Analysis Of Arguments Against Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is simply, “the unlawful police practice of using race, color, or ethnic background, as the reason for conducting a traffic stop on an individual.” (Michigan Civil Rights Commission) This definition can be extended to any kind of discrimination mainly based on myths and stereotypes towards a certain race or ethnicity. However, the term racial profiling is commonly used when a police officer or any other law enforcer stops, questions, searches or arrests an individual purely on the basis of their race. African Americans or simply blacks have been the major racial group that has suffered much of racial profiling. Much of this is based on the stereotypes against the blacks are perceived as more likely to engage in criminal activities. For instance, in a 2013 Racial Profiling Data from Ferguson Police Department, out of 5384 police stops, 4632 were against blacks. (Ferguson Police Dept. 1) Despite the low population of blacks in U.S. compared to other races, the former continues being subjected to more racial profiling. Racial profiling against African Americans continues to expose the blacks to humiliation and racial injustices, as this paper will expose, thereby calling for the responsible authorities to address and find solutions for the problem.

In relation to the debate of ‘racial profiling,’ Taylor and Whitney define racial profiling as “the practice of questioning blacks in disproportionate numbers in expectation that they are more likely than people of other races to be criminals” (Taylor & Whitney, 2002). Statistics show that African-Americans and Hispanics commit more crime than Caucasians, with 90% of the 1.7 million interracial crimes stemming from the hands of African-American men. Even looking at these numbers, does that make it okay for the police to arrest and interrogate these racial minorities at such a high frequency? Where are these statistics coming from? How accurate are they? Does the media provide a skewed analysis of these findings? These are the types of questions that need to be addressed in regard to evaluating the validity of racial profiling.

Based on the statistics of NYPD’s 2016 second quarterly reports, 1,862 people in the African American community are stopped versus 342 Caucasians (NYPD second quarter reports, 2016). Consequently, this implies policemen classify “blacks” as delinquent even though they are uninvolved in any unlawful acts the majority of the time. The product of racial discrimination furthers the understanding that the country still does not hold minorities equal next to the other ethnicities. This demonstrates just one example on how the Stop and Frisk law variously inflates negative predigest to further the understanding that “blacks” are synonymous with barbarous criminals.

For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.

An analysis by the NYCLU shows that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and the Black and Latino communities are the target of these approaches. Even though the New York Police Department are cutting the crime activities by 29%, other large cities are getting better results without using the stop and frisk policy. Martial Arts Instructor, Tauren Murphy believes that the NYPD uses stop and frisk to cover it’s real intent. Murphy states “The vast majority of the time, it’s a way to harass young men of color. The shootings are unfortunate, but there should be more police in the community, working with the community and not just showing when there is trouble.” Residents of Bronx believe that if there are just more police around in general then the numbers of shooting will go down because no one is going to risk getting caught when there are so many officers around. Many people have said that they would not even go to the police for help because they distrust them that much, this “proactive policing” that is going on is just driving a deeper wedge between the police and the community. Ray Kelly, police commissioner says that “about 70 percent to 75 percent of the people described as committing violent crimes-- assault,

At the beginnings of the twentieth century, is when the trend of “racial” profiling began, it is believed that this is deeply rooted back into the times of segregation and slavery. Criminal profiling was all based on the criminal activities and who was involved. Although, it is more commonly seen now, it began to grow evermore so following the tragic events of September eleventh. It evolved and transitioned into racially motivated arrests, detaining’s, and questionings both justifiable and unjustifiable. In the book, Good Cop Bad Cop: Racial profiling and Competing views of Justice in America, stated “In short order, however, as use of the term “racial profiling” became more frequent, the concept itself spread and became more diffuse and

Racial profiling has been a very monumental issue from the past few years. Race and orientation are the dominant characteristics the authorities look when captivating in this category of profiling. The incontrovertible pattern of race-based on the stops from the police is a problem that millions of African-American and Latino-American motorist encounter regularly on this nation's highway. This play on words DWI (Driving while Intoxicated) refers to the employed police practice of using an traffic violations as a pretext to stop black or Hispanic. The police assume that they are involved in a criminal activity unrelated to the driving. These policemen have no right or legal cause to carry stops besides the enforcing a traffic bylaw.

