Racial Profiling Is A Discriminatory Practice

Racial Profiling is an act of automatically defining or identifying someone based on their ethnicity. This act was most recognized during the late 1800’s in the U.S. under the Jim Crow law. It was passed in order to segregate whites and the colored in America. It fundamentally made whites superior to all. Though, in 1964 the Civil Rights Act passed stating that anybody of any ethnicity or religion are to be equal and united. However, today this law has never been truly accepted when seeing the statistics of the type of people being stopped by the police. In fact, based on the statistics of the people stopped, there is an ethnic disproportion which shows that the police use racial profiling. Even though innocent people are stopped, the

Hispanics, Mexicans, and Latin Americans do not only face discrimination on the roadways but also in areas of immigration law enforcement due to past incidents in America with people of their ethnicity. In 2010 an American citizen of Mexican descent and his family were coming back to America from a family trip to Mexico, when him and his family, including his eighteen month old son, were subjected to an additional screening and special search because of their origin. In New Jersey 2007 police referred around 10,000 individuals who they believed to be undocumented to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), and less than 1,500 of those referred to ICE had immigration offenses. Even though nearly ninety percent of those referred were legal residents or U.S citizens, they were all still jailed for a few days, resulting, once again in unjust treatment of American citizens because of the color of their skin (The Reality of Racial Profiling).

Racial profiling occurs when authority uses someone’s race or ethnicity to decide whether or not to use enforcement. This controversial act is highly illegal and is mostly caused by stereotypes of certain races and ethnicities. Black males are mostly targeted due to the color of their skin, the type of car they drive, the genre of music they are listening to and how they are dressed. Some call this act DWB, driving while black. Black males are stopped and searched constantly with no probable cause just because of their race and gender. If a group of black males are riding in a car with hats on, and loud music they are more likely to get stopped than a group of white males doing the same thing. It is

According to the 11 Facts about Racial Discrimination, “The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17% chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance” (11 Facts about Racial Discrimination 1). Racial profiling, or discriminating against a whole group of people based on their race, is an unjust act and a big problem in our society today. Arresting people because of how they look like, or what they believe in is absurd. According to ACLU, “Racial Profiling refers to 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” (ACLU 1). Although law enforcement assumes they are doing their job, they need to remain objective and fair in all situations, because they are violating rights, lacking protection and risking lives.

So before I can answer this million dollar question I need to establish what racial profiling is. According to the American Civil Liberties Union it is “when law enforcement and private security target people color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without evidence of criminal activity and based on perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion.” In plain English this means a person is perceived to have committed a crime only because of their race.

“In 2005, a study analyzing data accumulated statewide in Texas reveals disproportionate traffic ceases and searches of African Americans and Hispanics, even though law enforcement authorities were more liable to find contraband on Whites.” (The Reality of Racial Profiling) The utilization of personal characteristics or comportment patterns to make generalizations about a person is called racial profiling. Throughout time, the utilization of race by law enforcement agencies in their policing activities has received considerable attention across the nation. The 4th amendment right that one has as an American, which is protecting against unreasonable search and seizure, is becoming contravened; one reason for the way one looks. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that racial profiling violates the constitutional requirement that all persons be accorded equal protection of the law, but it is still occurring in our society. Racial Profiling has caused the violation of our rights whether it maybe from a terry stop that was originated for the case Terry vs. Ohio, stop and frisk, racial vehicle stops, and the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act also known as Arizona SB 1070.

In New York City’s police department report in December 1999, the stop and frisk practices showed to be greatly based on race. In NYC, blacks make up 25.6% of the city’s population, Hispanics 23.7% and whites are 43.4% of NYC population. However, according to the report, 50.6% of all persons stopped were black, 33% were Hispanic, and only 12.9% were white. As you can see, more than half of the individuals who were stopped were black, 62.7% to be exact (ACLU, 2013). In Orange County, California Latinos, Asians and African Americans were more than 90% of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking System (ACLU, 2013). Clearly this database record shows racial profiling occurred when the total population in the database made up less than half of Orange County’s population. This is when the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the ACLU stepped in. One other instance of racial profiling I’d like to discuss occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona. A court ruled in May 2013 that “sheriff Joe Arpaio’s routine handling of people of Latino descent amounted to racial and ethnic profiling”; according to CNN, the sheriff’s office had a history of targeting vehicles with those having darker skin, examining them more strictly and taking them into custody more often than others (CNN, 2014). Judge Murray Snow ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in this

