Norton, Author of a Recent Racial Profiling Ban, Alerts Upcoming Police March that Nationwide Protests are Against Racial Profiling, Not Police
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that as rank and file police prepare to come to the nation's capital on January 17, 2015 for a "Sea of Blue" march, the District will welcome them as we have others to assert their concerns. A little noted Norton amendment banning racial profiling passed in the House Fiscal Year 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) appropriations bill and was included in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill. Her amendment was accepted on the House floor, placed in the House T-HUD appropriations bill and included in the Title IV General Provisions of the T-HUD section of the final fiscal year 2015 omnibus legislation. It prohibits states that receive federal transportation funding from engaging in unconstitutional profiling based on physical characteristics, such as race. On the House floor, Norton cited a Supreme Court decision, that states that racial profiling violates both equal protection and title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which enforces the 14th Amendment as applied to federal entities.
"Unfortunately, some, including some police, have taken the nationwide protests against racial profiling to be protests against the police themselves," said Norton. "Protesters are protesting certain police practices, and not the police, who take great risks to protect their communities. The high profile killings of two unarmed Black men have provided the vehicle for people to raise the ubiquitous racial profiling, which, unlike the killings, faces nearly every young male of color. Protesting racial profiling does not mean protesting police. As the ‘Sea of Blue' march comes to D.C., perhaps both police and protesters will take note of how D.C.'s own police chief, Cathy Lanier, has shown that police can bond with the communities they serve and that need their protection."
As she argued her amendment on the House floor, Norton cited statistics that show racial profiling of Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans are the same regardless of region or state as well as some state figures showing that when stops occurred, whites were more often carrying contraband. However, Norton, who once practiced First Amendment law, said that police, like the protesters, have every right to march for their concerns.