Nation - Tennessee Nashville residents speak out on racial profiling

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Latina woman whose children were taken away by the state and a Kurdish man who fell under FBI suspicion after 9/11 were two of the people who gave testimony last week on the effects of racial profiling by law enforcement in Nashville. Karwan Abdulkader began crying immediately upon taking the podium to tell of his heartbreak at being interrogated by the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Abdulkader told of escaping "the tyranny of Sadaam Hussein" in Iraq as a young child for a better life in America. "I'm forever thankful to America. I owe my life to America," he said. But he also spoke of a growing disillusionment as he watched the government of his country mimic some of the repression of the country he left behind. The racial profiling hearing was the last in a series of six across the country organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Rights Working Group. The nonprofit is compiling a report that it hopes to use to bolster support for the End Racial Profiling Act in Congress and for opposition to local enforcement of immigration laws through programs such as 287(g) and Secure Communities. Several people gave public testimony before a panel of commissioners who asked questions while others were allowed to testify anonymously in an adjoining room. One anonymous testimony, taken in advance, was read to the commissioners by one of the organizers. Although the woman was not named, the details of the story unmistakably identified her as Maria Gurrola, a Latina woman whose 4-day-old baby was kidnapped last year after she was repeatedly stabbed by a woman claiming to be an immigration agent. The baby was found unharmed three days later and returned to her, only to be taken into state custody along with her three other children when the woman accused in the kidnapping claimed Gurrola had sold the baby to her. All of her children were returned a few days later, but Gurrola said she believes they would not have been taken had she been white. She said the result is that her children are in therapy and she still hears hateful comments from people who tell her to go back to her home country of Mexico. Patricia Stokes, executive director of Nashville's Urban League, told of riding along on a police patrol and seeing the different way traffic violators were treated. A white man was let go without the officer running a check on his license while a black woman driving a car with three black youth had her license checked. It was determined that it had been recently suspended and there was a question whether the woman was aware of the suspension, but officers ran a check of the passengers and brought a drug dog to search the car. They found nothing and the group was let go. She said police need to be consistent, and she was surprised that they weren't even when they knew they were being observed. Rachel Jackson described being married to a Mexican man who was illegally in the country until a year ago. Before he earned legal residency, he was arrested for being a passenger in a car that police claimed was moving erratically. Although all charges were dropped, he was deported and the subsequent legal battle "ruined us financially," she said. "I lost my job, I had to file for bankruptcy. My daughter had to come out of college," she said. Jackson said the experience haunts her whole family. "He used to be outgoing. He doesn't go anywhere anymore," Jackson said of her husband. Published: Tue, Jul 27, 2010

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