Jindal praises race-profiling lawman

[SemiCharmedQuark]

By Glenn Thrush

"In his response to Barack Obama tonight, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke glowingly of the late Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee.

It was a curious, even provocative choice: Lee, a colorful 300-lb. Chinese-American lawman was repeatedly accused of racially profiling blacks in the predominantly white parish he dominated prior to his death in Oct. 2007.

...

In the wake of Katrina, Lee grabbed national headlines by suggesting his deputies could randomly stop blacks to combat a rise in drug crimes caused by the displacement of low-income New Orleans residents.

He later abandoned the idea -- but never apologized.

In an earlier incident, Lee sparked a firestorm by ordering his force to arbitrarily stop “young blacks in rinky-dink cars” driving in white neighborhoods, according to The Associated Press. He backed off that plan, calling it a mistake after the NAACP called on him to resign.

Shortly before his death, Lee stoked controversy again, telling a TV reporter: "We know the crime is in the black community. Why should I waste time in the white community?""

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0209/Jindal_praises_raceprofiling_lawman.html

[atreides1]

1. Maybe this is why Jindal is accepted

Perhaps he has the same views of blacks that this sheriff had!

[lurky]

2. I was curious about that.

He's from Metarie, the same town that elected David Duke.

[juno jones]

5. Jees,

That brings up some interesting musings about Jindal's parents and where they stood in India's infamous caste system. Gotta look down on anyone darker than you, eh?

[SoxFan]

3. Harry Lee was a corrupt thug

He was in deep with organized crime, but coasted politicaly by playing to the racial fears of white suburbanites in Metarie and Marrero. He was the worst kind of politician.

[Jennicut]

4. Lovely that Jindal holds him up as an axample we should all follow.

[Drunken Irishman]

13. You make it sound like organized crime is a bad thing...

[zulchzulu]

15. Harry Lee was indeed a thug. Homophobic, racist gladhanding swine he was

I used to live in New Orleans working at WWL and Lee was always in the news for some nonsense...

[SoxFan]

16. And the foolishness was usually of his own making

Yet until the day he died he had the unswerving support of a lot of people in Jefferson Parish who should have known better. His fearmongering was disturbingly effective. I knew of a lot of people who refused to drive into New Orleans for a basketball game at Lakefront Arena or a Zephyrs game at Privateer Park because the Harry Lee created such a stigma. And we're talking about the Lakefront, a well-off, white part of Orleans Parish.

[Occam Bandage]

6. Arbitrarily stop and harass "young blacks in rinky-dink cars?" That's disgusting. nt

[Leo The Cleo]

7. Well

LOL

Sounds like the type of person a republican loves.

[Uzybone]

8. Great guy that Bobby is

the sooner he is swept off the stage the better.

[Leo The Cleo]

9. If He Were Trent Lott

If this were Trent Lot, he would have been skewered. He's a rising star so he gets a pass.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. If he were a Dem., he would have been skewered.

[Leo The Cleo]

11. More right than you know

My point is simply that Trent Lott pulled the same crap and came under fire. This guy takes a bigot and turns him into a hero and isn't called out.

[Unsane]

12. What a weird dynamic--a 300lb Chinese cop in Louisiana appeasing whites and profiling blacks

[SoxFan]

14. Only in Louisiana can a 350 lb, mobbed-up Chinese redneck lawyer become sherrif

[genna]

17. Nothing short of disastrous. Racially profiling Asians during World War 2

is comparable to the fear that makes police profile blacks while driving, blacks while walking, blacks while being black.

Not only is Jindal poised in a bad position, but he also sets himself and other bronze to brown skinned people for profiling while being Middle to Near East descent. It is just a bad deal all the way around.

How happy are the millions who are on the do not fly lists who have no means of really fighting their designation? Or those families who are taken off airlines after they have purchased tickets because they don't like their religious berkas or beards?

Freedom, speedom