DRUM Local Survey Launch during Rights Working Group’s National Week of Action to End Racial Profiling
Press Advisory
September 29, 2010
Contact: Monami Maulik (347) 385-9113, Suzanne Adely (773)510-7446
NYC Communities Take Action to Address
Anti-Muslim Backlash
WHEN: Friday, October 1, 2010 from 9:00am – 6:00pm
WHERE: DRUM Office: 72-18 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Queens, NY- On Friday October 1st, Queens residents will launch a city-wide campaign to survey Muslim communities in order to end anti-Muslim backlash and racial profiling. The “Day of Outreach to End Backlash” is being organized by DRUM-Desis Rising Up & Moving as part of a ‘National Week of Action to End Racial Profiling’ coordinated by the Rights Working Group in Washington D.C. DRUM is a community organization of low-income, South Asian/Muslim immigrants in New York City organizing for local and national civil and immigrant rights. The local action is part of national support for the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA, HR5748) introduced in Congress this year.
Members of DRUM- Muslim students, workers, and residents- will conduct a “Day of Outreach to End Backlash” launching the collection of hundreds of community surveys on law enforcement interactions with the Muslim community. The data will be compiled and presented to policy makers, the NYPD, and FBI to urge changes in practices and policy towards greater accountability.
Recent escalation of backlash on the Muslim community in NYC, including an attack on a mosque and cab driver, have coalesced with law enforcement policies that are allowing for racial targeting and discrimination. These misguided policies include: Anti-radicalization initiatives in the Muslim community of the FBI and NYPD, Secure Communities programs, violations of Executive Order 41 protecting immigration status, and over-policing in public schools. Nationally, recent FBI raids, including on a prominent Muslim American community leader in Chicago, indicate a disturbing trend towards criminalizing Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations and individuals advocating for community rights.
National Press Alert:
For Immediate release
VOICES FROM COMMUNITIES ACROSS AMERICA:
The Impact of Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling
September 27, 2010 – Today, DRUM, many local organizations, and Rights Working Group released a report demonstrating the need to address racial, ethnic, religious and national origin profiling across the country and finding that the patchwork of laws dealing with racial profiling have created a system that is too burdensome for victims of profiling to navigate. Faces of Racial Profiling: A report from communities across the America gives voice to some of these individuals by featuring testimonies from the Face the Truth hearings.
“It happens once, it’s okay. You don’t think about it. The second time, you start scratching your head; what’s happening here, you know? You shouldn’t be looked at by the color of your skin or the accent or where you’re from… For the third time, you gotta think there is racial profiling in Maine. If you haven’t done anything wrong, why should they ask you for immigration status or where you’re from or anything like that?”
-Xaviar Morales, witness, Portland, Maine hearing
Stories from communities around the country that have faced the humiliating practice of racial profiling underscore the need to stop racial profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement officers. The report gives concrete recommendations for federal state and local governments to combat racial profiling in all of its forms.
“When you are profiled, it totally takes away your peace of mind. It totally takes away how you respond to things in the future.”
–Jolanda Jones, Houston City Council Member, discussing the stories of her own and her sons’ experiences being profiled
Though Constitutional protections and federal laws relevant to racial profiling exist, there are major hurdles to file complaints and access the courts. An individual cannot just file suit in a case of alleged racial profiling but is forced to sue the entire institution, creating an almost insurmountable obstacle for people to look towards the judicial system for help. While the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division attempts to provide an avenue for change that can have a larger impact on communities, like the temporary injunction against SB1070, it has limited capacity to respond to complaints and initiate investigations.
“How can I, a U.S, citizen, an American, a person that owes his life to this country and a lover of this nation, be accused of the most heinous acts its ever seen. I knew that the only reason I was questioned is because of who I am, where I’m from, and the last name they saw. They didn’t see the terrified, innocent, high school student who had not committed any crime, they only saw a Muslim from the Middle East and automatically I’m a terrorist… I guess it’s not rocket science anymore to find terrorist, just target only Muslims and you have yourself terrorists.”
-Karwan Abdulkader, witness, Nashville hearing
In the absence of clear national policies to eliminate racial profiling, some states and local jurisdictions have implemented laws to try and fill the gap. Where they exist, Laws vary in their intent, prohibitions and effectiveness, creating a patchwork that can vary drastically from state to state and even city to city.
“… what’s troubling to me is that we saw we’re afraid to lean on law enforcement, or call upon law enforcement, when we are the very people that they’re there to serve and protect us. And so there appears to be a level of dysfunction, if you will, and I think as a community, as a state, as a country, we have a fundamental responsibility to fix that. Because certainly, our objectives, or the goal is certainly not to be against law enforcement, but we need to work with law enforcement so that these types of practices don’t occur anymore.”
-Dolores Escobar, witness, Los Angeles
The report documents the impact of racial profiling and the experiences of affected communities. It examines the current legal framework of profiling and its gaps. And makes recommendations to eliminate those gaps in order to end the pervasive, ineffective and unlawful use of racial profiling in America. In conjunction with this report, Rights Working Group and Breakthrough, a global human rights organization, released a video, Face the Truth: Racial Profiling Across America, documenting the impact of racial profiling on victims and communities. To view video please go to: http://www.vimeo.com/15232640.
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