Gwinnett Daily Post

Letters to the editor
December 9, 2009

LETTERS: Racial profiling not apparent in 287(g) program

I take issue with the statements of almost everyone in Sunday’s article “Forum decries 287(g),” (Dec. 6 Page 1A).

As an attorney who represents clients of every racial background, I would love to be able to go to court and prove that my client was a victim of racial profiling. However, I do not see anything racial about the 287(g) program.

The cop first has to charge the defendant with a valid offense — speeding, DUI or whatever. Then, and only then, when the defendant is booked into the jail, does the sheriff’s staff enter his or her information into the computer so that the federal authorities are alerted that Joe Schmoe has been arrested.

It is my opinion that those claiming “racial profiling” are doing a tremendous disservice to the public at large by offering them the hope of using “racial profiling” as a potential defense when his or her case goes to court.

— Charles W. Field

Attorney at Law

Lawrenceville

Our laws aren’t made for select enforcement

I read the article in Sunday’s paper concerning Gwinnett’s 287(g) program (“Forum decries 287(g),” Dec. 6, Page 1A). What is it that some people, including the ACLU, don’t understand about the word “illegal?”

A person in this great country illegally needs to be “justly booted” from the United States and either apply to enter legally if this is where he or she wants to live and raise a family or stay in his or her homeland.

Thank you, Sheriff Butch Conway, for assuring that Gwinnett County enforces immigration laws.

It seems to me that some folks along with the ACLU are saying it is OK to break laws as long as it is one they agree with.

— Kurt Wegener
Lawrenceville

HERE

Original news report:

Gwinnett Daily Post — Lawrenceville, Ga.

Forum decries 287(g)

Azadeh Shahshahani roused a crowd to chanting anti-racist slogans in the gymnasium of Saint Lawrence Catholic Church on Saturday, an interpreter at her side. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia leader blasted racial profiling against all races. She called the 287(g) program, initiated three weeks ago in Gwinnett…

HERE