Say what?: "National ACLU accuses black Mississippi mayor of racial profiling"
Here is a black mayor who won 88 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Accusing him of racism seems beyond words to try explaining.
The national American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday accused the city's black mayor of civil rights violations including racial profiling in his crusade to stem crime in Mississippi's capital city.
The accusations against Mayor Frank Melton and police are based on complaints from people who say they were pulled over on the basis of their race and searched without probable cause, the ACLU's national racial profiling coordinator, King Downing, said at a news conference. . . . .
However, Melton said in an interview Tuesday that he wasn't interested in the ACLU's complaints against him or the police, and denied he had violated anyone's civil rights.
"We have 26 people that have been killed in Jackson this year. We have 300,000 people killed across America each year. The majority of them are African-American and it's time to do something different," Melton said. "I want to know what the ACLU wants to do besides criticize."
Melton took office last July after winning 88% of the vote on a tough-on-crime platform. . . . .
The accusations against Mayor Frank Melton and police are based on complaints from people who say they were pulled over on the basis of their race and searched without probable cause, the ACLU's national racial profiling coordinator, King Downing, said at a news conference. . . . .
However, Melton said in an interview Tuesday that he wasn't interested in the ACLU's complaints against him or the police, and denied he had violated anyone's civil rights.
"We have 26 people that have been killed in Jackson this year. We have 300,000 people killed across America each year. The majority of them are African-American and it's time to do something different," Melton said. "I want to know what the ACLU wants to do besides criticize."
Melton took office last July after winning 88% of the vote on a tough-on-crime platform. . . . .
posted by John Lott at 5:52 AM
1 Comments:
Sure government can be abusive, and we want to be careful that people's rights are protected. But isn't fighting crime one of the areas that we generally want government to help protect us? Obviously people are also responsible for their own protection, but the types of searches that we are talking about here can't be done by private citizens. Can they? What evidence is there that Melton is abusing people's rights? Surely what evidence is there that the mayor is behaving in a racist manner?
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