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'^^0/y A/c (lorn 6^9+i **C/, ||pHFrBUT?lIlJNl^^i5^ volume79-NUMBER 22 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2001 TELEPHONE (919) 682^2913 iPRICE:30 CENTS Local Law Enforcement Pulled Into Traffic Stop Requirement By Scott Mooneyham RALEIGH (AP) - For the last year and a half, lawmakers have required statewide law enforcement agencies to coUect data on the race of people pulled over during traffic slops. Now a provision put io the proposed Senate budget would expand the requirement to sheriffs departments and many of North Carolina’s po lice departments. The requirement is intended to address concerns over the possibility of "racial profiling," when officers stop black or Hispanic motorists based on the Mief they are more likely to be breaking drug or other laws. In the black community, the belief is widespread Aat young black men are more likely to be targeted in traffic stops. The Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that race alone is not enough to justi fy stopping motorists. Several states have passed laws in recent years designed to make sure racial profiling doesn’t happen. North Carolina is one of three states that collect data on the race of motorists in traffic stops. Despite the ruling and laws, numerous lawsuits have been filed all over the country due to perceptions that drivers were being stopped because of their skin color. In North Carolina, a black state trooper sued Jackson ville police last year after he was stopped while off duty. Sen. Frank Ballance, D-Warren, says no matter what the road or legal jurisdiction, motorists shouldn’t be stopped because of their race. Ballance, who sponsored the 1999 legislation that led to the collection of motorist daita, is responsible for the provision in the Senate budget to expand the effort to local law enforcement. The provision would require the information to be collected by sheriffs departments and police departments in towns with populations greater than 10,000. Police departments that employ five or more officers per ' 1,000 residents would also have to comply. The Senate budget also includes $260,000 to help collect and analyze the data. Ballance said he doesn’t doubt racial profiling is happening in some jurisdictions. "These guys think they are enforcing the drug laws," Ballance said. "They think they are doing good police work, but it’s really sorry police work, They stop a hundred motorists and get one drug arrest, but look at all the 99 you’ve inconvenienced." ^ Local law enforcement officials say they don’t see it happening. (Continued on Page 3) Durham elections agency cleanup removes 10,000 voters from roils NEW CITY MANAGER/NEW NCCU CHANCELLOR — The City of Durham held a reception for the new City Manager Marcia Connor, left. On hand for the event is A.J. Howard Clement, Mayor Pro-Tern, center; and new NCCU Chancellor Dr. James Am mons. (Photo by Lawson) Deputy Who Shot Wrong Man to Face Grand Jury in Orange County HILLSBOROUGH (AP) - A fed eral agent who shot an unarmed man he mistook for a fugitive out side a Chapel Hill restaurant March 12 mav face assault charges. Legal Pioneer Leaves Academia to Focus on Desegregation Case CHARLOTTE (AP) - More than 30 years after he first told the Supreme Court that busing was the only way to desegregate Charlotte’s schools, Julius Cham- liers has rejoined the legal battle for equal education. Chambers, 64, has spent the last eight years as chancellor of North Carolina Central University in Durham. He was replaced June 1 by James H. Am mons and is returning to the law firm he founded and the desegregation case. "1 still believe you can’t have a quality education with an all-white or an all-black school," he said. "If you want to teach children not just how to read and write, but also how to live in an integrated society, you’ve got to have schools that are integrated." Chambers’ firm - Ferguson, Stein, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham, & Sumter - represents two black parents' who, with the Charloite-Mecklenburg school system, ^gue busing is still needed to desegregate the school system. Chambers was among lawyers who, in the 1960s,! sought fair access to education in Charlotte schools. The Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that the district! could use mandatory busing to create integrated^ classrooms. The debate was rekindled two years ago when a group of white parents sued the school system, saying busing and other race-based policies were no longer needed. The case is pending in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Chambers said he’s not sure yet what role he’ll play. ^e’ve made a lot of progress, but I had hoped we "huld be much further on by now," he said. "We continue to bring people together and break own the barrier of segregation. In Charlotte, busing ‘s still the only way to do that." Chambers was born and raised in Mount Gilead, in central North Carolina. He decided to become a \aw- yorat the age of 12 after his father, an automobile j**echanic, couldn’t get any of the white lawyers in own to sue a white customer who refused to pay. ^ H wasn’t right," Chambers said. "I decided then to a career that would change it." His education took him from the University of Wm Carolina at Chapel Hill - where he was ftiai in ,^ law class and the first black editor of the law - to Columbia University in New York. Back in Charlotte, he founded the state’s first