Quotas are Wrong, Urban League Told (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

    Quotas are wrotrS,
Urban League told
By SUSAN FINCH

A top Justice Department official
Tuesday defended the ageney's opposi-
tion to racial promotion quotas pro-
posed for the New Orleans Police
Department.

William Bradford Reynolds, chiet of
the department's civil rights division,
told the National Urban League con-
vention in New Orleans, "We cannot
condemn race discrimination against
black police oflicers and ignore the
claims of unlawful discrimination by
Hispanie, white and female officers."

In raee discrimination eases against
the New Orleans and Detroit police.
departments, the Justice Department
has opposed promotion quotas to rem-
edy past discrimination

In a June rehearing before the Sth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a pro
posed settlement in a decade-old suit
against the New Orleans department,
a Reynolds' aide argued that eourt
orders to erase tlre effects of discrimi-
nation must apply only to officers
actually discriminated against.

Black leaders, including New
Orleans Mayor Duteh Morial, have
eriticized the s[and as a policy turn-
around and a refusal to give minorities
the remedies already approved by
courts.

Reynolds got an earful of criticism
Tuesday as he took part in a panel dis-
cussion on who will enforce civil rights
law.

Mary F. Berry, vice chairman of the
tl.S. Civil Rights Commission, said the
Justice Department is telling blaeks

that, "Even though we were diserimin-
ated against in terms of groups, u/e are
to forget about it."

Panelist Elaine Jones, an NAACP
Legal Defense Furtd lawyer, tral-e"-
that, "In elrr:lTalT{ of the (eivil
rights) law, this (Justiee) department
has reached out . .. to limit the reach
of those laws." She got a standing ova-
tion from the standing-room-only
erowd in a double meeting room at The
Rivergate.

Reynolds recited a list of eivil rights
enforcement actions he said outdis-
tance those of past administrations.
The Justice Department, he said, is
proeeeding as the law allows.

"Under the Constitution and the civil
'rights laws, there are no preferred

classes, there are only prohibited clas-
sifieations," he said.

The department's job is to ensure
that everyone, regardless of race, sex,
creed, color or national origin, has the
full protection of the law, Reynolds
said.

"!9e are not a speeial interest law
firm, and we cannot tailor our enforce
ment policies to serve any particular ,

group," he said.
Reynolds said Congress has rejected

speeial-interest civil rights legislation.
"It has made clear that the rights pro-
tected are universal in their applica-
tion 0o all persons."

He rejercted claims that the Reagan
administration has retreated on
enforcing civil rights law. "We have
becn neither timid nor seleetive in our
assault on discrimination," he said.

\

WILLIAM BRADFORD REYNOLDS,
left, the ehiel ol tbe Justice Depart-
ment's clvll rights dlvlslon, and
Clarence Tbomas, chalrman of tbe

Under Reagan, Reynolds said, the
.Iustice Department has lor the first
time "provided to black Arnericans the
long-awaited guarantee that the redis-
tricting process will no longer be a
Ioaded game board" that deprives min-
orities of a voice.

Reynolds said his agency has

-Steff photo by Bryan S. Berteeox
U.S. Eqral Employment Opportunlty
Commisslon, talk at tbe National
Urban League Conferenee et The
Rlvergete in New Orleens on Tuesday.

rejected redistricting plans for several
states on grounds they are raeially dis-
criminatory, and it has sent unprece'
dented numbers of federal election
examiners to Alabama and Mississippi
to ensure voting rights.

"Registration drives," he said,

Turn to Seetion l, Page I

gnlnnnalional
New York City

;.
. IMES.PICAYUNE
STATES - ITEM
NETJ ORI,EANS. I,A
tr[-290.0Q0 S-320,00o

AUG 3 .83

He said the Justice DePartment has

oioneered types of civil rights suits'

imong them one charging discrimina-
tion in allocating resources of a Chi-

eago park system and another against

the city of Cicero, Ill., for job and hotts-

ing discrimination.

Reaeting to charges that his depart-

ment does not seek group relief, llcyn-
olds said it has asked for "af(irmative
action recruiting" and gottcn notable

results.

"Our affirmative relief is prodttcing
large numbers of cmployees through
an extensive affirmative recruitmcnt
bffort that goes out and finds the peo-

ple that have not been notified before
that the jobs were even there," Reyn-
olds said.

t

.aii

,&.acial quotas opposed
Continued from Page I

"mean very little if for racial reasons'

(rerlistricling) plans divide blaeks
while consolidating the strengths of
white voters.

"Black Americans can now erercise
their right to vote as freely and frrlly as

all Americans," ReYnolds said.

Revnolds said the dePartment has

scorei other firsts, including charging

a California developer with race dis-

crimination by limiiing the number of
blaeLs in his housing complex to a set

percentage.
"Exclusionary housing practices

based on raee find no haven in the
law," and the Justlee Department has
planned a major enforcement effort
against strch practices, Reynolds said.

wi

I

-