Racial profiling is a major issue in today’s law enforcement. Cases of police officers committing racially motivated acts are consistently the leading stories for television reporters and articles. Procedures such as the stop and frisk or a typical traffic stop are often said to factor in race when deciding whom to stop. Racial profiling is defined as “the consideration of race, ethnicity, or national origin by an officer of the law in deciding when and how to intervene in an enforcement capacity”(“Racial Profiling”, n.d.). Society’s racial profiling accusations are putting police officers everywhere in a danger every time they make a stop. There are riots and police officers being shot all across America. Any information collected on racial profiling in cities always leads to the same conclusion: “police disproportionately stop people of color for traffic violations relative to population composition and treat minorities different than Whites during the encounters (e.g. citations, arrests, length of time persons are stopped, and searches of persons and their possessions)” (Novak, 2004, p. 66). The methods police officers are taking are not enough to completely prevent racial

One of the most important civil rights facing our nation today is racial profiling. The main source of those accused of racial profiling are police officers. In the eyes of citizens, racial profiling by a police officer can be defined as “any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity or national origin rather than behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity” (Ramirez, 2000). For instance, concerning traffic stops, the use of racial profiling can be defined as when the race or ethnicity of a person is a

The one thing that civilians and policemen both have in common is stopping crime. However, the methods policemen use to determine criminal behavior is a controversial issue that needs to be addressed and stopped. In a groundbreaking article, Bob Herbert’s, “Jim Crow Policing,” states that, “An overwhelming 84 percent of the stops in the first three quarters of 2009 were of black and Hispanic New Yorkers. It is incredible how few of the stops yielded any law enforcement benefit. Contraband, which usually means drugs, was found in only 1.6 percent of the stops of black New Yorkers. For Hispanics, it was just 1.5 percent. For whites, who are stopped far less frequently, contraband was found 2.2 percent of the time,” (Herbert par 3). Herbert displays the ineffective method of racial profiling where the police of New York still believes it is a strong indicator to fighting crime. The statistics in this essay prove the argument that racial profiling is not an accurate method to determine criminals. Minorities are always being harassed because of the stereotypes of them being criminals and having no goals be given to them. Through the statistics, people are able to see that people who are usually stopped, blacks and Hispanics, actually do not follow the stereotypes and are not always doing illegal activities. Ironically, the civilians who were rarely ever

This group has countless stereotypes of violence and racial inequalities thrown at them, making them a huge target for surveillance not just by peers, but by the government as well. The most notable types of surveillance towards African Americans come from the police, who frequently target them seemingly based on their ethnicity. In the article “Is Stop-and-Frisk Worth It?” written by Daniel Bergner, the author elaborates on the notorious surveillance practice, frisk searches, and how useful they may or may not be. The author explains how they are frequently used on African Americans, while not so much on other races like the Caucasian majority, which gives this surveillance method a bad reputation. A scientific article titled An Analysis of the New York City Police Department’s “Stop-and-Frisk” Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias, written by Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss, further confirms this racial profiling issue through frisking, by concluding with sufficient evidence, that the New York Police Department “was stopping blacks and Hispanics more often than whites” (Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss, 821). For the majority of whites, frisking is never really a threat in the first place because of our skin color, thus giving us social privileges as opposed to blacks who seem to lack most of

Racial profiling is based on stats used by law enforcement to stop potential suspects because from experience a certain racial group is committing the same crime. When an officer stops a suspect for whatever reason they use their experience and judgement. For example, in New Jersey the highway patrol were synonymous for stopping people of African American descent for a multitude of reasons, which was based on pass arrest of African American's who were utilizing the New Jersey turnpike to transport drugs or guns. So with that the highway patrol created a profile of the suspects committing these crimes and a majority of these offenders were African Americans. The profiling displayed commonality of whom was committing these offenses and this is

A pretty wrong thing about racial profiling thing, talking about worldwide level, is telling political authorities that it is not only a “politically incorrect” thing, but instead a destructive law enforcement method. Racial profiling should be specifically explained. Here are two ideas for my argument.

A major issue that has been at the forefront of the topic of race in America is racial profiling. This practice of targeting individuals based on the individual’s race is not new and has been in use for many many years. However it has recently come to national attention with the killing of unarmed black teenagers by police officers. The issue of racial profiling not only highlights the lack of equality in America but the issue of policemen using excessive force when dealing with criminal activity.

Many places such as Chicago and New York experience racial profiling and lack of trust in the governed community. Even in Civil Court cases, it’s not always the people’s fault. The ones who govern the streets, falsely accused the people. The majority of people who are racially profiled are African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other minority ethnic groups. Little of the media cover these unheard confrontations. As a police officer, their job is to be equal