Racial Profiling In The United States

In Brian Withrow's article on driving and race-based profiling, we get insight on the potential theory on why some races, usually the minorities, are shown with racial bias and discrimination. A brief description of what race-based policing is, how the practice was measured, and how it compared to recent studies are included within this article. The author's main argument is that beneath the appearance of racial bias and profiling, there are more factors in play other than that of one's race or ethnicity that determines how and if someone should be investigated. One finding that Withrow came across was that the population of a beat correlates with the patrol deployment within a city since the demand for police resources are not equal throughout

Data shows the racial profiling and illegal pullovers and search of cars driven by Black, and Hispanic males are a police action performed throughout the nation. “Even Famous Black celebrities and prominent African Americans say police have victimized them. They say they have been pulled over and subjected to a vehicle and physical search by police without probable cause, based on none other than the fact they are the black men driving an expensive car. Thus, the Police assumed they must be a drug dealer or involved in some criminal behavior to afford such an expensive car. “DWB” protocols by police and their departments according to the ACLU is also a violation of a person’s civil rights that are illegal, invasive as well as intrusive (8).”

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.

With blacks being stopped more than half of the time, and Latinos being stopped around 30 percent, its clear why these groups along with other minority groups feel they are being singled out and picked on; in fact, Mayor Bill de Blasio even made a public apology for the policy’s negative impact after the New York Times (2014) claimed that Judge Shira A. Scheindlin described it as “a policy of indirect racial profiling.” It’s reasons like these that encourage people to believe this tactic is inherently corrupt. If police officers are not using clear logic and reasonable suspicion when stopping individuals, it can create a major separation between our law enforcement agents and society and allow for noble cause corruption. While this policy has the ability to create major distrust and dislike for the cops, however, it can also have a very positive impact as well. For example, if officers continue to improve the accuracy of their stops and become more successful in taking weapons off the streets and deterring crime, their communities should begin to back them and also this

American Citizens rely on the police in communities to protect them , but racial profiling has led to countless people living in fear, casting entire communities as suspects simply because of what they look like, where they came from, or what religion they practice. (ACLU) This demonstrates that racial profiling has changed the ways we perceive the police, who are the people that we should not be afraid of, and it has caused us think differently of them and be afraid of them. Despite the training given to avoid discrimination, officers sometimes still rely on cultural stereotypes and act on their perceptions of a person's characteristics, such as their age, their race or their gender. (NIJ) From this, it’s shown that the training that the police are given are one of two things; either the training is not very good, or the police don’t give regards to their training. The police have also conducted random searches of innocent people without the hard evidence to prove they have done wrong. For example, the Colorado Springs Police pulled over two brothers, Ryan and Benjamin Brown, in 2015. They were driving a block away from their home in a predominantly white neighborhood. A taser-wielding officer ordered Benjamin, the driver, out of the car. He was handcuffed and searched without cause, then detained in the back of the police car, again, without cause. Ryan Brown had recorded the arrest on his phone. Benjamin Brown cooperated through the arrest and there were no weapons or contraband found in the car, the lawsuit says. In the lawsuit filed by the Denver law firm of Killner, Lane, & Newman, a statement that was made said: “Despite a video recording that clearly showed the officers drawing their weapons without cause, refusing to identify the reason for the stop, and using unnecessary force, an internal affairs investigation concluded that the officers’

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

. The United States has not evolved into a post-racial society (as cited by Bell, Hopson, Craig & Robinson, 2014, p. 34). In the legislation a bill is being passed in Rhode Island that will hold police accountable for their actions. Murphy (2014) reports that the bill will include computers that will document the dispatch of police the cause for the stop, date, time and location of the stop (p.1). The police vehicles will be equipped with video and audio recorders. The bill will include that an attorney will have the right to view all recordings from the stops that were made. Before the death of a young black male, Michael Brown, Hillary Clinton started a campaign to end racial profiling by getting a bill passed on three levels.

