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Sisters provide testimony to Senate hearing
As the Senate holds its first hearings in more than a decade on Ending Racial Profiling in America, Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters have weighed in to provide their testimony to the proceedings.
Among the tenets of the mission of the OLVM Sisters is to foster justice.
"Our mission is to live and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ," says OLVM President Sr. Beatrice Haines. "Respecting the dignity of every person , respecting human rights and working for justice is therefore an integral part of the Gospel and of our mission."
Hearings on Tuesday will focus on the practice of racial profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement and whether such practices harm rather than help law enforcement efforts.
The OLVM Sisters are urging lawmakers to end the practice of racial profiling by law enforcement, saying the practice is unjust, ineffective and counterproductive, and has resulted in heightened fear of law enforcement in their local community, as in many other communities of color throughout the United States.
The Sisters also ask Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act and to close the loopholes in the Department of Justice's racial profiling guidance to prevent profiling practices by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
"We are particularly concerned about many policies and programs at the national, state and local level which encourage or incentivize discriminatory law enforcement practices such as racial profiling," says Sr. Beatrice. "We believe that these practices are counterproductive, waste public resources and violate the civil and human rights of persons living in the United States."
Founded in 1922 by Father John Joseph Sigstein, Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters is a religious community of women located in Huntington, Ind. Through their ministries, the Sisters are dedicated to proclaiming the Word of God, fostering justice, standing in solidarity with the poor, and promoting the development of leaders. For more information on Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, visit www.olvm.org.
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