The background for this comment came from an article published by Channel 7 News in Boston on its website. It credited the Associated Press with the story.

The ACLU sued the State Police in Rhode Island, seeking the release of a videotape showing the “first five minutes of a 70-minute stop on Interstate 95 in July.” In that stop, Trooper Thomas Chabot pulled over a van that failed to use its turn signal. In the van he found “14 Guatemalan immigrants.” Note that neither the AP nor Channel 7 include the fact that these were “illegal” immigrants, though that can be inferred from the further report that Trooper Chabot “brought them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Providence, where they now face deportation.”

An internal investigation concluded that Trooper Chabot “acted appropriately.”

The ACLU and [unnamed] “civil rights organizations” have “raised concerns of racial profiling” and seek the videotape and copies of the department’s “policies governing enforcement procedures.” The ACLU offered no reason why the Trooper would have known that the Guatemalans were even in the van, much less what race they were, or that they were in the US illegally. The tactic, apparently, is to get them released on a technicality.