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2004 Utah L. Rev. 913 (2004)
New Risks, New Tactics: An Assessment of the Re-Assessment of Racial Profiling in the Wake of Septmeber 11, 2001

handle is hein.journals/utahlr2004 and id is 923 raw text is: New Risks, New Tactics: An Assessment of the Re-Assessment of Racial Profiling in the Wake of September 11, 2001 David A. Harris* The terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, dramatically shifted the public dialogue across a whole range of issues. Gone were discussions of reform of the education system, further tax cuts, or a change in relations with Mexico vis-d-vis immigration issues. All of these issues were replaced by an almost unidirectional focus on the terrorist attacks-how they had happened, who had carried them out and why, and how we should respond. Given the enormity of the events, this was surely the only way things could have been. We were faced with the huge, multifaceted problem of assuring our security and safety in a world that suddenly seemed much more dangerous than we had thought. At the same time, our emotions, both individually and collectively, became rivers of fear, horror, anger, grief, and outrage. Yet there was one issue that predated September 11, 2001, that stayed very much on the public's mind-as much or more a part of the public discussion in the United States after that terrible day than it had been in the weeks and months before. That issue, of course, was racial profiling-using racial or ethnic characteristics as part of a profile to decide who seems suspicious enough to merit law enforcement's attention in the form of stops, questioning, searches, or other investigatory steps. Racial profiling had been a top concern of the American public for at least two years leading up to September of 2001. And the public had actually reached a strong consensus against the practice.' For example, in fall of 1999, a Gallup poll asked opinions on racial profiling (defined as the police practice of stopping drivers belonging to particular racial or ethnic groups because police believe that that these groups are more likely to commit certain crimes).2 Fully eighty-one percent of those polled-not just blacks and Latinos and other minorities, but eighty-one *Balk Professor of Law and Values, University of Toledo College of Law; author, PROFILES IN INJUSTICE: WHY RACIAL PROFILING CANNOT WORK (2002). My thanks to the editors of the Utah Law Review and to Professor Erik Luna of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah for bringing this symposium together and for running it in a highly organized, professional way. It was the best-run symposium it has ever been my privilege to be involved in, and a real credit to the S.J. Quinney College of Law. 'Frank Newport, Racial Profiling Is Seen as Widespread, Particularly Among Young Black Men, GALLUP POLL, Dec. 9, 1999. I thank Professor Sam Gross for pointing me to the correct numbers in the poll, which are stronger than others I had used previously. 21d.

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