The Dangers Of Racial Profiling And Police Brutality

Police brutality is defined as “excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians,” and this has become more prominent within the United States throughout the years (Danilina). There has many cases where police brutality has been seen via news channels, and it has dismantled the unity of trust between the civilians of the United States and the law enforcement who are supposed to protect the everyday people from harm. The issue is if the law enforcement is actually right within their means of protection, or have they gone too far with using excessive force in any situation that may or may not be harmful to them. There is, also, the question of whether racial profiling is the biggest contributor to police brutality.

Racial profiling is used by many Americans in the united states. Blacks, whites and mexicans all use racial profiling. Their profiling is much different then you could say is used by police enforcement today. Minorities are high on the list of racial profiling by police in today 's society. This has caused many issues with minorities and police enforcement relations since police use this as a way of controlling crime rates in many cities. With this paper it will be to show and scrutinize every aspect of consequences of racial profiling with police and individuals such as minorities. To be able to explain and probe racial profiling and the issues that coincide with this issue. I will then provide an explanation with background of what racial profiling means. Then providing research that will show the issue of racial profiling with how it will affect the relations between individuals and law enforcement departments.

Racial profiling in the dictionary is “the assumption of criminality among ethnic groups: the alleged policy of some police to attribute criminal intentions to members of some ethnic groups and to stop and question them in disproportionate numbers without probable cause (“Racial Profiling”).” In other words racial profiling is making assumptions that certain individuals are more likely to be involved in misconduct or criminal activity based on that individual’s race or ethnicity. Racial profiling propels a brutalizing message to citizens of the United States that they are pre-judged by the color of their skin rather than who they are and this then leads to assumptions of ruthlessness inside the American criminal justice system. With

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else” (Malcolm X) is a contestable ideal. Do we Americans allow our law enforcement to continue killing innocent African Americans whose own ancestors contribute to the success of this nation? No! We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch innocent lives ruined over and over again. We must auscultate to the cries of our four fathers. In order to halt the self-destruction of this nation we should fight for change in the police force, attempt to cease the embodiment of racial profiling, and support the efforts of those striving to bring about change.

Racial profiling is still an ongoing issue that occurs and such an issue has led to many problems for the minority groups of this country. Whether it be African Americans, Indians, Asians, Mexicans, or Muslims, all have faced profiling at some point in time. The problems caused by this controversial subject include the impending distrust between black communities and law enforcement, unfair treatment towards all minorities by law enforcement, verbal and physical abuse of minorities by police officers which can sometimes lead to death, emotional unstableness of the victims whom have faced such a terrible judgement, and the negative impact it has on children of the minority groups.

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. It takes place in a variety of routine police encounters. Unmotivated searches occur everyday among the minority groups. Could you imagine waking up and being scared to walk outside your house because of the color of your skin? This is a fear of almost everyone belonging to a minority group. This continues to be a widespread problem throughout the country.

Racial profiling isn’t something new to today’s society. Most recently there were incidents in which the officers were accused of mistreating blacks such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. “Racism versus professionalism: claims and counter-claims about racial profiling” written by Vic Satzewich and William Shaffir discusses racism versus professionalism with officers. Their argument is more biased towards the police force and they argue that it’s part of their job. “

In modern day society, the police force is meant to safeguard the lives of those they serve, to eliminate crime, to ensure public safety, and to do so in an honorable fashion. They are meant to be respected and trusted by those they potentially "protect." Children often looked at them as modern day superheroes. At some point however, something changed and the neighborhood hero transformed into the villain. What happens when the ones people reach out to in a time of distress become the ones causing the chaos? Who are people to turn to when those they thought would protect them are becoming the antagonist? Over the years, police officers have committed crimes against those for several reasons, but the main one that will be analyzed is

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

Police officers get credit for doing racial profiling which is consider “lazy” work when there are other officers out doing actual police work. It also is an abusive practice that only targets people for how they look. The majority of law enforcement officers are ethical and professional, however, there are those officers that abuse their power to target individuals of certain ethnic groups for unequal application of the law. Also it derails the trust in the community between police and civilians such as when some of the “good” officers come into the community looking answers/clues to find a real criminal they will be denied anything from mostly everyone in the community because of what those “bad” officers had done. Racial profiling isn’t just traffic stops

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.

Racial Profiling is unconstitutional and illegal, yet it’s still used in law enforcement. The practice of racial profiling, as defined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 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 2005). Racial profiling causes more harm than good, it can cause emotional, mental and more often physical harm to the person being subjected to the practice. According to the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments, racial profiling is unconstitutional. It causes distrust in law enforcement because ethnic

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.

Police brutality is a problem in our society mainly because there are police officers that are getting away with not only physically hurting innocent people, but murder as well. In the past year, there have been between 865-939 cases of people being shot and/or killed by cops (Calacal 1). Racial profiling is one of the main factors in this problem. African Americans and Latinos are the people we see being abused by police on the daily. So far this year, 215 African-Americans and 94 Latinos have been killed by police. Data shows that a black person is 3 times more likely to be killed by a police than a white person. Several officers

Benjamin Todd Jealous once said, “Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”(Jealous, 2015). I couldn’t agree more with him. In today’s society more and more Black men and women suffer from police bias. Police is a powerful organization that was meant to serve and protect. Enforce laws and keeping communities safe. The problem is we fail to acknowledge that police are humans with real life bias. The problem with police is how much racial profiling is going up,