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"Hamtramck fails to pass anti-profiling ordinace"
ARAB AMERICAN NEWS (Dearborn, Michigan)
http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Community&article=468
Saturday, 12.15.2007
The Hamtramck City Council did not pass an ordinance brought to vote Tuesday that would prohibit police from profiling people based on their appearance, immigration status or other factors, because they said what they had in front of them was the wrong version of the measure they intended to vote on....
"Today is a sad day," said council member Abdul Algazali, who voted in favor of the ordinance along with two other members despite the discrepancy between it and the original version. He said that whatever was taken out could be added later in an amendment. Two council members and Mayor Karen Majewski voted against the ordinance citing the unexpected changes, leaving the vote tied at three.
"It's going to be hard," said Algazali, to pass any version of the ordinance next year. "That's it, we lost," he said.
He said he expected Councilman Scott Klein—who said at the meeting that the city already has a policy against discrimination—and others who often vote in common with him, to find other reasons to vote against an anti-profiling ordinance in the future.
But in an email sent by Klein to civil rights advocates and several ACCESS employees the day after the meeting, he indicated that he would vote for the original version.
"I am committed to passing this ordinance for a number of different reason(s). First and foremost because I am a gay man who knows exactly what it is like to suffer discrimination. I look forward to the day when my brothers and sisters fully enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship, and do not suffer discrimination," the email read.
The council is scheduled to meet again on January 8.
Several residents and representatives from various civil rights groups spoke in favor of the ordinance at the meeting in the packed council chambers.
Algazali said it was made clear by all but one person who spoke that the community favors the measure.
"We heard it in this chamber and we hear it in the streets," Algazali said. "We have to have tolerance in the city of Hamtramck."
He said that in addition to preventing discrimination, the ordinance would actually help law enforcement.
"It will make the residents of the city feel at ease to call the police and communicate with police without fearing that the police will ask them about their immigration status."
Former councilman John Justewicz spoke at the hearing against the ordinance, saying it would make things harder for police.
"You have to have some avenue of identifying the people you want to get," he said. "Without that ability, you might as well open the door and say 'do whatever you want.' "
Justewicz said he once worked security for the airport, where he was trained by Israeli experts to consider appearances and behaviors when screening for possible threats....
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