Rebuked Sheriff Halts Black Crackdown : Apologizes for Ordering Routine Stops in White Neighborhoods

Under rebuke, a sheriff today canceled his order that deputies routinely stop and question blacks found in white neighborhoods.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee opened a news conference by apologizing to black people and anyone else he may have offended. In announcing plans Tuesday for a holiday crackdown on burglaries, he had remarked that blacks in mostly white neighborhoods are likely “up to no good.”

Lee said deputies in his suburban New Orleans parish would continue to stop anyone they might reasonably suspect of having committed a crime.

Then he answered critics who had called him a racist, saying he has been involved in the civil rights struggle for 20 years.

“I am a minority and I know intimately what prejudice is, having been a victim of it for most of my life,” said Lee, a Chinese-American.

Martha Kegel, executive director of the Louisiana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, had earlier called for Lee’s resignation, calling him “a despicable bigot.”

“For a public official in 1986 to tell black people that, because of their race . . . there are certain neighborhoods that they cannot enter without being questioned is tantamount to advocating apartheid.”

Lee had drawn fire after his Tuesday news conference for remarks such as: “If you live in a predominantly white neighborhood and two blacks are in a car behind you, there’s a pretty good chance they’re up to no good.”

Lee said Tuesday that $10,000 to $15,000 in overtime had been approved for stepped-up patrols in which 45 uniformed and plainclothes officers would cruise residential areas and commercial parking lots.

“It is not our intent to harass anybody, black or white,” said Lee, 54. “I’m apologizing in advance for that happening.”

The sheriff said his statistics indicated that 79% of all robberies in November were committed by blacks and that 73% of all burglary victims were white.