Cardin: Brown’s ‘needless death’ shows racial profiling bill needed

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) used a jury’s decision not to indict a police officer after shooting and killing an unarmed black teen, to call for passage of his legislation that aims to address racial profiling. 

“I urge Attorney General [Eric] Holder to take immediate action to revise the Justice Department’s guidance so that once and for all racial profiling is prohibited at all levels of law enforcement,” Cardin said Tuesday. “For a more permanent fix, Congress should take up and pass my legislation, the End Racial Profiling Act.”

{mosads}Cardin’s comments came after a Missouri grand jury on Monday night decided not to charge police officer Darren Wilson in the racially charged shooting death of Michael Brown. Violent protests progressed throughout the night despite calls from President Obama and the Brown family for peaceful demonstrations.

Cardin’s bill would support programs to educate law enforcement officials in the differences between suspect descriptions and racial profiling, though Brown was later identified in surveillance footage as the suspect who stole cigars from a store.

Although the Michael Brown case is closed in Missouri, the Department of Justice is still conducting its own investigation.

“I encourage the Justice Department to continue its civil rights investigation into this case and its broader probe of the Ferguson Police Department,” Cardin said.