CHRISTIE WHITMAN, Bush's nominee to head Environmental Protection Agency is New Jersey Gov.
Whitman is a moderate Republican who supports abortion rights. Regarding racial profiling, she repeatedly has defended her administration by saying hers was the first to admit to the practice and to take steps to eliminate it.
Critics said minorities were involved in a disproportionate number of traffic stops, searches and arrests by state troopers.
Last year, a picture was released showing her frisking a black youth during a police tour in Camden, N.J., in 1996.
"Did I step over a line from being an observer to a participant that I shouldn't have and didn't need to in that instance?
Yes," Whitman said in an interview last July.
"But, unfortunately, that is my nature. When they said, 'Do you want to do it?'
I said 'Sure,' without thinking, and I should have thought."
EXCERPT FROM: Groups to Campaign Against Ashcroft
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
From: The Las Angeles Times
January 2, 2001
latimes.com |