inter racial law firm and took on a number of important civil rights cases. His activism met violent opposi tion. His car and home were firebombed in 1965 and his law office was burned in 1971. A lot is different in the city since then, he said. "Some attitudes have changed," he said. "People have gotten to know each other and see how working with others can benefit the whole community." But work remains to fight discrimination in employment, housing and health care, he said. "A lot of it today is more subtle than it was years ago," he said. In 1984, Chambers went to New York to direct the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. Nine years later, C.D. "Dick" Spangler Jr., then president of the University of North Carolina system, recruited Chambers to lead N.C. Central. He doubled the school’s research funds to $14 mil lion, increased the number of endowfed chairs from one to 14 and raised the amount of scholarship money from $210,000 to $1.6 million. He also persuaded the legislature, to help pay for a new high-tech School of Education and the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research In-. stitute, for tfie study of diseases that affect minorities. . "There is a soft-spoken tenacity about Julius Cham-1 bers," university .system President Molly Broad said, j "I can just imagine how he used that effectively in the ' courtroom, and I’ve watched him use it as chancellor of N.C. Central in a way that has raised the visibility and stature of the campus." Chambers said there is still plenty of work for Am- \ mens, the former provost at Florida A&M University. ; The average SAT score for incoming freshmen this year is 860, only five points higher than it was in 1993. Enrollment is down from that time. "I saw a lot of opportunities while I was here, but to take advantage of many of them, you need money, you need faculty and you need resources," he said. | "You always have more dreams than what you’re going to be able to accomplish." Deputy U.S. marshal Christopher William Sweeney, 35, shot the man as the suspect was' sitting in his Jeep, according to a stale investiga tion. That information, released May 31 by Orange-Chatham County dis trict attorney Carl Fox, raises ques tions about Sweeney’s account that he fired after the man "took a threatening action." Sweeney will face a grand jury June 25 in Hillsborough. A re-enactment of the shooting by the Slate Bureau of Investiga tion showed the agent shot Bariel Aguilar Martinez while the Durham house painter was in his Jeep. Aguilar was treated for a leg wound at UNC Hospitals. "We have always contended that Mr.. Aguilar did nothing wrong and that the shooting was not justified," said Jay Ferguson, Aguilar’s at torney. "I applaud Mr. Fox’s efforts to seek justice on Mr. Aguilar’s be half." The fugitive marshals were look ing for that night was arrested May 31 as he left a house in Graham, said Dave Griffith, chief deputy U.S. marshal for the state’s Middle District in Greensboro. Luis Guz man was wanted on a federal war- (Continueci On Page 3) (AP) - The director of the Dur ham County Board of Elections and- his staff - with some help from senior citizens - have updated the list of eligible voters in the county. The cost was just $5,000, a tenth of director Mike Ashe’s original estimate was $50,000. About 88,000 people voted in November of about 164,000 on the rolls. Ashe and his staff removed about 10,000 and placed another 21,000 on a no-contact list that will remain for four years. Tho.se in the latter group who do not vote or contact the board with a changed address will be removed. The list will be more accurate, lessening the chances of voter fraud, he said. "It's a cleaner voter roll. When you have overinfiated rolls, people question the validity of the overall system. Even if the number doesn’t change, the accuracy inside of the list has," Ashe said. Ashe replaced director Carol Booth, who served from 1993 to 2000. She was fired last year in the wake of an improperly run May primary and the near-nullification of a legislative election. The elec tion was rife with administrative er rors, and in shifting some precinct and legislative district lines, the agency also violated several state election laws. Federal law requires that the rolls shoLila' have iiecn updated in 1‘997. They were not touched then or since. Only a few months ago, the list contained more names than eligible voters in the county. • Ashe thought it might cost $50,000 for envelopes, workers to stuff them and postage to contact registered voters. Then residents at The Forest at Duke, a retirement community, volunteered their time to stuff en velopes and saved the county thou sands of dollars. • By Any Means Necessary • Gatekeepers of White Male Privilege Mean To Turn Clock Back on African Americans See ‘VANTAGE POINT’ inside. On the Net: North Carolina Central University; http://www.nccu.edu . UNC-CbarloDe Special Collections page on school buiiag-ielated papers; http;//libweb.uncc.edu/archives/busing.htm UE Local 150, N.C. Public Service Workers Union held a demonstration at North Caro lina Central University to protest budget cuts in the department of Health and Human Services. This protester gets sign ready for demonstration. Related pictures on page 15. , (Hioto by Lawson)
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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June 9, 2001, edition 1
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