Congressman Wants Ban on Profiling

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Congressman Wants Ban on Profiling

A black congressman who claims he was racially profiled by Chicago police last month pushed for legislation Thursday that would ban the practice.

Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., called racial profiling "one of the most sinister issues that exists in American life."

In November, two white officers pulled Davis over and gave him a traffic ticket alleging he swerved over the center line, which Davis denied doing.

"I know that I'm getting up in age a little bit, but I'm not so old that if I weave, I don't know that I'm weaving," Davis, 66, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. The real reason he was pulled over, Davis asserted, was that he and three other black men were in a car on a deserted street after midnight.

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Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007, joined by Davis and Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. The bill would ban federal, state and local law enforcement agencies from using racial profiling, such as "relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion" during investigatory activities.

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