Racial Profiling by Police Essay

Crime is on a rise, and police are trying their hardest to keep it under control. It is difficult when you are constantly accused of being racist even though you are just doing your job. The use of stop-and-frisk has created controversy between police officers and minorities. They feel as though the police are targeting them because of their race. To some it may seem that stop-and-frisk has started to turn into a type of racial profiling, but others, including me, believe that there are many advantages that out weight this concern.

Police departments across the country have come under scrutiny for racial bias in their stops and

Racial profiling is evident in our community when police officers target people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or natural origin.

In relation to the debate of ‘racial profiling,’ Taylor and Whitney define racial profiling as “the practice of questioning blacks in disproportionate numbers in expectation that they are more likely than people of other races to be criminals” (Taylor & Whitney, 2002). Statistics show that African-Americans and Hispanics commit more crime than Caucasians, with 90% of the 1.7 million interracial crimes stemming from the hands of African-American men. Even looking at these numbers, does that make it okay for the police to arrest and interrogate these racial minorities at such a high frequency? Where are these statistics coming from? How accurate are they? Does the media provide a skewed analysis of these findings? These are the types of questions that need to be addressed in regard to evaluating the validity of racial profiling.

These searches are meant to illustrate the increased police efficiency with the discovery of illegal contrabands, however, recent research has shown repeatedly that increasing the number of stops and searches among minorities doesn’t lead to more drug seizures than are found in routine traffic stops and searches among white drivers. Minorities are also subject to an increased number of arrests for minor crimes. In Minneapolis, African-Americans are 11 times more likely to be thrown into jail (but not necessarily convicted) for drinking in public, 19 times more likely for trespassing, 27 times more likely for lurking, and 42 times more likely for not having a valid license, than that of while citizens.

Racial profiling is a very important issue that individuals in society face every day. This problem occurs in low income or poverty-stricken areas throughout cities and communities across the nation. Hundreds of anecdotal testimonials allege that law enforcement officials at all levels of government are infringing upon the constitutional rights and civil liberties of racial and ethnic minorities through a practice called “racial profiling (Ward, 2002). So what is racial profiling? According to the National Institute of Justice, racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin (National Institute of Justice, 2013). The

There are major suspicions that minority groups of people are being treated unfairly by law enforcement, through a concept called racial profiling. Racial profiling is focusing blame for a crime onto a group of people based solely on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. This is only a suspicion in the U.S., but in other countries, this is blatantly going on now in 2017. The reason law enforcement officials tend to racially profile is because there is a common belief among many that certain people commit certain crimes more often, therefore it is a way to (in theory) catch more terrorists, drug dealers, etc. It occurs when officials such as the police will take someone into suspect just because of race, ethnicity, religion or national

Living as a Person of Colour in a predominantly white country often allots for a majority of discrimination systems. Profiling is the first one; namely the reason why #BlackLivesMatter became a movement. Profiling, often subdued to racial profiling is defined as the act of ‘using of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.’ Disproportionately, this affects African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans the most, with the recent Starbucks profiling incident, along with statistics that prove so. For example, cops stopped and searched 5.4% of Black drivers, and 4.1% of Hispanic drivers, but only 3.1% of Caucasian drivers. This search was done in North Carolina, which had 30% fewer black drivers than caucasian

Back in 2000, the New York City council held a series of meetings in the Bronx after the shooting of Amandou Diallo. Their goal was to address as well as repair the relationships between police officers and city residents. However the first meeting did not go as the suspected, over two hundred of the attendees accused police officers of mistreating African-Americans. One after another shared their humiliating encounters with the police. This all occurred almost sixteen years ago, and the most upsetting part is that not a thing has changed. These actions have only alienated communities from law enforcement. Racial profiling is patently illegal and violates the U.S. Constitutions core promises of equal protection under the law.

Racism exists in our American justice system… many years later. Many assume that racial profiling is a problem that just arose recently, due to multiple infamous incidents where “justice” was served to innocent victims. Most people have this assumption because the extremes of racial profiling has been making national headlines. When in fact racial profiling has been around and in use since the 1700s. By definition racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by law enforcement agents as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest or detain absent evidence of a specific crime or criminal behavior. In other terms it is using racism and stereotypes to assume the worst of people. Racial profiling is executed by law enforcements by multiple tactics, such as a stop and frisk , vehicle or bag search search, a pat down, etc based on the police having a reasonable suspicion that the individual is going to commit or has already committed a crime whether it is a felony or misdemeanor. Racial profiling has destroyed our trust in police officers due to the fact that the law enforcements can use this to their advantage by using discrimination to interrogate citizens or immigrants, whom are by a large percentage African American or a minority. According to the U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics, African American males have a one-in-three chance of going to jail in their lifetime, a rate more than six times higher than whites (Knafo,2013). This statistic however is not based on crime rates yet based on illegal drug offenses. Although most african americans are incarcerated due to drug crimes it is a proven statistic that African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than the rate of white men.

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

There are many people in law enforcement that do not believe that racial profiling ever

Black drivers are thirty-one percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers, while Hispanics are twenty-three percent more likely. “Connecticut, in an April 2015 report, reported on 620,000 traffic stops which revealed widespread racial profiling, particularly during daylight hours when the race of driver was more visible” (Quigley). When stopped, minorities are more likely to be given tickets than white drivers stopped for the same exact offenses. They are also more likely to be searched. The Department of Justice reports that at traffic stops, Hispanic drivers were searched by police twice more often as white drivers, while Black drivers were searched three times more often. “A large research study in Kansas City found when police decided to pull over cars for investigatory stops, where officers look into the car’s interior, ask probing questions and even search the car, the race of the driver was a clear indicator of who was going to be stopped: twenty-eight percent of young Black males twenty five or younger were stopped in a year’s time, versus white men who had twelve percent chance and white women only a seven percent chance. In fact, not until Black men reach fifty years old do their rate of police stops for this kind of treatment dip below those of white men twenty-five and under”

There are many types of racism in America that cause people to make accusations against law enforcement for discrimination. One type of racism is racial profiling. It is a strategy that encourages police officers to stop and question minorities only because of their race. Racial profiling is a serious issue of social importance in the United States. George Will opens by casting doubt with his tone on the idea that racial profiling is a serious issue in America. His tone is sarcastic and critical of how politicians and news people are talking about the issue, and The focus of the article is to use Heather Mac Donald as the primary evidence for Will's view that racial profiling is not necessarily bad. I believe there is racism still happening to black people and Muslim people. Racial profiling is an unfavorable thing, and it can be a huge problem lead to a scuffle and law enforcement should work to stop racism forever in the whole world.

When thinking about racism, it feels like it is a thing of the past, but it’s not. There are numerous people who are racist in law enforcement and that is demonstrated through racial profiling. Racial profiling still exists today and unfortunately happens frequently. In 2013, an unarmed black male, Trayvon Martin, is shot and killed by an officer. In 2014, Michael Brown, who is also a black male is shot and killed by another officer. Also, many black and Hispanic people are racially profiled and stopped by the police for suspicion of drug possession. In Arizona officers stop people who look suspicious and ask to see if they have papers. Most people who are stopped have Hispanic features or are heard speaking Spanish. This results in Hispanic people being unreasonably stopped. Racial profiling has not significantly evolved since the civil rights movement and it is crucial that minorities take action.