he knows he has to pay for something he did wrong. but i did nothing wrong. i was working. i pleaded with the officer to listen to me. to believe me that i was telling the truth. i told him i'm a citizen. but it didn't matter. i offered to show him my social security card. but he refused to look at it. and finally border patrol officers arrived to this place.

the michigan state police officer had left. and the border patrol officers confirmed that i was telling the truth and i was let go. i never received a ticket for my traffic violation, but more importantly i never got an apology. i believe in the tons and dreams the us represents. i believe in the promise of equality and justice for all.

and as i thought more about this experience, i realized that i couldn't just ignore what had happened. because there are others just like me who are harrised, arrested and deported. for no other reason than a police officer's perception of what a citizen should look like or sound like. i went to the fclo of michigan. for help.

and they sent a letter to the michigan state police on my behalf asking for answers and an internal investigation. a few days later i sat in the aclu's office. while a police internal investigator asked me to tell my story. that was another proud day for me because i knew that i had made a difference.

although i still believe in the promise of equality, i know that i have to speak out to make sure it's a reality for me. my family and my community. no u.s. citizen should be made to feel like a criminal. simply because of the color of their skin, language abilities or religion. thank you. that's part of my story. [ applause ] >> hello. my name is elizabeth dan.

i want to thank you for this incredible opportunity to speak to you all about what muslim students have been going through for the past few months. i am a convert to islam. i'm in my final year of law school at nyu. and i'm the outreach chair of the nyu's muslim law students association. i'm many other things as well. i'm a descendent of english immigrants who arrived in this country prior to the revolutionary war and irish catholic immigrants, i'm a wife and an expectant mother. the surveillance of muss limb students in and outside of new york city appalls me on all levels of my identity. after finding out about the surveillance without suspicion of criminal activity from muslim students from yale to the university of pennsylvania i felt a variety of emotions. i felt fear. fear not only of harm directly caused by the nypd but for what this means about the stabbeding

op my community in the eyes of american citizens. fear that we are concerned an enemy that can never prove itself safe, neighborly or kind with any amount of safe, neighborly and kind behavior. fear of what is coming next for us. fear of the legacy of inattorneyment of law-abiding japanese american citizens during world war ii and when that legacy might be resurrected. fear that we will have trouble finding jobs, finding space to worship freely, finding our voices during this and other political moments. fear that for the muslim students of so many universities who are young, hopeful and patriotic, the surveillance will destroy some of their faith in fairness, justice and law enforcement. fear na muslim students will lose a bit of their innocence and artlessness. fear that my friends and community members would suspect me of being an informant because

i'm a white convert. fear that my unborn child will fear it necessary to make a choice between the expression of her religion and the fulfillment of her professional dreams. fear of what i will tell her about her place many the city of her birth when her entire faith community is watched with suspicion. fear that the surveillance we know about is only the beginning and that we will be powerless to change it. and i was angry. i was angry because this action is a violation of the values this country holds most dear. the freedoms of speech, of religious expression and association. i was angry because the students around me were afraid to be angry because terrorists are angry. students are terrified if they sound angry even though they have been wronged someone will be watching them and note that they are dangerous people, people of interest. i was angry because commissioner kelly is the son of immigrants

and a member of a religious minority in this country and he has forgotten the pain the irish americans suffered at the hands of racist english protestants. i was angry because i felt violated. because i'm a student of the law and because i believe in rules. i was angry because indiana who else to feel. and now i'm disappointed. i'm disappointed that this happened at all. i'm disappoint that had the muslim community has not forged the relationships with people of other faiths that are strong enough that other faith-based communities would be outraged on our behaf half. i am disappointed that this is where we are spying on the public lawful activities of young unsuspecting students to look for terrorists because nobody has any better ideas. i am disappointed because of what this means for our constitution, what this means about our values. what this means about the melting pot we live in if

