Racial Profiling In The Criminal Justice System

One major problem with the Justice System is that law enforcement use racial profiling affecting many people of color on a daily basis. Racial profiling is when law enforcement believe that certain groups are more likely to commit a crime rather than other groups. This is a major problem because in many cases there are very tragic incidents and as NAACP stated, “ Mr. Garner’s tragic death shows that for communities of color, including women and LGBT people of color, immigrants and low income communities, racial profiling has been and continues to be a constant reality of life, often with tragic and deadly consequences,” (45) Explains how racial profiling has become an everyday basis to minorities affecting them in many ways and unfortunately ends with death occasionally. Racial profiling is a huge dilemma

Due to practices such as racial profiling the American public has an ingrained prejudice against African American males. While in some cases the use of race to complete a profile of a criminal offender is necessary and understandable, but when our system uses it as one of the sole forms of suspicion in some cases this paints a very morose picture of our system and causes an immense amount of tension. However, now that society has accepted young, African American males as the standard criminal, law enforcement officers no longer even have to be told to racially profile because American society has already spelled it out for them throughout their lives who they should look out for. It is very easy to disapprove of and condemn law enforcement's use of racial profiling, yet what many Americans fail to realize that this is an issue that that hasn't only been ingrained into the American

Current socio-political controversy in America has hit an all-time high. Our country is divided regarding topics such as immigration, minimum wage, healthcare, and foreign affairs. These problems desperately need a solution, however, because of the variety of opinions as to how we should solve these, solutions that satisfy everyone have been nearly impossible to come by. One of the most prominent issues in our country that has been increasingly problematic is racial profiling. Racial profiling is seen throughout America at places like airports and on the highways. Multiple ethnic groups have been affected by this ‘strategy,’ such as Muslims and Latinos. One of the most subjected groups to racial profiling and arguably one of the most outspoken have been African Americans. The divide between African Americans and police officers has been continuously rising in the last decade, as many have spoken out regarding the unfair treatment of blacks by law enforcement. In the last decade alone, there have been far too many instances in which a black citizen’s life has been claimed by the hands of a police officer, such as in the case of the killings of Philando Castile and Michael Brown. The public response to these killings have been outrage and angst against police officers. Believing race was a factor, the public began to voice their opinions and protest the seemingly unfair treatment towards black individuals by police officers. This has only increased the tension between the two groups, as there are often racial profiling accusations toward police officers who pull over black drivers. The best way to approach a solution is to first look at the history of the problem and its contribution to the current situation. I believe the unfair treatment and racial violence towards blacks that occurred in American history has contributed to the rising tension between blacks and police officers, resulting in the current racial divide and constant confrontations between the two groups. The best example of this can be seen in the issue of racial profiling, in which the two groups’ perception of one another has been hostile and unwelcoming.

Growing up, I was taught to treat my neighbor as I would treat myself, but as life unfolded, reality hit, and I realized the world did not operate under the same teachings. I started to see a world that judge people based off their ethnic background, not the content of their character. For year’s people of all colors, nationalities and genders have been targeted due to fitting a certain description. This behavior is referred to as racial profiling and it is killing, wrongfully accusing and creating division amongst the people and justice system. The justice system must redesign the policy and procedures, which relate to racial profiling, because it is not protecting the rights of the people, it is attacking them.

Inefficient policing resulting from the high tensions between law enforcement and minority races has called the issue of racial profiling and corruption within the American justice system to national attention. Many citizens now demand an end to the improper treatment and wrongful deaths of people of color on the basis that all races should be treated equally by law enforcement officials.

African American sentences and Caucasians sentences can be exceedingly contradistinctive. According to The Editorial Board, “Decades of research have shown that the criminal courts sentence black defendants more harshly than whites” (1). The Editorial Board is saying that there is a difference between sentencing. An individual’s race could determine their length of sentencing in the court system. Criminals whom act in identical offenses, no matter of their race, should be given the same sentencing. King reports, “Black men are given prison sentences 20% longer than white men for the exact same crime” (1). King’s argument is that minorities are given longer sentences, and that there is no equality between races. The court system discriminates against minorities by giving them longer sentences from Caucasians individuals who did the same crime. In her book, Are Cops Racist, McDonald advocates that “People in prison are not black or white they’re criminals” (7). In making this avocation, McDonald urges us to understand that criminals are criminals nonetheless of their race.

routinely be subjected to police stops not rising to the legal formality of “seizures,” simply because they are young black men”(Cole 27). “Blacks receive probation 3 times more than whites in the years 2010-2013. The number of whites being given probation than receiving an sentance has increased by about three fourths more than it was 2011”(Johnson 1). Whites are likely to receive a court day faster than a person of color. More than half of the hispanics in prison today faced a white judge.

