Barry Arrest: Hooks Asks if It Was Racist : Civil rights: Saying he is not trying to justify wrongdoing, the NAACP leader added that he is concerned about possible selective enforcement.

The head of the NAACP today questioned whether the cocaine arrest of District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was part of a pattern of harassment of elected black officials and “the rising tide of racism in this nation.”

NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks commented to reporters after meeting for the second time in two weeks with President Bush on the recent wave of bombings and threats against civil rights targets in the South.

Hooks, who led a delegation of 17 NAACP leaders to the White House, said afterward he was “fairly satisfied” with the Administration’s actions in the case.

Hooks said the delegation and Bush did not discuss Barry’s arrest at a Washington hotel last Thursday night. The President has had no comment on it, except to say Sunday that it was “very sad.”

“I’m not trying to justify any wrongdoing” or condone use of cocaine, Hooks said, but “I am opposed to selective enforcement of the law.”

The NAACP leader said newspaper accounts of Barry’s arrest in an FBI sting operation made it sound as if “the search had finally paid off. We spent all of these years trying to find him with a grain of cocaine, and by God we did it, didn’t we?”

“We haven’t found all the people who’ve stolen all the money from the savings and loan associations and are driving Rolls-Royces and Jaguars, so obviously many of us in the black community will have some peculiar feelings as we go further,” said Hooks.

A reporter then asked: “You’re not saying it’s wrong to bring somebody to justice for violating the law, are you, Dr. Hooks?”

“No, I think you ought to bring everybody to justice for violating the law,” he replied. “That would have meant most of us here would be arrested for speeding, spitting on the sidewalk or something. If we can afford to do it, let’s do it.

“I simply said that there will be in the minds of many blacks the continued feeling that there has been undue harassment of black elected officials. To the extent that that fits into this conference, the rising tide of racism in this nation, it is something we want to examine,” Hooks said.

Hooks also visited the White House on Jan. 9 to discuss the wave of bombings and threats against civil rights targets in the South. Accompanying him this time were 16 other officials, including Dr. William F. Gibson, a Greenville, S.C., dentist and chairman of the NAACP board.

Also attending the meeting were Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh and FBI Director William S. Sessions.