I would argue with Peter Schuck because racial profiling undermines human rights. The Fourth amendment states, secure from unreasonable searches and seizures of property by the government. It protects against arbitrary arrests and is the basis of the law regarding search warrants, and stop-and-frisk. Law enforcement violates the amendment when they make a traffic stop. In a study done by the New Jersey Turnpike, fifteen percent of all drivers on the Turnpike were minorities, that virtually all drivers violated the traffic laws, and that blacks and whites violated traffic laws at almost exactly the same rate, but that forty-two of stops and 73.2% of arrests were of blacks’ motorists. The Attorney General of New Jersey said, “that the use of arrest statistics could not justify racially disparate stops and searches, as those arrests were the product of racially discriminatory law enforcement practices” (Rudovsky 300). The statics done by Turnpike and Attorney General one could see that people get pulled over by their race. Statics show that 15.4% of the stops failed to comply with Fourth Amendment standards. The people that were being stopped was based on suspicion of possession of a weapon, yielded a weapon in only 2.5% of all stops were considered African-Americans. Officers would Force young men to lower their trousers, or otherwise searching inside their underwear, on public streets or in

Racial profiling has been an issue in the United States that dates back to the times of slavery. Over the past four hundred years there have been several official active laws that specifically discriminated and targeted African Americans.

As stated above racial profiling has been around for quite some time. One example of racial profiling from history is one by the Spaniards. King Charles I came to the new land recently conquered by the Spain. He and his ambassadors wrote a Requirement that all Native Americans must submit to spanish authority and have to either convert to Roman Catholic Church or be persecuted. The document written by the Spaniards showed that even if you weren’t a native american or even looked like one of them, look alikes could face the same charges and consequences as the native americans. Not only did profiling happen back then but also recently. A modern day example of racial

Racial profiling has been an on going controversy that has yet to be resolved. There is a complicated history of this occurring. For years up until now things have not changed. Racial profiling is all around us and is “the practice by law enforcement officials of using race, national origin, or ethnicity as the primary or sole consideration when intervening in a law-enforcement capacity” (Racial Profiling, 2012). Young black and African-American men are being targeted everyday around the world. They are being stopped walking up to their homes and even walking in their neighborhoods. Many are being suspected of things they are not doing. Look at the consequences that are being faced with the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin.

Racial profiling is the act of using somebody race as a key factor in deciding their character. Racial profiling has been one the leading cause of major incidents in today’s time. It’s been in the U.S. Criminal System for decades and now is reaching its peak. With people not feeling like they are being fairly treated, this society has turned into turmoil. Racial profiling can be minimized by educating the community concerning stereotypes in regards to ethnicity, national origin, and religion.

Racial profiling is considered to be a breach of justice in the US. It is the use of someone’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement in deciding whether or not to stop, search, or arrest an individual. The practice of racial profiling is still very controversial today and is considered illegal in many jurisdictions.

“Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion” as illustrated by Warren of Sage journals. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as reasons for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. African-Americans have been fighting what seems to be a never ending battle against oppression and racism. Over the years 2012-2015, reports of police killing unarmed black men in America have been alarming.

Racial Profiling is law enforcement and private security practices that disproportionately target people of color for investigation and enforcement. Racial Profiling occurs across the United States and an overwhelming number of Hispanics and African Americans, including children, are being stopped. Some may say “racial profiling is an ineffective and degrading practice that violates civil rights” while others say that it is “necessary to counter terrorism and reduce crime.” In my opinion, stop and frisk is unfair and against citizens constitutional rights therefore, making it illegal and horrible, but I do believe it’s a tactic taken by police to ensure no crimes are happening and it is also an effective way to counter