The Black Man Or Is It Just Mere Reasonable Suspicion?

Mr. Grant, an 18-year-old black man, was walking down a street in a high-crime area where he attracted police officers’ attention. He was stopped and questioned by police officers. Then, Mr. Grant became more suspicious to the police when he started acting very nervous. Mr. Grant was requested name, address and was asked to put hands in front of him. Mr. Grant admitted he was carrying a firearm and weed and he was immediately arrested, searched and advised his legal rights.

A police officer’s abuse of power comes from the amounts of stop and frisks towards people of color and the actions taken for the arrest. A police officer will use pre-textual stops to justify stopping a black person. If an officer deems a black person to be suspicious based on appearance, then that black person has committed a crime. John Clemons, writer of a journal article, “Blind injustice: The

policies that are currently in place to reduce tension between police officers and the minority groups that they serveLaw enforcement officers and the community have been disconnected. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police who here to protect and serve our communities. When Ferguson, Missouri exploded after the police shot an unarmed black teenager, the tension between the community and its protectors was laid bare. Ferguson is not the first and certainly not the last community forced to bridge that chasm. In South Carolina a policeman shot an unarmed black male who was stopped for a seat belt violation. The cop asked the male for ID, who then reached under his seat to retrieve his wallet, but was shot in the leg by the cop before he could take out his ID. When the body cam video was reviewed it shows that the trigger happy cop probably was in fear of his life, however it is also obvious that the cop shouldn’t have felt threaten as the behavior of the black male involved nothing unusual. Many would say if the driver was white the cop would have not reacted the way he did.

With so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. The issues surrounding the topic of race is like the two faces of the same coin as there are usually two sides that we have to consider: reality and media portrayals. The reality side of situations is always there at the time, but it is so subtly hidden from society that nobody understands it unless they witness it firsthand and with the media spreading filtered information, it becomes even harder for us to identify the key issue; this is especially the case when dealing with the police and racial profiling. If you turn on the news and flip to a channel where it is reporting on the police and their arrests, you will most likely see more arrests pertaining to minorities than other ethnicities. In the news, we can often see a misrepresentation of ethnic minorities, usually African-Americans, being arrested when compared to others and this has caused problems around societies countless times. For this essay topic, I will be discussing the different issues surrounding race within the parameters of criminal justice and inequality; furthermore I will be

One event that caused a huge uproar among the Houston populace occurred back in 2014. Writing for the news website Chron, Cindy George and Katherine Driessen (2015) reports “The officer, a 10-year veteran at that time, said Baker reacted uncooperatively when approached and ran into an alley behind the strip mall. Authorities have said the shooting happened behind the stores” (pg. 2). In the defense of the officer, Jordan Baker may very well have acted suspiciously via running away. However, does that justify the use of a gun against an ordinary unarmed civilian? Baker’s family does not think so and George and Driessen (2015) notes “The complaint asserts that Baker was ‘shot and killed without any lawful justification’ and accuses off-duty officer Juventino Castro of considering Baker a suspect because he was a black man in a hoodie” (pg. 2). There are two issues at play here: the use of unnecessary force and race. When it comes to the former, it is very hard to defend the usage of a gun unless Baker pulls one out himself. For the latter, it is also very hard to defend the officer considering HPD’s track record when dealing with racial minorities. Like many other police departments, HPD is no stranger when it comes to the accusation of racially profiling Houstonians. Baker’s family believes that race is in fact a factor contributing to the usage of gun. Judging by the huge uproar, many others appear to share their suspicion in regards to HPD officers being

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 situations such as this one as well as the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles, Blacks have become to fear the police. When a police car approaches them, they can't decide whether justice will be served or if the cop's intentions are to harm or even kill them. The integrity of a police officer is not guaranteed to the citizen. In past cases police have been known to plant fake evidence simply to have a reason to arrest a "suspect." As a result, African-Americans make up about 12% of the general population, but more than half of the prison population (Cole 4). With so much injustice being done to minorities in general, how can you expect minorities to respect a system that doesn't respect them?

