...K P F T news

This week, Houston is playing host to the 93rd National Convention for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, greeted last night's opening meeting with a keynote address highlighting Houston's history with one of the nation's most significant civil rights organizations.

"Both Houston and Texas have a rich NAACP history. The Houston NAACP branch is almost as old as the NAACP itself. As one historian writes: 'If black Houstonians and Texans were anything, they were organized.'"

Bond explored the convention's theme "Freedom Under Fire" with an emphasis on corporate misconduct and restricted civil rights under the Bush administration's USA Patriot Act.

"We need fewer tax cheats than corporate suites. The police and intelligence agenciees don't need more powers, they need more professionalism."

Bond criticized the FBI's recent expansion of civillian surveliance tactics similar to those previously used in the agency's counter-intelligence program. CointelPro was disbanded in the 1970s after the United States Senate found its practices unconstitutional. Practices used against such groups like the Southern Civil Rights organization Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, where Bond served as Communications director.

Bond also questioned other FBI tactics in relation to the War on Terrorism, instead re-directing attention to recent corporate bankruptcies and questionable management decisions made at the expense of employees and shareholders.

"They also want to return to the more recently discredited technique of racial profiling. It's return was heralded by Sen. Diane Fienstein, Democrat of California, who said the racial profiling debate has had a chilling impact on the FBI. Well, it's already had a chilling impact on me, and I bet it already has had a chilling impact on most of the people in this room. Why don't we racially profile white male multi-millionaires? Like Houston's own Kenny-boy Lay, or the executives of WorldCom and Tyco. We know all about crime in the streets. Who's protecting us from crime in the suites?"

The NAACP conference will address these and other issues as it continues through this Thursday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

I'm Renee Feltz, reporting with Jackson Allers, KPFT News, Houston.

E-mail Renee Feltz and Jackson Allers at chickpea_@hotmail.com and jacksona@earthlink.net respectively.