Letters to the Editor
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GOP Activists Fretting State May Get Short Shrift
The lack of interest the official GOP apparatus has in local candidates is unfortunate and foolish [“GOP Activists in New York Fretting State May Be Getting Short Shrift,” Josh Gerstein, Page One, September 23, 2004].
The Republicans have the potential to lose a congressional seat upstate and a few state Senate seats this year. And while the GOP is only three seats away from a position of relevance in the state Assembly – 50 votes are needed to uphold the governor’s vetoes – in New York City alone 20 Democratic Assembly members are running unopposed.
These include incumbents in reliably conservative areas such as Maspeth, Queens, and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Even Speaker Sheldon Silver, perhaps the most unpopular politician in recent state history, is running without a Republican challenger in his Lower Manhattan district.
Last month, the Republican National Convention was held in the heart of Manhattan, drawing thousands of metropolitanarea Republicans out of the woodwork to paint signs, give tours, and answer questions. But so far, the local and state GOP have not capitalized on the enthusiasm of this group to wave the Republican banner in their own neighborhoods.
Those Republican leaders who want to maintain the status quo can pin their hopes to an unlikely Bush win in New York state. Those who are genuinely committed to change and renewal can instead focus their energies on winnable races at the local level, which can restore at least the semblance of a two-party Empire State.
MATTHEW BAER
Manhattan
‘To Profile or Not To Profile?’
I would like to respond to professor Daniel Pipes’s criticism of Amnesty International’s recent report on racial profiling in America [“To Profile or Not To Profile?” Foreign, September 21, 2004]. Many of the cases he cites do not constitute racial profiling; they are legitimate police responses to genuinely suspicious behavior.
We take no issue with cases such as that of Abdallah Higazy or that of Ayub Ali Khan. Our concerns arise when the police, or immigration officials, or security personnel at airports are more concerned about what someone looks like than about what they are doing.
Take the case of Nathaniel Heatwole, a white college student from Maryland. He managed to smuggle box-cutters and bleach onto several airplanes in 2003, provoking an embarrassed investigation of airport security procedures. But an 8-year-old boy named Omar Rana was pulled out of the line at Tulsa airport in 2001. In their zeal to make sure he was not about to carry out a crime, airport guards pulled apart his wooden toy car, which he had built for a Boy Scout competition.
We also document markedly increased police harassment of immigrant food vendors on New York streets because the vendors, who frequently hail from South Asia and Africa, are now associated in some people’s minds with “terrorism.”
Racial profiling simply does not work as a policing strategy. As our report makes clear, over reliance on racial profiling leaves the public exposed to potential acts of violence by people who do not fit the profile.
Your readers would do well actually to read our report, “Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States,” in order to understand what we mean by racial profiling in contrast to Mr. Pipes’s misleading summary of our findings.
JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN
Northeast Regional Director Amnesty International USA
Somerville, Mass.
Slain Officers Like Family
I was greatly saddened when I heard that Detective Patrick Rafferty, age 39, and Detective Robert [“Bobby”] Parker, age 43, were killed in the line of duty in Flatbush, Brooklyn [“Man To Be Charged In Police Killings,” Aaron Smith, New York, September 13, 2004].
Here is the interesting thing: It was reported that the two cops were like family to the mother of the suspected killer, for they really cared and were concerned for her safety from a abusive son.
It was said that Rafferty was a top-notch cop, but, more than that, he was a family man and left behind three children he cared very much about. Then there was Parker, who was a fixture in Brooklyn and beloved as a gentle giant who kept watch over East Flatbush.
Apparently, this was not just a job to these men; they truly cared for the community they served in. To serve and protect meant a lot to these men and these were not just words: They truly walked the walk.
Our prayers go out to their families, and let me say this also: We thank you, Detectives Rafferty and Parker, for what you tried to do to help make this a safer city. You were “True Blue.”
FREDERICK R. BEDELL JR.
Little Neck, N.Y.
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