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Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Mon Jan 03, 2005 at 05:23:25 PM EST
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Racial profiling is alive and well in Denton, Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News which conducted an independent study. Its key finding:

The lieutenant over Denton County's traffic enforcement unit wrote 86 percent of his tickets to people with Hispanic surnames during the last two years, an analysis by The Dallas Morning News has found.....Overall, the members of the traffic unit have issued citations to people with Hispanic names about 50 percent of the time, records show.

Grits for Breakfast has additional details and analysis, including this observation:

Part of the problem appears to be that the traffic unit is targeting Mexican truckers, either suspecting them of drug trafficking, out of racial profiling, or for some other reason.

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    Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas | 4 comments (4 topical)
    Re: Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Jan 03, 2005 at 05:42:09 PM EST
    "Hispanic surnames" - Isn't that racial profiling? I can understand why they'd pull over a lot of Mexican truckers. I bet they pull over a lot of Boston drivers too. I'm talking Evil Knevil meets Deathwish. -C

    Re: Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas (none / 0) (#2)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Mon Jan 03, 2005 at 11:31:08 PM EST
    Aww darn...I was hoping you would say something about how easy it is to spot an 18-wheeler lowrider. You are slipping, Cliff! :P

    Re: Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 05:55:51 AM EST
    Ernesto - Actually our local Lowrider club (NC has the fastest growing Hispanic population in the US) is multi-cultural now. I took my oldest son to their show at the fairgrounds and, while they haven't figured out how to bounce an 18 wheeler, they did have a dancing duelly. Amazing. -C

    Re: Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Tue Jan 04, 2005 at 07:38:01 AM EST
    My uncle moved to Denton, and he told a funny story about his first trip to the liquor store. I'll skip to the punchline..."Ya'll ain't from around here are ya" Not surprising.

    Racial Profiling in Denton, Texas | 4 comments (4 topical)