AG Holder Says Cop’s Search of His Trunk Was Racial Profiling
Attorney General Eric Holder recalls a trip to Washington, D.C., in college when a police officer pulled him over and demanded to search the trunk of his car.
Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, told ABC News he believes the search was the result of racial profiling. “You know, I was a college kid. I didn’t know quite what my rights were,” Holder said.
“People walked by as I was opening this trunk and the officer was looking in there,” he told ABC. “And I remember, as I got back in the car and continued on my journey how humiliated I felt, how angry I got.”
In a February speech, Holder said the United States is, in many ways, “a nation of cowards” because of a reluctance to talk about racial issues. Holder told ABC he stands by his comments, although he also thinks the nation has made progress on racial issues.
“Race is a tough issue. Wherever it has been found, whether in the United States or even in other countries, it’s an issue that has divided us, I think, in the past. It’s an issue that if unaddressed, I think, can divide us in the future. And that’s what that speech was about,” he said.