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

An analysis of history and the contemporary exercise of police practices suitably describe the experiences of many black men when dealing with law enforcement officers. Before the due process revolution that occurred in the 1960s, the rights of many back men were abused on a daily basis. These practices continue regardless of a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court that was geared towards limiting the discretion of police officers. Through the ruling, the Supreme Court sought to promote the legal rights of black American as compared to any other court in the judicial system (Maclin, 2012, p.1275). In light of these issues, the Terry v. Ohio lawsuit was filed after John W. Terry, the petitioner was stopped and frisked by an officer after the law enforcement personnel suspected him of casing a store for a possible robbery. After the police officer approached Terry for questioning, he decided to search him first, which contributed to numerous concerns regarding searches based on the Fourth Amendment. The case represents the need for a boundary between a reasonable belief and probable suspicion based on coherent facts.

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

You can not assume anything, you really have to find out what really is going on instead of assuming by a person skin tone or their race that the person is, the person is doing something wrong or you need to search that person….etc. This man did not do anything to deserve what happened to him and it should have never even got to that point in the first place, also the people should have handled the situation way better than they did. A african-american male in New york city was waiting outside a hospital for a job interview when several police officers came up to him and questioned him. The man was trying to explain why he was waiting outside the hospital but after the BARELY lifted his hands up they all got every defensive and they all beat the man up and he was also arrested . I ask you what possibly can a man unarmed and also is in his 50’s or 60’s do to a group of 4 or 5 police officers? I am seeking for reason for why this man was done like that. This incident is a prime example of a racial profiling and also a police brutality case. This is another why I will continue to believe that racial profiling is prevalent in law enforcement. Racial profiling is not just happening with law enforcement but it is also happening with schools all across the United states of

The police are able to get away with taking African Americans into custody without much of a cause, and then later they the police will make up the reason. They get away with this because of the biases towards African Americans. “Institutional bias against African-Americans is well-documented and contributes to the racial disparities in how laws are enforced.” These bias towards African Americans creates an unjust system that makes it hard for them live their daily life. When at any time they can be stopped and taken in for no reason or because they fit “description” of a suspect. At this point it becomes alarming on how often this is becoming, even more so how much of it have become the norm. To think that it has become such a norm that when Brocks was taken to the hospital to be put into the psych ward they did not question why she was there. All they had to do was use three questions to keep her lock up in there for eight days, Or until she would admit that all three of these were lies “…that she owned the BMW, that she was a professional banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter.” They did not care for the truth at all, for them excepting the truth would require them to put aside their bias views. The fact that they are unable to put these aside and do their job without discrimination of any kind is concerning. For it is doctors that cannot look passed their views

Racial profiling has been a hot topic recently and has influenced citizen’s perceptions of police. Minorities that been stopped due to racial profiling are more willing to voice their dissatisfaction with the police. Minorities who have not been racially profiled but hear stories about racial profiling may be more skeptical of future experiences with police. Research has found that minorities tend to rate officer legitimacy in a more objective manor when stopped by a minority officer (Tyler, 2005). Minorities that are stopped by White officers tend to be more skeptical of the officer behavior (Tyler, 2005). African Americans are the most skeptical of police behavior and especially believe

A major issue that has been at the forefront of the topic of race in America is racial profiling. This practice of targeting individuals based on the individual’s race is not new and has been in use for many many years. However it has recently come to national attention with the killing of unarmed black teenagers by police officers. The issue of racial profiling not only highlights the lack of equality in America but the issue of policemen using excessive force when dealing with criminal activity.

My friend did not expect the police to handcuff him outside of his house in front of his neighbors. He did nothing wrong--an hour earlier he had called 911 to report that someone had broken into his shed and stolen a lawn mower. Yet when the police finally showed up to investigate, they immediately suspected the perpetrator was him. This grievous act was made very obviously due to the fact that my friend is an African American male. The scene of people of color being subjected to bias from law enforcement is unfortunately very common. There are many books and movies that expose this prejudice, including the book Just Mercy. Brian Stevenson, the author, asserts in his book Just Mercy that the race of an individual has the most impact on how he/she is treated within the criminal justice system.