Ottawa Police Stereotypes

There is dispute regarding what defines racial profiling. Critics ask Is it racist, or is a necessary part of law enforcement. Racial profiling is identified by Adele Cassola in her article as unjust whereas Denyse Coles argues that racial profiling is necessary and is not considered racism. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission “Racial profiling is based on stereotypical assumptions because of one’s race, colour, ethnicity, etc.” whereas criminal profiling “relies on actual behaviour or on information about suspected activity by someone who meets the description of a specific individual” (Facts Sheet, para 2). This definition is also shared by Casola but Coles considers them as the same. It is important to separate fact

In today’s modern world, many people would be surprised to find out that there is still a racial caste system in America. After witnessing the election of a black president, people have started believing that America has entered a post-racial society. This is both a patently false and dangerous mindset. The segregation and stigma of race is still very much alive in our society. Instead of a formalized institution such as slavery or Jim Crow, America has found a new way to continue the marginalization of blacks by using the criminal justice system. In Michelle Alexander’s book “ The New Jim Crow”, she shows how America’s “ War on Drugs “ has become a tool of racial segregation and how the discretionary enforcement of drug laws has

Purpose Statement: to reveal the problem of mass incarceration of poor, black male, and increasingly female, young people in the name of a bogus war on drugs from the 1980 's?90 's.

Racial profiling remains a dormant issue in the United States. It is the act of the authority, mostly, police officers linking minority status to criminal behaviour (Glover, 2007). Several police officers in the United States target specific groups because they don’t display characteristics of typical Caucasian individuals (Glover, 2007). To put history into context, before 9/11, not many police officers profiled individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds but after the attack, there was an increase in racial profiling (Harris, 2006). A racial profiling method that became prevalent in the 1980s in the United States was administered by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. Operation Pipeline was a program that they launched to help police officers catch drug traffickers (Harris, 2006). In a video, they taught police officers to look for clues that would help them recognize criminals. It was noticed that police officers made a majority of stops to people with Hispanic last names (Harris, 2006). Marshall Frank, a former police officer was asked what police officers should do if they saw an African man driving around a white community. Frank responded by stating that the police officers should stop the vehicle and investigate the reason to why he was there even if there was no occurrence of a crime (Harris, 2006).

This time I hated how it felt to be stereotyped. I really felt what people say about police officers. Police officers supposed to be the nice men or women in uniform. This time it felt awful to be on the side of questioning and feeling like a criminal just for minding our business. A group of friends and I were at Fort Lauderdale Airport, waiting for the arrival of two friends coming from their trip. While we waited in the garage filled with cars a security guard in his patrol car came and told us to move before the officers came. The Police officers approached us and asked us why we are here? We all politely answered that we were waiting for our friend to arrive. Thinking that the matter is resolved the officer radioed for backup. In a matter

Over policing in African American communities started during the drug wars and continue to result in over drug arrests of African Americans. Over policing may also occur when police concentrate their efforts not on illegal activity, but on citizens behavior with the hope that in the process of the investigation some evidence of crime may be uncovered. Some police activities such as undercover drug buys are more common in African American communities than other communities and consequently disproportionate numbers of African Americans are arrested for drug dealing (Nunn, 2002). When it comes to violent or non drug crimes there is a clear victim and suspect, and the police can go to the crime scene and investigate. On the other hand when it comes to drug related offences, there isn’t a clear victim and the police can choose when and where to investigate. Police choose to target African American communities because they are easier to target, which results in over drug arrests (Mauer, 199, p.143). The police focus on substances that blacks buy, sell, and places where they would sell them, which results in high drug arrests rates. For example in 2008, the drug arrests of blacks was 3.5 times higher than whites (Tonry, 2011 p. 54). One would wonder if the government and law

The principle of law enforcement and the principle of equality among African American males make this issue even more difficult to analyze (Persico, 2002).

Certain law enforcers with racist ideals will sometimes exploit their position of power unfairly to target black Americans, or “racially profile”. In some cases, especially in conservative states, it’s been known for police departments to advise their officers to suspect race in a key element of determining criminal activity. This detrimental generalization based on race has snowballed out of control, taking to events like the War on Drugs (find an article on the war on drugs and racial discrimination within to support your assertion).

