Tuesday, 2 December 2014

US attorney general calls for end to racial profiling


US attorney general calls for end to racial profiling

Protesters disrupt speech in Ebenezer Baptist Church during a forum titled "The Community Speaks" in Atlanta, Georgia December 1, 2014Protesters chanted slogans and waved banners during the attorney general's speech in Atlanta
US Attorney General Eric Holder has announced plans to "help end racial profiling once and for all".
He was speaking in Atlanta in the wake of mass protests surrounding the shooting dead of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white policeman.
Mr Holder was speaking at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where Martin Luther King preached.
President Barack Obama has requested funds to improve training and provide body cameras for the police.
The shooting of Mr Brown in August in Ferguson, Missouri, has reignited tension over relations between young African-Americans and the police.
Most of Ferguson's police are white, while the town's residents are mainly black.
A grand jury's decision last week not to charge police officer Darren Wilson over Mr Brown's death sparked violence across the US.
A mass walkout was held on Monday as employees stopped work and students left classes.
'Occupying force'
Mr Holder was in Atlanta to meet law enforcement officials and community leaders at the request of President Obama.
In a speech during a forum titled "The Community Speaks", Mr Holder said that the police cannot be seen as an "occupying force". The issue, he said, was larger than just the police in the community.
"Our overall system of justice must be strengthened and it must be made more fair," he said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Ebenezer Baptist Church during a forum titled "The Community Speaks" in Atlanta, Georgia December 1, 2014Mr Holder spoke at a church where civil rights leader Martin Luther King once preached
Darren Wilson undergoing a medical examination after the shooting (undated) A grand jury decided not to charge police officer Darren Wilson
A family snapshot of Michael BrownTeenager Michael Brown was shot dead in August
Mr Holder said he would update department of justice guidance on racial profiling by federal law enforcement.
"This will institute rigorous new standards and robust safeguards to help end racial profiling once and for all," he said, to applause and cheering from the audience.
However his speech was disrupted by protesters who shouted slogans and waved placards calling for "an end to police murder".
Racial profiling involves police using a person's ethnicity as a factor in deciding whether to take action.
line
Post-Ferguson plan
Police camera
  • more appropriate use of military equipment by police
  • 50,000 body cameras (pictured above) to record interactions
  • task force to build a "sustained conversation" across the US   bbc

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