certain groups are subjected to treatment that makes them too terrified to speak or pray how can they melt into this wonderful pot that is america. i understand and commend any intention to keep new york city and more broadly this country safe. but i do not believe in my heart of hearts in my incredibly american born and raised new englander heart that surveillance based purely on racial or religious distinctions is the way to keep us safe. we are all entitled to a feeling of safety. all of us. white, brown, yellow, black, christian, jewish, muslim, buddhist, hindu, sikh. we have all entitled to the protections of our laws and to the protection of law enforcement. and we minorities are harmed by these kinds of practices. we feel less safe and we are less safe. as a result of characteristics about ourselves that we are powerless to change. it is not being an adherent to

any religion that makes them a threat to security. it is not being any particular color that makes someone a threat to security. it is hateful, harmful unjust individuals that are threats to security. communities do not bear collective responsibility for the wrong doing of any one person. if i could assign a different religious label to every terrorist who has ever lived, i would. i disavowed them, their believes, their values, their means, and their sappointment. but those feelings make me want to build a better future. not tear anyone's present down. and that is why i'm a student of the law. that is why i'm the outreach chair of the muslim law students association. that is why i'm a muslim. and that is why i'm speaking to you today. i asked the house and senate to pass the end racial profiling act and institute a federal ban on profiling based on race,

ethnicity, national origin on the federal, state and local levels. i asked senator durbin to revise the 2003 guidance regarding the use of race by federal law enforcement agencies to apply to profiling based on religion and based on national origin. to remove national border security loopholes, cover surveillance activities apply to state and law enforcement agencies with agencies receiving federal funds and make the guidance enforce jbl. i want to thanks the groups for putting together this conference. thank you to all of you for coming and listening to us. [ applause ] >> hi good afternoon. i'm anthony romero. national director of the american civil liberties union. i shall be brief since i testified earlier today.

clearly the need for the legislation is well established in the record that was presented before the senate judiciary committee. prior to 9/11 racial profiling was seen as un-american. after 9/11 racial profiling is now seen as a necessary evil. where in order to keep our streets safe to keep our airport travelers safe, to free us from the quote harm done to us by undocumented immigrants, we hear many across the political aisle justify racial profiling as necessary to ensure the american way of life in their minds. today's hearing and hopefully the testimony you'll hear further today challenges that very notion. that in fact it's only by challenging the use of racial profiling in many different forms and circumstances that we will uphold the american way of

life. as the legislation proceeds, of course, it has a very challenging road ahead of it. there will be many within congress and the advocates that will try to stipaway the positions and end the racial profiling act as a way to get it done. we will try whether immigration or border patrol protections should be forfeited. whether we should focus on the traditional minority groups like latinos suffering at the hands of the police. i would exhort all of those in this room not to let those politics be played off against one another. that's part of the problem we have now. when we have national security

based onneth nitsity or on border enforcement that is the patchwork of acceptable racial profiling that's found in the law which is unacceptable wherever it is. so thank you very much. we look forward to working with you to make this legislative dream a reality and thank you all for organizing this event. [ applause ] >> good afternoon. i'm the director of the ncaa's washington bureau and senior vice president for advocates in policy. let me begin first by thanking three of the naacp for their insight, their persistence and their leadership. senator durbin who's been active in trying to attack racial profiling over a decade ago and

chaired today's hearing. senator cart who introduced the end racial profiling act last year and has been a tireless champion of the bill and congressman john connors who continues to be our leader in the house of representatives on racial profiling as well as a host of other civil rights concerns. by the naacp heartedly believes that the majority of law enforcement agencies are horde working, courageous individuals as kpempllyfying by chief ron davis who testified earlier today who should be commended for their sacrifice fiess they make on a regular basis and the willingness to serve their neighbors and communities. racial profiling by one officer can lead to mistrust of all officers. in fact, it is safe to say that the continued use of racial

profiling is safely undercuts our communities. trust and faith in the integrity of the american criminal justice system. what we need is a database approach to determine the problem and scope of magnitude in order to fix the problem of racial profiling. in order to fix the problem you must first measure it. then we must have an education and training at all levels to elem nate racial profiling once and for all. the training must uniform from the federal government down to neighborhood watch groups. and from unit commanders down to cop on the beat and even the desk sergeant. in order for the law to be effective it must offer citizens and the government real accommodation. that is avenues to enforce and ensure that racial profile is stopped. i know racial profiling is morally wrong and ineffective, but it's a misuse of government resources and detrimental to effective policing.