“Hispanics were also just as likely as blacks to believe that the treatment they receive from police is definitely prejudiced and unfriendly. In October 1994, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Francisco Renteria was escorting his mother home from a Laundromat when he was accosted by University of Nebraska police dispatched to investigate a crime. Mistaking Renteria for the suspect, they fatally beat him

Discrimination towards ethnic minority continues to find its way in our country. Unfortunately, the subject of racial profiling remains a part of Canada, as officers ignore individual behavior and instead, rely on race in police investigations. According to Katheryn Russell (as cited by Amy Hackney & Jack Glaser, 2013) racial profiling is defined as “The use of race or ethnicity by law enforcement officials as a basis for judgement of criminal suspicion” (Russell, 1998). Racial profiling within our country can be exposed through Canadian history, surveys and interviews from those treated unjustly. All of which stakeholders attempt to remedy for the victimization of the innocent.

The judicial system in America has always endured much skepticism as to whether or not there is racial profiling amongst arrests. The stop and frisk policy of the NYPD has caused much controversy and publicity since being applied because of the clear racial disparity in stops. Now the question remains; Are cops being racially biased when choosing whom to stop or are they just targeting “high crime” neighborhoods, thus choosing minorities by default? This paper will examine the history behind stop and frisk policies. Along with referenced facts about the Stop and Frisk Policy, this paper will include and discuss methods and findings of my own personal field research.

Racial Profiling is a social issue that is capturing more and more attention worldwide but especially by North Americans. Racial Profiling is the assumption that someone has committed a crime based on their physical appearance and the stigma that surrounds that culture or group. Racial profiling, therefore, affects everyone in society as it is about humanity. Everyone deserves the chance to be free of stereotypes and even those who aren’t amidst racial profiling should realise that they are affected as those who are guilty may not belong to said stereotyped racial group or those who are not guilty may be profiled without actions to warrant so. Growing evidence has shown that in a study conducted by the Canadian government “participants who identified themselves as a visible minority felt that they had been the target of racial profiling over the last four years compared to non-minority participants (20% vs. 6%). When asked the extent to which racial profiling occurs unofficially, 20% of the participants felt it happened "all the time" and 62% felt that it happened "sometimes".” (Canadian Department of Justice). These statistics illustrate that even in a country where it is claimed that we are equal and without a biased system people still are treated as if they are something they are not and due to their ethnic background. The article “Ottawa teen claims he was a victim of police profiling” featured on CBC news will only further serves as a real-life example to help

Racial profiling is the act of selecting targets for criminal investigation not on behavioural merit, but exclusively on markers of personal identity such as race, ethnicity, and religious orientation (Perry, 2011, p.9). In other words, racial profiling is the by-product of subjecting individuals who are from a particular racial community to a higher degree of scrutiny and surveillance by criminal justice system agents when compared to other racial communities (Wortley and Owusu-Bempah, 2011, p.135). One Canadian community in particular has been impacted by racial profiling: black Canadians.

The “War on Drugs” established that the impact of incarceration would be used as a weapon to combat the illegal drug problem in this country. Unfortunately, this war against drugs has fallen disproportionately on black Americans. “Blacks constitute 62.6% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons in 1996, whereas whites constituted 36.7%. The drug offender admissions rate for black men ranges from 60 to an astonishing 1,146 per 100,000 black men. In contrast, the white rate begins at 6 and rises no higher than 139 per 100,000 white men. Drug offenses accounted for nearly two out of five of all black admissions to state prisons (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” The disproportionate rates at which black drug offenders are sent to prison originate in racially disproportionate rates of arrest.

Apart from periodically publishing stop and search records, supervisors and managers of police force are now required to closely monitor such statistics and take timely actions if something wrong is being observed. Also stricter rules on stop and search have since been imposed, along with the requirement of police officers writing a detailed report on spot about every single incident which subjects to review seems helpful in improving police conduct (Fyfe 1979; Skogan and Frydl 2004 in Miller 2010). While stop and search practice has been somehow improved, racial discrimination can still be seen in stop and search statistics. The notion of “Black and minority ethnic groups, particularly black people, have for many years been disproportionately at the receiving end of police stop and search—a fact associated with profound community resentment towards the police” (Bowling and Phillips 2002 in Miller 2010) still largely applies today. Miller’s (2010) analysis indicate that black people are about 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched, while it is about 2 times more likely for Asians. Similar idea is seen in Bennetto’s (2009) report, which draws on police statistics that shows in 2009 “black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white”, worse than Miller’s analysis with the most recent figures in 2008. No official explaination is provided by Police, but Bennetto (2009) assumes this may be caused by simply discrimination of