For as long as I can remember, there have always been numerous instances of civil injustices being committed against African American drivers stemming all the way back to the Rodney King Incident in 1991 to as recently as 2015 when a woman was wrongfully arrested in Texas for driving while black. Many people would argue that it is the war on drugs that has caused law enforcement to continually abuse their power, but in actuality the war on drugs is not even specifically targeting narcotics anymore, the government has shifted its interest in violating people and their constitutional rights, with African Americans and Latinos being the most affected by this. It has even shifted the ways that police look for potential criminals on our highways and in our communities, as they are now profiling people due to the color of the skin. This is why the phrase “driving while black” draws parallels to the term “driving while intoxicated” because this is a practice that has become very common by our law enforcement officials. “As we use the term, ‘racial profiling’ occurs when a law enforcement officer questions, stops, arrests, searches, or otherwise investigates a person because the officer believes that members of that person 's racial or ethnic group are more likely than the population at large to commit the sort of crime the officer is investigating. ' The essence of racial profiling is a judgment that the targeted group - before September 11, 2001, usually African Americans or
For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.
Blacks have been the main suspects of racial profiling. Tens of thousands of black motorist on highways across the country are victims of racial profiling. Black drivers account for 26.2 percent of stops resulting from the tallying computers, the numbers of entries made were about 659,000 short from the number or citations issued (www.washington.com). A more than likely explanation is that the officers are not filling out the forms. The officers couldn't be trusted to log the correct information on the forms. This program is unacceptable and inaccurate being that the data was collected improperly. Similarly, to control the racial profile of foreigners, the national government thought of providing national ID cards. This plan too would do little to combat terrorism or reduce profiling.
Driving while Black” is vernacular in the Black community that refers to police protocols that use “traffic laws too frequently stop and detain Black motorists for vehicle searches without probable cause or reasonable suspicion that would warrant being stopped by the Police (9,10).”
This reason of “driving while black” is a prime example of an invalid reason of probable cause. “Driving while black”, is an unjustified reason towards African American to be confronted by police officers. Why is it that because the man is Black he has to be committing a crime? Is it hard to believe that a group of black males may be on their way to a job interview, a men’s conference out of town, a family affair, or just going to have a good time? “Studies have proven that when police officers present a warrant, due to their idea of probable cause, they are 80% more likely to discover evidence, whereas without a warrant and just following their judgments, the rate is decreased to 12%” (Minzer 913-62). As long as they have valid licenses, tags, and car insurance and are not committing a moving violation, African Americans should not be observed more closely
Racial profiling is used by many Americans in the united states. Blacks, whites and mexicans all use racial profiling. Their profiling is much different then you could say is used by police enforcement today. Minorities are high on the list of racial profiling by police in today 's society. This has caused many issues with minorities and police enforcement relations since police use this as a way of controlling crime rates in many cities. With this paper it will be to show and scrutinize every aspect of consequences of racial profiling with police and individuals such as minorities. To be able to explain and probe racial profiling and the issues that coincide with this issue. I will then provide an explanation with background of what racial profiling means. Then providing research that will show the issue of racial profiling with how it will affect the relations between individuals and law enforcement departments.
Driving a car, walking down the street, or even sightseeing now is no longer safe for some people. In many cities across the United States, if you are African-American or of "color", you will typically have a hard time doing this without being harassed. The excuse for this harassment is again, the U.S. is supposedly fighting "The War on Drugs" and is right away pointed towards minorities. When a police officer sees a young black man in a new expensive car he suspects that the man is
The War on Drugs was the United Sates government’s attempt to stop the sale and use of illegal drug use. It consisted of anti-drug legislation all with the plan to end drug abuse in America. President Nixon declared and coined the phrase “War on drugs” and increased drug control agencies and pushed for harder sentencing for drug offenses. The war on drugs is an issue that we are still fighting and many of the policies put in place did more harm than good. The drug war affected all people, but it had unequal outcomes for different racial groups and many of the historical pieces of legislation put in place impacted these outcomes and are still affecting many people of color today.