it must be stopped and behalf of the entire naacp, i applaud our champions and urge the immediate end of the racial profiling act. thank you very much. i look forward to the work we will do. >> good afternoon, everyone. i want to give a commendation to senator carden and particularly to john conyers who has been consistent in ringing the alarm across the country about the deficit and this scathing gap that racial profiling is doing in america. my mind goes back to 1995 breaking into the cannes film festival was a small underdiscovered film that many people didn't think was going to go far. it was coined and named after one line from casablanca. that film was entitled the usual suspects. it talks about a motley crue of

criminals that were found. as the film begins to develop they find the person that they thought did it is not the person who did it. they thought it was going to be a con man. and they figured out it was somebody they would have never expected. whenever we participate in rash profiling it is in fact the usual suspects. who it is that the media has portrayed criminality in america is supposed to look like. any person who has any breath of memory will remember when it is that dukakis ran for president. his failure was raising up the portrait of criminality was a black man. you don't have to go too many days further than that when a distraught woman in south carolina claimed that her children were in fact kidnapped but she income killed her own children was racial profiling. you remember when it is that "time" magazine darked the hue of o.j. simpson so he would look

more criminal in his intent causing the publishers and editors having to apologize for making o.j. seem darker and make him give a more criminal tint to his extinction of his own wife. ladies and gentlemen, we stand today in 2012 and my heart is asunder knowing that 49 years ago this very day martin luther king junior wrote a letter from a birmingham jail. on this day the 17th of april he had to raise the question why are we here? we're here because injustice is here. and 49 years later we come into this room in this senate build, muslims, jews, prost substantiates, kath lix, latinos, asians, they want to know why we're here, we're here because injustice is still here. how all of america paused when it is we heard the glaring report about trayvon martin. here is a young man not driving while black. but walking while black.

and profiled and we all have the 911 tape to prove it. what is his crime? he looks suspicious. that we get to a place that in middle class america you are suspicious because you have on an athletic uniform. what is your crime? you're suspicious because you have a bag of 69 cent skittles or in fact a can of arizona iced tea. what is the crime of millions of americans who are now afraid to walk outside of their homes? it's not that he was with bad company, it's not that he was part of a gang. it's not that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. he simply is suspicious in america because he's a young black teen. we have got to come to a place ladies and gentlemen that the legislation must be passed. but martin luther king junior was very clear that you cannot legislate love. it was fact in a book entitled

brainwashed that in order for us to change america it will not happen through congress, it will not happen in sentiment. it will only have to happen through a change of heart. regrettably, ladies and gentlemen, perception is reality. when many of our young people look at the housewives of orange county and aspire that that is what success looks like, but what the camera does not show is that 37% of the houses in orange county are under foreclosure what is the perception? what is the reality? when they turn the channel and look at basketball wives and out of nine frustrated women eight of them are not even married. what is the perception and what is the reality. when we look if you've got a large stomach and can handle your nerves and look at the housewives of aland see an unwritten script that as the world turns doesn't even have that kind of vivid imagination, what is perception, and what is reality. it is our question while we sat

here in this panel today talking about who's wrong? . is it the police officers? how i wish we could give every police officer in america rose colored glasses. but what we found out as president obama's bill could not pass, it's not in the budget. and so because we cannot give all of them rose colored glasses, we need to change the perception of how american looks at our minorities, our women and how we look at different religious affiliation. just while it is that we were assembling here, the reason why it is that he was late a few blocks away from here he caught a cab, but the cab pulled over. cab pulled over because the cab driver wanted to see the launching of discovery. it's amazing, ladies and gentlemen, that whenever it is that you do excavation, whenever you do archaeology, you always look down. but whenever you want to do discovery you've got to look forward and you've got to look up. the cab driver pulled over and

