Law Enforcement And Race Relations

The relationships between police and racial minorities present some of the more difficult problems in policing throughout the world. Such relationships can be pleasant, but they often are challenging. For example, minorities may be deprived of police safety and other services to which they are permitted to. More specifically, police may refrain from addressing criminal behavior like domestic violence within a particular minority group because they believe that members of that group typically take part in such behavior.

The OJ Simpson murder case was an event that transfixed the nation over 20 years ago, with everyone who was around back then having some recollection of the whole ordeal. Today, that same case in entering back into the public consciousness, as a new television series dramatizing the events, entitled “The People vs. OJ Simpson”, just premiered. In an op-ed for the New York Times, John McWhorter pens an argument that the case was symbolic of race relations between the police and the African-American community. McWhorter, an African-American, goes into detail about how he did not understand why his community was cheering back in 1995 about Simpson being acquitted. McWhorter even believed that Simpson was guilty. However, he does now

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

Recently, there has been much in the media about clashes between African Americans and the police. Two such cases, being the shootings of Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald - both incidents resulting in public outrage. These cases result in questions about racial profiling by police. Through research, it is clear that African Americans are the target of racial bias by many police departments in the United States; in order to remedy this situation, law enforcement agencies need to (and are beginning to) undergo scrutiny on their interactions with the public and, additionally must receive training on diversity.

Besides enacting racial bias screening and training requirements, police departments need to change the way they operate, by changing poor police protocol currently in place. In other words, in some cases, this issue of racial profiling can stem from police chiefs who provide their officers with patrol assignments targeting minority neighborhoods due to implicit biases which they have. In Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation's Highways, David Harris suggests, “Because police look for drugs primarily among African Americans and Latinos, they find a disproportionate number of them with contraband” (Harris). Certain police chiefs intentionally target minority neighborhoods and put a greater effort on catching the people living there for their wrongdoings, thus making those minority groups appear as higher threats to society. The picture of crime would be reversed if the police targeted White people rather than minorities.

Law enforcement officers may also feel as if they are above the law, allowing personal bias and prejudices to guide their actions and who their actions target. Though the law does not facilitate around racial bias, “those enforcing the law are abusing their discretion by discriminating against individuals based on racial profiling” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2017). Racial profiling can be a result of formal, institutionalized rules within law enforcement agencies that may encourage racial profiling, whether they are aware of their actions or not. It is difficult to change such an action when it occurs worldwide, and most of the time it goes unnoticed or unreported. The criminal justice field needs to act against the practice of racial profiling and discrimination that occurs between law enforcement personnel and members of the community; a community that includes individuals who rely on the criminal justice field to serve and protect

One of the most polarizing policy issues in the United States is the process of using race, ethnicity, and/or national origin by law enforcement as a chief predictor of criminal behavior. In the presence of social media and modern technological innovation, there has been increased documentation on the very problematic ways in which police officers use their position of authority against minorities. The countless cases of murder and police brutality have prompted national dialogue regarding to what extent race should be used in methods of policing. Against a troubled backdrop of incessant clashes with minorities and law enforcement, navigating the situation requires a degree of care that does not diminish the

Based on the statistics I identified in questions # 3 and 4 of my blog, I believed many law enforcement have a legitimate reason in its use of aggressive, racial profiling of minority populations. There are cruel consequences of race-based policing. For example, racial profiling does not reduce crime. It causes tremendous harm to individuals, the criminal justice system and to the social fabric of the society. Many law enforcement officers trust the idea that statistical data are exceptional guide in guessing who might be a criminal. Since statistics demonstrates that African-Americans and Latinos set up the majority of gang members, law enforcement officers will have the intensity to investigate and arrest these individuals. Moreover, it leads

In the year 2018, there are still numerous signs of racial bias that’s evident throughout the criminal justice system. The way in which policing tries to serve and protect the major population is sometimes seen being done in discriminating ways. Racial profiling is another key contributor to racial bias throughout America especially towards African Americans. African Americans are noticeably given harsher sentences than whites in situations where the offense was the same for both. There are deviant and corrupt agents throughout much of the criminal justice system and it still hasn’t been addressed properly in a way that everyone starts to understand the negative impacts that are being done together. Some police officers may feel the need to

The most controversial issue related to law enforcement profiling is racial profiling. “Some law enforcement officers have created their own profiles based solely on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the behavior of an individual” (Levinthal, 2012 pg. 123). For decades racial profiling has been a biased issue incorporated by a government system that discriminate on people who look a certain way or have been classified as a suspect. One would think individuals and agencies responsible for enforcing laws supposed to maintain public order and public safety. Instead to an extent individuals who think they are privileged and above the law have taken it upon themselves to target people for suspicion of crime by creating a profile

Implicit biases can lead to race-based policing even without making a conscious decision to do so. Evidence proves that African Americans and Latinos are stopped for traffic offenses more frequently than Whites even though they do not commit more traffic offenses than Whites. (Richardson, 2015) One study revealed that police “officers were more likely to see weapons in the hands of unarmed Black individuals than in the hands of unarmed White individuals as a result of implicit bias” (Richardson). These discoveries mirror studies indicating that racial biases lead people to interpret the actions of Black individuals more suspiciously than they would interpret the same actions if they were performed by White individuals. (Richardson)

The District of Columbia and 46 states deny those who are incarcerated from the privilege of voting in any election (Fagin, 2014). There are two states, Maine and Vermont, that allow any felon regardless of their state of imprisonment, parole or probation to vote. Only four states, Florida, Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia, do not allow anyone convicted of a felony to vote (Fuchs, 2012). The other states allow felons to vote depending on their classification in the system.

Racial profiling in law enforcement is a despicable issue in the United States. This issue is a long standing & deeply troubling national problem despite claims that the United States has entered a “post” racial era. We are often told to rely on the police to protect us from harm and promote fairness & justice in our communities. This hasn’t been the easiest being that racial profiling has led countless people to live in fear-portraying entire

In the aftermath of the Ferguson riots, FBI Director James Comey delivered a truly socially conscious speech, “The Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race.” Comey said, “At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.” He pointed out that police vans are still referred to as “paddy wagons,” a direct and bigoted slight towards Irish Americans. “The Irish had tough times, but little compares to the experience on our soil of black Americans,” added Comey.

Further strides have been made since this period to include a concentrated effort to make police departments more ethnically diverse. Despite becoming more diverse and laws to protect citizens there remains a great deal of distrust of the police among African-Americans and Hispanics. The Rodney King case was and is a lightning rod for those who point to police abuse based on race. Unfortunately, large numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics, and to a lesser degree other ethnic