In order to best understand racial profiling from a newfangled and more precise perspective, one must consider discrimination and statistics. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, civilian complaints, legal actions, empirical research, and a number of high-profile incidents brought several law enforcement practices to the forefront of debates on racial/ethnic bias in policing. The aforementioned sources concluded that law enforcement agencies all across the country participate in the following forms of discrimination.

The targeting of individuals because of their skin color is as clear a form of discrimination as not hiring a person because of their race. Thus, racial profiling in simplest terms is intentional discrimination based on racial stereotyping. It is disheartening that such intentional discrimination is a widely used tactic by law enforcement officers, whether they openly admit to the practice or not. One must wonder what would happen if the demographics in the U.S. were to flip and white people found themselves as the minority more likely to be approached (harassed?) by police, if racial profiling would continue to be a viable practice. It is not possible. Lately tons of police officers have been killing African-Americans and getting away with it; the number of unarmed Blacks was at least 102 in 2015. There are several ways to prevent this from happening to people of

people too. The first case of racial profiling in court took place in 1968. In this case, a police officer stopped three black men because of his suspicion of crime. The police officer found two weapons when he searched the men, and one was put in jail. The one sent to jail came back and challenged his arrest on account of the fourth amendment, freedom from search and seize without just cause. However, his challenge was overruled (Wikipedia.com). Ever heard the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? This is along the same idea, but contains more depth. True, the fourth amendment protects people from search and seizure, but when someone is opposed to being searched, it causes suspicion, as if they have something to hide. This is a sinful

There is an issue which is plaguing our community and making the job of a Police Officer more difficult -  Racial Profiling. Many have different opinions on why it happens, and what we should do about it if it does happen. The problem is nobody can come to a consensus on how to solve this problem. It seems to me that racism is still part of our society, and sadly, I think it always will be. We all have prejudices of some sort towards others. It may be because of race, sex, sexual preference, rich, poor, ugly, or pretty. I am not saying that this is right, but we as a society need to realize that this problem will never completely go away. We need to adapt to it, work around it, or through it.

Most everyone acknowledges that there have been severe injustices towards minorities in the past. Some would argue though, that it does not exist anymore in our current society. This assumption is flawed in several key areas. Just last year, Stanford researchers found that in North Carolina “police searched 5.4 percent of blacks and 4.1 percent of the Hispanics they pulled over, but only 3.1 percent of whites” (Stanford News). The argument relies entirely upon the basis that racial profiling no longer occurs in any shape of form in our criminal justice system, which cannot be true because issues like this evolve over time. Racial profiling by law enforcement has changed a great deal and is nothing like it has been in the past. The extent and prevalence has changed as this issue has been brought to the public eye over the past couple of decades. While it is incorrect to assume racial

Police misconduct against people of color has been an issue for centuries and it continues to be a problem today. According to Packman, police misconduct is any action performed by and officer that is unethical, against employment guidelines, unconstitutional, or criminal in nature. Police officers are sworn in to protect and serve our communities from criminal acts (Brenner and Ardebili, 2011), but in reality all they really do is put fear in the people of color. People of color know that they are at a higher risk of being stop and harassed by a police officer because of their skin color. According to Siegel (2015), “police are more likely to use racial profiling to stop black motorist as they travel further into the boundaries of predominantly white neighborhoods” ( p. 209). This shows how police officers believe to know where a person belongs and where they do not just by the color of their skin. There has been cases in our history that provide evidence to how Black people have been in certain places at the wrong time and come in conflict with

Police brutality and police stops have been heated topics in the news the past couple of years. By examining these cases, it is clear that racism is still prevalent in many public settings today. Many people believe that police target certain ethnic groups more so than others. This is why many groups, such as Black Lives Matter, have developed to advocate for equality. The Ferguson Report recorded that over the past two years, 85% of people at traffic stops, 90% of tickets, 93% of tickets, and 95% of jaywalking incidents have been African Americans. It was also found that at the Baltimore police department, they were much more likely to stop a black individual than they were to stop a white one. For every 1000 people stopped 520 were African-American and only 180 were Caucasian. (Dudley). A large part of this problem is something called racial profiling. Racial profiling is the “discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” (“Racial Profiling”). It is because of this that many people feel the justice system in the United States is not fair to all people, since more people are more likely to be put into a position with the law than others are. This can help to explain the

Racial profiling is the discriminatory practice by law enforcement targeting individuals for suspicion of crimes based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Racial profiling is unconstitutional.