made a bishop of the church walk because he was looking to discover. not going back into the past. not opening up the annals of raci racism. will america be its greatest dream or deficit. ladies and gentlemen, how i wish i could have seen my bishop walk for two blocks because it is a marvelous testament of what it is minorities, ethnicities and the church community is going to have to do while the new general ralgs is looking up, we may have to go back to marching. so that america can in fact be the place it was intended to be. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> girs off, i'd like to start

off by thank youing you all for allowing me to speak to you and a matter that is near and dear to my heart. forgive me the sinuses, the pollen is getting me. i speak to you from two perspectives. one is a professor of criminal justice at jackson university and at itt institute. and as a current deputy commander with the heinz county sheriff's department and one time law enforcement officer of the year and three times law enforcement of the month. not all of which were accomplished with racial profile, but using community policing. as a law enforcement officer i've heard various arguments for the use of typecasting. also known as racial profiling. as a law enforcement officer i have also heard many complaints from citizens who look just like me about theous of racial profiling tactics also known in

this professional co-no tags as typecasting. however as an academic i have my own perspective of both terms. if you ask a law enforcement who spends much of his time conducting interstate interdiction, what method of observation he or she uses in determines which vehicle to stop, i'm sure you would hear well articulated and particularly correct narration. you would hear simple terms such as observation, tracking, or visual awareness, et cetera. or you may hear the term more traffic stops lead to more arrests. however, what you won't hear is the use of the term racial profiling. the most common example of police racial profiling is dwb. otherwise known as driving while black. studies have shown that african-americans are far more likely to be stopped and

searched by than whites. the fact is racial profiling is illegal but also -- but users of such tactics will tell you that a 1996 supreme court decision allows police officers to stop motorist rists and search their vehicles when they believe they're trafficking ill drugs or weapons. i challenge anyone including my colleague from denver, i challenge him to show me where in that ruling it states that blacks or minorities will be your likeliest suspects. it doesn't exist. driving -- dwb also has no respect to person. recently film maker tyler perry became a victim of the misuse of authority on last sunday he tweeted about his experience of being stopped by two atlanta police officers in his posting

which has drawn more than 100,000 likes and 118,000 comments told what happened when two white police officers stopped him while driving from his southwest atlanta movie studio last month. a department of justice report on racial profiling shows an alarming racial disparity at a rate at which motorists are are searched by local law enforcement. their findings demon stlat a clear and significant racial disparity in the way in which motorists are treated once they have been stopped by law enforcement officers also. the report also found that blacks were roughly three times as likely to be searched during a traffic stop. blacks were twice as likely to be arrested and blacks were nearly four times as likely to experience a threat or use of force during the interaction with police. this is why i'm in support of the ending racial profiling act

because police officers we are empowered with a term called discretion of powers. the way we use that discretion of powers some officers choose and i would like to think by being fair and impartial, but others use it simply because they want to do selective policing. that's what i've determined racial profiling to be is selective policing. you take the law, or portions of the law and you use it to justify your actions. i challenge any of those officers, achieve my accomplishment and use community policing. that is a term that we used when we empowered the community to work with law enforcement to determine solutions for their problems. it's their problem because i don't live there. as a deputy commander i command my officers to go to the neighborhood association meetings and listen to the people. and then bring those solutions back and together we'll find a solution. i ask that congress do the same

with the racial profiling act. meet with the people and find out the problem and bring back solutions from the people and i guarantee you -- i guarantee you we'll come up with a solution that will end racial profiling. thank you. [ applause ] >> in addition to our congressional champions, senator carden, congressman conyers and of course senator durbin, we're also very grateful to the other members of congress who testified this morning. congressman ellison, congressman woman judy chu, gutierrez and congresswoman wilson were all extraordinary speakers this morning and we appreciate that they took the time to come to the senate to testify. unfortunately they couldn't come back for the press conference. but i believe that all of our other speakers are willing and available to take questions if there are any from the