NAACP Chicago South Side Discusses Report to Prevent Police Brutality

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, May 27, 2015

L-R John Clark, president/CEO, Reggio's Pizza, Inc.; Criminal Justice Specialist for the Criminal Justice Division of the NAACP National office Carlton T. Mayers, II and NAACP Chicago Southside Vice President Brenda Sheriff.
L-R John Clark, president/CEO, Reggio's Pizza, Inc.; Criminal Justice Specialist for the Criminal Justice Division of the NAACP National office Carlton T. Mayers, II and NAACP Chicago Southside Vice President Brenda Sheriff. Photo by Lee Edwards.

Racial profiling. It’s a hot topic and a problem that is constantly debated locally, nationally, perhaps even internationally, yet there never seems to be a rock solid solution or answer to the issue.

But the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Chicago Southside Branch is trying. The organization held its first series of solution based presentations addressing racial profiling perpetrated by law enforcement officers at Reformation Lutheran Church, 11310 S. Forest Ave.

Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People fights for the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.

NAACP Chicago Southside Branch Vice President Brenda Sheriff called the presentation a “prevention and empowering forum” and that African Americans must know their rights.

“The purpose of this presentation is to inform people of what their rights are and that if these critical incidents do occur they don’t go out of hand,” said Sheriff. “People don’t know what their rights when they’re being stopped and as a result things get escalated far beyond they really should be.”

Criminal Justice Specialist for the Criminal Justice Division of the NAACP National office, Carlton T. Mayers, II, spoke during the session about how the African American community can decrease the number of deadly encounters with law enforcement officers. Mayers’ presentation referenced the NAACP’s comprehensive report on police profiling, “Born Suspect”.

Published in Sept. 2014, Born Suspect is a multi-faceted report that frames the police brutality narrative, offers victim demographic statistics, possible public policy solutions and highlights failed racial profiling initiatives. Born Suspect defines racial profiling as law enforcement targeting individuals as suspicious based on a set of characteristics they believe to be association with crime, rather than credible evidence or information linking a specific type of person to a specific criminal incident.

“It seems like everyone has been putting so much energy into doing something after the fact, after someone has been killed or brutalized by law enforcement,” said Mayers. “The focus has been shifted to what we are going to do after the fact to what do we do to prevent more of these incidents from occurring going forward.”

Mayers said that although African Americans and other minorities have been racially profiled, there is little research on how pervasive the crisis is nationwide.

“We do not have enough data, not just national but on a state and local level,” said Mayers. “Why is that? Because a lot of law enforcement agencies don’t want to participate, they don’t want to voluntarily provided the data or even put it on their websites and there’s no law in place in a lot of places that requires them do that. You end up having all of these incidents occurring and no information on it.”

Mayers noted that the Obama Administration working alongside the U.S. Department of Justice released the Task Force on 21st Century Policing program to tackle racial profiling head-on. Mayers was invited to contribute his thoughts on addressing racial profiling on an expert White House panel.

Sheriff feels it is important that the community remains keenly aware that the issue of racial profiling affects women, just as much as it affects men. “African American males have already been born suspects and targets. Now, it’s the African American women. It’s a community issue…its responsibility, rights mean nothing without responsibility, she said.”

To learn more about the program visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/18/fact-sheet-creating-opportunity-all-through-stronger-safer-communities.

For additional information about upcoming NAACP Chicago Southside events call (773) 429-9830.

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