A study done by the University of Kanas shows that African Americans are 3 times more often than whites to be pulled over by a police officer. It was also found that that black males have a 28% chance of being pulled over which is 15% higher than white males. There’s a phrase called “Driving while black” which means that just because of your skin color you can be stopped by a police officer for no reason at all. Racial profiling which means to” use of race or ethnicity as for having a reason to suspect someone of having committed an offense”. And it is one of the biggest issues recently to come into light. With the murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown social media has brought the issue of racial profiling and police brutality to an
The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration have been two very well-known topics of society. While these have taken place during the Cold War, there is still a continuance in them today. The impact that has been left on society from these issues have stuck around, while mass incarceration is still of talk today.
Racial profiling is when someone’s race is used by law enforcement to assume criminal suspicions (Spagnoli, Filip). Law enforcement has used racial profiling to “help” prevent criminal activity. For instance, a survey done by the department of justice when officers focused more on African-American and Latino drivers they found that less of them had drugs the when they least focused on white drivers (The Truth About Racial Profiling: FIVE FACTS). Some officers assume that Hispanics and African-Americans are carrying around illegal substances and weapons. This is not always true! As the survey revealed, most of the people who did have prohibited items were white Americans. Law enforcement should begin stopping drivers by suspicion not by their race. In another survey done by Ian Ayres and Jonathan Borowsky they had found very similar information. “We also found that, once people were stopped, officers were more likely to frisk, search, or arrest African-Americans and Latinos than whites…when these frisks and searches are substantially less likely to uncover weapons, drugs, or other types of contraband” (Borowsky, Ayres). Officers are spending more time on race than focusing on real criminals who are ousting the reasons why this country is remarkable. Other cases like these have been confirmed as well. “Relative to stopped whites, stopped blacks is 127% more likely and
Throughout U.S governmental history, policies have been known to affect the way of life and every aspect. The topic it choose to research is about “The War on Drugs”, the impact policies have on society and if it does help the public or tend to extent social inequality. This topic is very important to me in the sense that, I look at the community I live and see how drugs have affected people lifes, broken up families and also destroyed the community itself. I wanted to know if the “war on drugs” stop our neighborhood from being flooded with drugs or it just over shadow the real problems that needs to be tackled.
Evidence of the disproportionate percentage of minorities incarcerated is readily available. According to Katheryn Russell, author of Color of Crime, blacks make up 12% of the overall U.S. population. Yet they represent 30% of arrests and 50% of those incarcerated (28-29). The most amazing statistic comes from Marvin Free, Jr. whose research found that African Americans living in cities with a population of 250,000 or more have a 51% chance of being arrested (African Americans..., 8). Russell listed many of the ridiculous reasons minorities have been pulled over by police officers: 1) Driving a luxury car, 2) driving with a white woman, 3) driving in a white neighborhood, 4) driving late at night and several others. The reasoning behind many traffic stops of blacks were so ludicrous that Russell believed a new charge should be established: DWB or "Driving While Black" (Color...,33).
Read the article: "Racial Profiling: A Survey of African American Police Officers"(Barlow & Barlow, 2002). Using concepts from chapters 1-6 as the basis for your analysis, in a narrative format of 750 or more words, summarize: (a) the research problem, (b) the literature review, (c) data-gathering strategy, (d) any hypotheses, (e) the dependent and independent variable in one of the cause-effect relationships tested by the researchers, (f) how the dependent and independent variable were operationalized, (g) other variables that should have been measured and/or controlled, and (h) the key findings and/or policy issues.
“More than 250 innocent black lives were killed by police officers in 2016. Over 73 percent of suspects pulled over were african american due to the suspicion of drug use yet 76 percent of drug users are white and only 15 percent are african american and also those imprisoned from drugs are 46 percent black and only 26 percent white” Because of the color of someone's skin should this make them any less of a person than another person out there?.. People should not be alienated because of the way they look, but yet all of this happens every single day everywhere. Racial profiling is a source used by police officers to determine if a person is a suspect or not based upon their race or ethnicity. Racial profiling is an obvious violation of the
According to research obtained by Cornell University scientists, 92% of Americans watch TV, 87% read newspapers, and 81% specifically watch local or national televised news stations…