Not only is the policy not very effective but there is data to support that it is used to target communities of color. The majority of the people stopped are African-Americans, and then the next largest group is Hispanics. The smallest percent of people stopped are Whites. “Roughly 85 percent of people stopped in any given year are black or Hispanic. In 2012, blacks represented 55 percent of stops, Hispanics represented 32 percent of stops, and whites represented 10 percent of stops.” (Haq, 2013) The reason why these numbers are alarming is because whites are the majority in NYC. This is a huge disparity between the population and the number of stops. The specific target group for the policy tends to be Black and Hispanic males between the ages of 14- 24. This group only makes up about 14 percent of the NYC population but 70 percent of this group stopped and frisk. On the other hand some people would argue that the stop and frisk policy should be using crime data and not population data. According to Heather Mac Donald author of “ Cops are Racist” African Americans commit 66 percent of the violent crimes committed in NYC and when combined

Racial profiling is an example of police brutality, which is defined by Gross and Livingston (2002) as “the practice of some officers of stopping motorists of certain racial or ethnic groups because the officer believe that these groups are more likely than others to commit certain types of crimes” (p.1413). Therefore, individuals are treated unfairly by law enforcement solely based on their race. This type of mistreatment is unmerited and ultimately a violation of an individual’s rights. However, in many instances the courts do not find it a violation of their civil rights based on the fact that racial profiling is difficult to prove. Often, prosecutors are disinclined in bringing forth a case against officers on this particular matter. Officers are permitted to stop and search individuals and their vehicles whenever there is reasonable suspicion, however, there has been studies that prove that some law enforcement officers restrict these rights primarily to minority groups. Bowling and Phillips found that although there was no formal monitoring of use of these powers, it was concluded that it was particularly heavy use of these powers against ethnic minorities, largely of young black people (as cited in Sharp & Atherton, 2007, p. 747) . In several cases, officers argue that they reasonably pulled an individual over for other probable grounds such as: traffic violations, suspicious behavior, etc., with race never being an

Race has been around since time can remember; people have always been judged mainly based by their color. Things and particular events have happened to make people realize how brutal people have been toward minorities. They refer to this as Racism and Racial Profiling. Racial Profiling is more biased-based because of one’s skin color or religion, and can be seen as a widespread enigma, according to most of American society; the questions of race have been around for centuries and Americans are subjective to it as being the one thing that causes worry, initiating it to be the major problem in America and world-wide society.

Racial profiling of minorities is the primary independent variable that will be focused on in this study. Race also plays an essential role in the independent variable. The attributes of race are white, black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Asian and other. I proposed that the variable race will be recoded into 7 different categories: blacks, whites, Hispanics, Middle Eastern, Asian and other. However I will more or so likely not be examining the category of other in my proposal.

This quotation is significant to the theme of discrimination, as well as the social issue of racial profiling. Throughout Lilly’s life, her racial and religious situation causes her to be discriminated against, most of the time only because of her skin colour. Discrimination towards Lilly and other Muslims around her was a dominant theme in the novel. In this quotation, Lilly remarks that, even in the time period the book is set in (the late 1970s), people still did not fully understand or accept why people like her, decided to practice a religion that does not coincide with their race, as she remarks while struggling to explain where she exists in the world. Lilly highlights that her situation is rare in this quotation, and that is why she

Ever Since being forced to the united states as slaves blacks have been exposed to racism and legal discrimination citizens of African descent in the United States living threw things like Jim crow laws which were laws set to legally separate blacks like they were lesser to white citizens, or dealing acts of terror by groups like the KKK or other racist whites. And most importantly going through slavery which heavily set blacks back. Black men as a whole in society are believed to have the toughest time. They are often portrayed by society to be hoodlums or thugs when in reality that’s a small percentage, society lets a small amount represent the larger body. According to the Washington Post “African Americans are 13% of the country 's population, but they are 62.7% of convicted drug users/dealers. Caucasians are 80% of the country 's population, they are the majority of drug users/dealers but only 36.7% of them are locked up” this is a direct result of racial profiling and discrimination. We as a society need to improve and bring awareness to the topic of male males being profiled and discriminated against.

The charging planes demolished the towers, as millions of people gazed at the rubble collapsing to the ground. Consequently, bodies were falling as the tower had its last stand. Screaming can be heard from a distance, as reporters were recording all the details. Officers were left stunned at what they just saw. The nation was at a stand-still. After intensive investigating, the miscreants were found to be of Middle Eastern descent. They couldn’t trust them anymore. There was a solution, and it seemed like it was the only option. After the event of 9/11, perpetrated by people of Middle Eastern heritage, many police departments adopted a prejudiced view of Middle Easterners, stripping away their civil rights.

On September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked from different areas of the East Coast. Two out of these planes crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York City and over two thousand people were killed from that incident alone. One plane had also crashed into the Pentagon in near Washington, D.C. The last plane headed towards the White House but incidentally crashed in an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania (9/11 at nine). U.S Officials strongly claimed that the attack was linked to a terrorist group named Al-Qaeda. Ever since this occurrence many Muslims across the United States have been subject to racial profiling and security has definitely increased ever since, especially at airports.