all of 
     Goldonna, admitted to a federal civil rights conspiracy.
       Each faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine 
     when sentenced July 21 by U.S. District Judge F.A. Little Jr. 
     Mandatory sentencing guidelines are used in setting federal 
     sentences, which are served without parole.
       Authorities said crosses were burned in front of the house 
     in Goldonna, where the family was staying on the nights of 
     Sept. 27 and Sept. 28, 1998. The family had been given 
     shelter after fleeing the approach of Hurricane Georges, 
     authorities said.
       The victims were a black man, his white wife and their 
     children who were staying temporarily with the wife's sister 
     after fleeing south Louisiana as Hurricane Georges 
     approached.
       The indictment alleged that one of the men said: ``No 
     blacks sleep in Goldonna.''
       Authorities alleged the scheme was hatched at a grocery 
     store, After the cross was burned on the first night, a 
     second, larger cross was built and burned the following 
     night.
       Whether a cross burning is illegal depends upon its 
     purpose. Cross burning for ceremonial purposes is not 
     illegal. But it is a federal crime to burn a cross for racial 
     motives in an attempt to intimidate or oppress someone.
       ``While some may try to minimize this as nothing more than 
     a prank, finding a burning cross on your front lawn in the 
     middle of the night is no laughing matter,'' said U.S. 
     Attorney Mike Skinner. ``It is a tactic of federal and 
     intimidation, and when it interferes with federally protected 
     rights to every citizen, those responsible will be brought to 
     justice.''


     
                                  ____
       Basketball Coaches Sue Texas City, Police Over Detainment

                           (By Sonja Barisic)

       Norfolk, VA (AP)--A women's basketball coach, her husband 
     and an assistant coach have filed a $30 million lawsuit 
     alleging racial bias after being detained by police in 
     Lubbock, Texas.
       The lawsuit filed Monday contends that the city and its 
     police engaged in racially discriminatory behavior when they 
     stopped Hampton University coach Patricia Bibbs, her husband, 
     Ezell, and assistant coach Vanetta Kelso on Nov. 16.
       All three, who are black, have said they believe race 
     played a role in how they were treated when police detained 
     them during an investigation of an alleged scam.
       The suit also says police violated their constitutional 
     rights of due process, equal protection and protection from 
     unreasonable and illegal arrests, searches and seizures.
       ``The city of Lubbock and its police department have known 
     and tolerated . . . the selection and retention of police 
     officers who have exhibited racist attitudes toward African-
     Americans and other minorities,'' the lawsuit said.
       Tony Privett, a spokesman for the city of Lubbock, would 
     not comment.
       The Bibbses and Kelso were detained outside a Lubbock Wal-
     Mart by officers responding to a customer's complaint that 
     someone tried to scam her. The three were handcuffed and held 
     for several hours.
       The three were suspected of trying a ``pigeon drop,'' where 
     a thief claims to have found a purse with cash in it and 
     persuades the victim to put up money for a lawyer so they can 
     both lay claim to the cash--and then disappears with the 
     victim's money.
       Police studied security tapes from the store, determined 
     that the Bibbses and Kelso had no contact with the shopper 
     and said no charges would be filed.
       The Bibbses and Kelso had no comment on the suit Monday, 
     said Victoria L. Jones, a spokeswoman for the university in 
     southeastern Virginia.


     
                                  ____
              Racial Profiling Bill Heads to House AGSTFPR

                           (By Adam Gorlick)

       Hartford, CT (AP)--Two competing bills, both designed to 
     prevent police from pulling over motorists based on their 
     race, are making their way through the general assembly.
       Sen. Alvin Penn's bill would require police officers to 
     record their observations about the gender and race of every 
     driver they pull over. That information would be gathered by 
     the Chief State's Attorney's office and used to determine 
     whether the problem, known as ``racial profiling'' exists.
       Another bill passed to the House by the Judiciary Committee 
     Monday does not have those requirements.
       ``It's an ill-fated bill,'' Penn, D-Bridgeport, said. 
     ``It's a compromise, and this is something you can't 
     compromise on.''
       Rep. Michael Lawlor, co-chairman of the Judiciary 
     Committee, said the bills are not at odds with each other. He 
     said there are questions about how police officers could 
     compile racially sensitive information about drivers without 
     offending them or creating an avalanche of paperwork.
       ``By what system are you going to identify who's in what 
     category?'' he said. ``we have to make it clear that its not 
     OK to target people based on their race or ethnicity. If it 
     is happening, lets figure out how to monitor it in a way that 
     does not unnecessarily burden the jobs that the cops do.''
       Minority drivers have complained they are sometimes stopped 
     and queried by police because of their race, especially when 
     driving an expensive car or driving through affluent 
     neighborhoods.
       Penn, who says he was a target of profiling in Trumbull 
     three years ago, also wants police departments to set up a 
     system to deal with complaints about profiling. If they 
     don't, he wants the towns to be fined.
       Complaints that Trumbull police have illegally targeted 
     black and Hispanic motorists have prompted an FBI probe.
       The investigation follows complaints from minority drivers 
     and a memo by police Chief Theodore Ambrosini suggesting 
     officers watch for people who don't fit into the community.


     
                                  ____
                  Mayor Opposes Desegregation Program

       Milwaukee (AP)--Racial guidelines in a court-approved 
     desegregation plan for the Milwaukee School District ought to 
     be abandoned, Mayor John O. Norquist said.
       The Chapter 220 program was adopted in the 1970s by the 
     district in response to a federal lawsuit to bus black 
     children to suburban districts. Hundreds of Milwaukee white 
     children are ineligible for the state-subsidized 
     transportation.
       The lack of opportunity for white children encourages their 
     families to move to the suburbs, Norquist said Monday, 
     recalling he opposed the Chapter 220 plan when the 
     Legislature adopted it while he was a state senator.
       ``I don't think there should be any racial quotas,'' he 
     said. Some members of the newly elected Milwaukee school 
     board propose ending the racial guidelines. Gov. Tommy 
     Thompson recommends the Legislature reduce the funding 
     available to districts that participate in Chapter 220.
       School administrators and the National Association for the 
     Advancement of Colored People favor preserving the program.

[[Page E1130]]

       More than 5,100 Milwaukee minority children attend suburban 
     schools under the program this year while 540 suburban whites 
     attend Milwaukee schools.

     

                          ____________________