Take Action Now:
Call members of Congress (202-224-3121) and urge them to cosponsor and pass without delay the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA).
After celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, let’s also remember King’s words calling on Americans to judge people not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Racial profiling refers to the practice used primarily by law enforcement officials of targeting and/or treating individuals unfairly based on their perceived race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. The act of racial profiling was wrong when King urged its end; and it is wrong now.
Horrific examples of racial profiling are occurring all over the country. These incidents are tragically common practice in some places as a result of anti-immigration laws like those passed in Arizona and Alabama. Similarly, in the years since 9/11, the federal government has diverted massive investigatory resources on Arabs and Muslims, singling them out for questioning, detention, and other law enforcement activities based on their religion or ethnicity rather than their individual behaviors.
At the federal level, we can do something to end the practice of racial profiling. The End Racial Profiling Act of 2011 (ERPA – S. 1670) has now been introduced in the House and Senate, and it needs your support to be enacted. S. 1670 would:
- create a federal prohibition against racial profiling;
- provide funding for the training of law enforcement officials on how to discontinue and prevent the use of racial profiling; and
- hold law enforcement officials and agencies that continue to use racial profiling accountable.
If we act now, we can begin to re-establish trust in law enforcement and ensure that everyone who lives in our country is protected.
Take Action: Call members of Congress (202-224-3121) and urge them to cosponsor and pass without delay the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA).
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