Racial Profiling
Re “N.J. Agrees to End Race Profiling by Troopers,” Dec. 23: President Clinton says that racial and ethnic profiling by police is “morally indefensible” and “deeply corrosive”; L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks says that police rationally target those groups that commit the most crime. Probably both are correct.
Many effective crime-reduction tactics are incompatible with American values. Racial and ethnic profiling should be eliminated not because they are ineffective but because they are wrong--just as government-mandated racial and ethnic preferences are wrong (morally indefensible and deeply corrosive).
DON SYMONS
Santa Barbara
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
