Racial Profiling Does Not Exist?

There was a very interesting opinion piece concerning racial profiling in USA Today
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/our-view-on-law-enforcement-eliminating-racial-profiling-remains-a-work-in-progress----though-cambridge-case-is-an-ab.html#more. It’s worth reading the entire opinion but I’ll highlight a couple paragraphs.

In one highly publicized case a decade ago, two New Jersey state troopers wounded three unarmed black men after shooting into their car during a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the ensuing uproar, the state found that when blacks and Hispanics were pulled over on the turnpike, they were three times as likely as whites to be subjected to searches. Reversing years of denial, the state attorney general admitted what minorities had contended for years, that disparate treatment was "real, not imagined."
New Jersey's experience, and federal cases in seven jurisdictions from California to Pennsylvania, should have virtually ended racial profiling. But you can't solve a problem unless you admit it exists, and too many law enforcement officials have been in denial. Study after study has documented the same divisive trends. In Illinois, a report this month found that last year, minorities were more likely to be subjected to certain searches than whites, even though police were more likely to find contraband in the vehicles of white drivers. In New York City, a disproportionate number of minorities stopped by police since 2005 were frisked; the yield of weapons or contraband was minuscule.

Now, despite all of those studies that the opinion piece referenced, despite all of that evidence, there is someone who believes that it’s not true. His name is Chuck Canterbury, who is the president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. In his mind, racial profiling just doesn’t happen. Here’s a paragraph from his opposing opinion piece: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/opposing-view-profiling-does-not-happen----theres-no-evidence-that-racism-is-a-systemic-problem-in-police-forces.html

Racial profiling is not a legitimate law enforcement tool, and there is no evidence that prejudice is a systemic problem in U.S. law enforcement. Racial profiling cannot exist unless police executives allow it — unless a whole department tolerates it — and that just does not happen today. Unfortunately, because of past injustices, minority group members sometimes assume that any routine stop of a minority is racial profiling, an assumption that a white driver in the same circumstances is unlikely to make.

It's strange that he can't see what's directly in front of his face. Racial profiling does still exist. Ask a black male. Ask an Arabic man. The first thing Chuck Canterbury should do is to acknowledge that the problem still exists. Then, the police can really get to the business of changing the system.