ACLU Honors Meyerson, Warns Against Profiling

Lotte Meyerson receives Civil Liberties Award

When Lotte Strauss was born in 1922, her parents, Meier and Else—a typical German Jewish family of small-business owners—had no idea what the future would bring. By the time Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime passed the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that restricted the freedoms of Jews to work, own businesses, and attend public schools and universities, they had a clear vision of what was to come. It took two more years for them to make all the arrangements they needed, and they ended up selling out at a loss, but in 1937 the Strauss family left Germany and settled in Chicago.

After her marriage to Seymour Meyerson in 1943, Lotte began to undertake what would become her life’s vocation in promoting equal rights. “My experience in Germany sensitized me to discrimination; where were the decent Germans? There were some, but obviously not enough, and I felt challenged in this country not to remain silent in the face of inequality,” she says.

“It can’t happen here”

For the next sixty years or more—and continuing today—Lotte Meyerson
worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and a wide variety of
civil rights organizations to  combat discrimination. Last month, the
WNC chapter of the ACLU recognized that lifetime of dedication and hard
work by presenting her with the Evan Mahaney Champion of Civil Liberties
Award. The award was presented Sunday, May 22 at the annual meeting of
the local ACLU chapter, held at Temple Beth HaTephila on Liberty Street
in Asheville.

Unfortunately, and despite the work of Lotte Meyerson and thousands of
others dedicated to civil rights, and the progress we have made, it can,
and does, happen here. Throughout American history Jews, Mormons,
Catholics, atheists, and, most recently, Muslims have endured oppression
of their faith traditions (or non-belief). Black, Hispanic, Native
American, and Asian citizens have long known racial and ethnic
discrimination and unequal application of the law and of constitutional
protections.

Profiling happens widely

After Meyerson received her award, the annual meeting of the ACLU of
North Carolina began. The keynote speaker, Raul Pinto, an attorney with
the state ACLU office, addressed the growing issue of discrimination
against Hispanics.

Pinto noted that as law enforcement bodies set up highway checkpoints
for sobriety, seat-belt use, and driver’s licenses, random checks can
easily be abused. Though officially the checkpoints are set up randomly
on well-traveled roads or near “high-crime” neighborhoods, the ACLU is
concerned that they lend themselves to illegal racial profiling—the
presumption that a person’s race or ethnicity makes him or her more
likely to commit a crime. Police therefore watch members of that group
more closely and, often, apply the law more rigorously to any
infraction.

Pinto says that that is happening in North Carolina, including the
western part of the state. “Police officers and local law enforcement
agencies are making the assumption that just because you are Latino, you
are more than likely an undocumented person.”

Minority groups targeted

As a result, more Hispanics are caught and charged with crimes than non-hispanic whites, he said.

The cost of a ticket for driving without a license is approximately $185
in North Carolina. Pinto notes that most Hispanic residents, like many
blacks stopped for similar offenses, are low-income. “Most of their
income is going to go to pay these tickets. We have heard reports that
people have been stopped twice in one week because the checkpoints are
basically outside their doors.”

By setting up checkpoints in poorer neighborhoods, law enforcement
agencies can generate revenue while also leading to more serious charges
against the undocumented. According to Pinto, the ACLU has gathered
anecdotal and statistical evidence showing this practice to be the case.

Additional impacts on Hispanics

Driving infractions and other such charges can lead law enforcement
agencies to report the people they stop to the Bureau of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), and in those cases illegal status can lead
to deportation—including the break-up of families in which one spouse
has citizenship or a green card or children who were born here have
birthright citizenship.

As has long been the case in the black community, disparate law
enforcement creates mistrust between community residents and police,
making residents less likely to report more serious criminal activities.
Undocumented residents and their families frequently will not
participate in court proceedings if they have to identify themselves as
such, lest they be deported.

Another way discrimination can be subtly effected is through the random
nature of checkpoint stops. If an officer is expected to stop every
“third or fourth” vehicle, or if traffic is heavy and gets backed up
with lots of cars, it can be easy to let three or four white drivers
through and “randomly” stop only those with darker skin.

All these issues are being addressed by the ACLU of North Carolina
through its checkpoint hotline, encouraging the public to contact the
ACLU about checkpoint locations and activities. Similarly, its mapping
project seeks to determine the extent to which locations overlap with
residential patterns. The group is also tracking incidents of possible
racial profiling by analyzing the statistics collected under North
Carolina’s Racial Profiling Act, which requires officers to record
demographic information about those they stop, arrest, or ticket. And,
as always, the ACLU promotes outreach and education to ensure that
citizens—and resident aliens—know their rights.

The ACLU has worked for more than 70 years to protect the guaranteed
Constitutional rights of all citizens against encroachment by the state.
For more information contact www.aclu.org, or call 1-888-567-2258.