Colonel Williams Speaks
Colonel Carl Williams is one of the toughest-talking cops around, and that may be one of the reasons he's not a cop anymore.
Williams made headlines for his comments to a New Jersey newspaper on the relationship between race and crime. His comments not only cost him his job as the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, but, as Dan Rather reports for 60 Minutes II, they put him squarely in the middle of the national debate on racial profiling.
Racial profiling is defined as the police practice of targeting criminal suspects, stopping them and even searching them simply because of their race. While Col. Williams denies that he advocates this practice, he still isn't making any apologies about his views on race and crime.
"I made the statement that the drug culture, parts of it, are basically controlled by minorities," he says. "That's what got me in trouble."
When asked who controls the heroin market, Williams answers: "It's either the Mexicans and or the Colombians."
Then when asked about the crack market, he answers: "I would say that that's basically a black enterprise."
| Take a look at the Web site for the New Jersey State Police. |
"I cannot allow their ability to enforce the law to be undermined by a perception that there is racial profiling and a consequent undermining of public confidence in the state police," Gov. Whitman said.
New Jersey state troopers had a reputation for using racial profiling, frequently stopping motorists and searching their cars for drugs simply because they were black or Hispanic.
Some blacks said they were pulled over, hassled and finally released 20, 50 and even 100 times. Many of the incidents were said to take place on the New Jersey Turnpike, a roadway that runs the entire length of the state and believed to be a major artery in the distribution of drugs.
But a study by the New Jersey attorney general concluded that 40 percent of the cars stopped on the turnpike had minority occupants. And an estimated 77 percent of the cars that were then searched had blacks or Hispanics inside.
 Rev. Donald Jackson is a vocal opponent of racial profiling in New Jersey. |
"What he has done, by his language, has made every minority a suspect for drugs," says Jackson.
"Therefore, troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike stop minorities randomly - not because they've broken any law. Not because they're driving crazy on the turnpike. Simply because they are a minority," he adds.
"That's wrong, it's illegal, and it needs to stop," Jackson says.
| The Web site of the Office Of National Drug Policy has an enormous range of information on the war on drugs. |
"Once I decide that this individual fits my description of what a criminal is, I will first stop him and then decide what his infraction was," says Cooper.
"That's totally my discretionÂ…whether it was weaving, speeding, an air freshener hanging from the rear-view window, things of that nature," he adds.
And Trooper Smith says many innocent people were pulled over.
"Those are the people that we're really concerned with," says Smith.
 A New Jersey state Police officer make a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. |
These troopers, along with nine others, are suing the state of New Jersey for racial discrimination. They say they were denied promotions, in part, because they refused to use racial profiling.
Sanders explains: "Racial profiling is trained. It's taught at the academy and it's taught at in-service trainings."
"It was condoned. It was rewarded. And if you didn't participate in it, you were punished for it," he says.
| The American Civil Liberties Union did a nationwide study on racial profiling during traffic stops. Read it online. |
While Williams claims itÂ's extremely difficult to determine the occupants of a moving vehicle at night, Trooper Smith says police are taught techniques to make such identifications.
"One very good example is you park your vehicle perpendicular to the highwayÂ…and you shine your high beams across the highway," Smith explains.
"What that creates is almost like a strobe effectÂ…and you can see exactly who's in the car, long enough for you to make a determination," Smith adds.
Accusations that New Jersey state troopers were practicing racial profiling boiled over last year, when two white troopers stopped a mini-van with four young minority men inside.
They were unarmed, but the troopers are accused of firing 11 bullets into the car, wounding three of the men.
Williams says his comments about the connection between race and crime are not racist. He points out that the federal government has made many of the same conclusions that he has.
| Policy.com has a page devoted to the issue of racial profiling. |
"And, in Trenton, N.J...again, according to the president's drug czar,Â…'Crack dealers are predominantly African-American males. Cocaine dealers are predominantly Latino,'" he says.
"Every law enforcement agency and every law enforcement person profiles. When you put the racial part on it, that's where it's wrong," he adds.
Williams says he speaks from 35 years of law enforcement experience, all of it in the State Police. He started as a low-level patrol officer and rose through the ranks, serving as narcotics bureau head before being appointed superintendent.
"It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," Trooper Sanders explains. "If your perception is that the crime or the drug problem in America is a minority problem, then you target your enforcement efforts at that minority community."
"Then your arrest numbers are going to be largely of that minority population," he says.
"I think that Colonel Williams ran the State Police like a good old-boy network," Sanders continues.
"The real players in the State Police are all white," he says. "Code words were used," he says. "Black people referred to as carlad of Johnnies."
Governor Whitman, who refused to talk to 60 Minutes II for this story, has replaced Carl Williams with Carson Dunbar, an experienced law enforcement officer of African American heritage, according to Williams.
"I think if I were a black male, I would not have been fired as the superintendent of the State Police," says Williams. "I was firedÂ…for being insensitive, whatever that is."
Col. Williams is now suing the state over his dismissal.
Recently complaints about racial profiling are down on the New Jersey Turnpike, but there have also been fewer drug arrests since Williams was forced out.