The Importance Of Racial Profiling

There is no question that police brutality, when it occurs, is one of the most egregious violations of public trust that a public servant can commit. Police officers, those individuals taxed with protecting the public from danger, should never be in a situation where they pose a threat to the public. Furthermore, there is no question that police brutality occurs. Moreover, generally when there are allegations of police brutality, there has been some type of underlying violent incident. In addition, while issues of brutality may seem clear-cut to a disinterested observer, it is critical to keep in mind that law enforcement officers are not presented with textbook examples of the appropriate or inappropriate use of force, but real-life scenarios involving quick decisions. There are many arrest and non-arrest scenarios where officers need to use force to protect self or others; and the degree of force required may be greater than what a disinterested observer would assume. Another recurrent issue in debates about police brutality is that racial bias appears to be a motive behind police brutality. When one considers that minorities are disproportionately likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes, one would expect to find a disproportionate number of minorities among those alleging police brutality. Therefore, while acknowledging that police brutality, when it occurs, is a serious problem, the reality is that most

In the Justice System there are a lot of flaws that affect many people of color, and from past history, it has shown how these practices can lead to very unfortunate events, one of these practices is racial profiling. Racial profiling is when law enforcement uses race and ethnicity as grounds to determine if someone, typically of color, is guilty of doing something illegal. Racial profiling is a major problem in this country, this as well affects many citizens that are mainly of color because law enforcement usually sees them as targets, and it is important to improve and fixed this issue because there are many tragic incidents that have been caused of racial profiling.

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.

The way in which a police officer reacts to a situation relies on the characteristics of the suspect and location, and the personal beliefs of the police officer. The characteristics of a suspect include the individual’s race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, and behavior. These aspects play a single role in a law enforcement officer’s behavior under a nerve-wracking situation. People will argue that an officer judging by a suspect’s characteristics is sexist, racist, etc., but, truth is, everyone judges by

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

In order to understand racial profiling, it must first be correctly defined. Although different authors use different criteria for the term racial profiling, Merriam-Webster’s definition for the word racial is “of, relating to, or based on a race (Merriam-Webster, 2006; p.855).” The definition the dictionary puts forth for profiling is “the act of suspecting or targeting a person solely on the basis of observed characteristics or behavior (Merriam-Webster, 2006; p.830).” Based on these definitions, racial profiling could be defined for criminal justice purposes as targeting a person based solely on the characteristic of race. Most people, law enforcement officers included, would consider racial profiling based on this definition as

Through history it has been shown countless time, the results of poor preparation is the ultimate demise of the people. In 1999, four non-uniformed, New York City Police officers approached a suspect whom they believed was the suspect of a reported rapist. The man was no other than Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant. The confrontation occurred in low visibility conditions, meaning at night, as Diallo “retreated into the vestibule and reached for an object in his pocket. Believing that Diallo was pulling out a weapon, one officer shouted, ‘Gun!’ and the four officers began to shoot into the vestibule. One officer tripped, and believing their fellow officer had been shot, the other officers emptied 41 bullets into the vestibule, nineteen of which hit Diallo, killing him” (Gerdes, 2004). The direct result of poorly trained police was the death of a foreign national. In this encounter, the officers made poor decisions. The first mistake was approaching a suspect without proper identification. Since it was stated that they were not in uniforms, it can be assumed these officers were either off duty, or did not properly wear their identification tags. In such situations, being a foreign immigrant, even if Diallo reached for a weapon it would have been justified

One of the most discussed about issues in our society today is profiling based on race or ethnicity. But what is racial profiling and why is it so important? Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement agents impermissibly use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin in deciding who to investigate for different crimes and offenses. It is being used unjustifiably wrongly in our culture daily. Based on the status of racial profiling currently, it seems as if racial profiling will always be a part of our society and there is nothing people can do to change that. With people making assumptions based on unjust rules, it seems like there will be no end in sight for racial profiling. Law enforcement should be held accountable for their actions, mistakes, and unjustified assumptions. Many instances occur with police officers taking wrongful actions solely based on race or nationality. Police and their practices have been going on for many years with the same outcomes repeating consecutively. A real- life instance of this includes police subjecting people to police brutality just because they are a “person of color” or even a “person of interest.” This has sparked protests and movements such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Hands Up Don’t Shoot.” Many people who have fallen victim to racial profiling and were wrongly accused and lost their lives as a result. Some of these people include, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, with the list continuing on. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed at seventeen years old for “looking suspicious.” Mike brown was shot six times for supposedly running away from a police officer. Eric Garner was put in a chokehold and subdued by a police officer for selling cigarettes illegally. Oscar Grant was already placed in handcuffs and lying flat on the floor when he was shot by a police officer that only served five years in prison. With countless others’ lives lost the list going on and on, it appears that racial profiling and bias have impacted affected a wide group of people and their families who have also suffered from this widespread issue. Overall, racial profiling is a big issue that might not be possible to correct

Even tho segregation was ended in 1964 it still exists today. Instead of being called segregation it's called racial profiling. Racial profiling is suspecting or targeting a person of a certain race, culture, and ethnicity. Three reasons why racial profiling still exists in America are there are many people who are living in fears of cultural stereotypes, profiling black people, and it's not only happening outside it's also happening in an educational place like schools.

There are tons of cases of Racial Profiling. Now a days many people are being targeted or attacked by racial profiling. Laws are being passed but not every police officer is following up with it. And because of this more and more people are becoming irritated with the government system. Just because a particular person from a particular race does something wrong, everyone from that race is being discriminated by so-called other races. Racial profiling is getting worst by the years go by, it is becoming a hot topic. Ever since the major attack of September 11, 2001 many people have seen Muslims as terrorists. Racial profiling doesn’t just affect Muslims; it affects African Americans and Hispanics. Due to the action of just one individual, and from that individual affects the whole race behind it. It just doesn’t make that person look bad it makes they’re race look as bad as they do. That is why African American, Hispanics, and Muslims are being targeted. Racial profiling negatively impacts society.

A study conducted by The Police Foundation surveyed 80 police officers regarding their power of authority. The survey revealed that the majority of police officers disapprove the use of excessive force. However, when situations escalate to a certain point that requires excessive force, police were asked a series of questions. They were asked questions about their attitudes regarding excessive force and their perceptions of behavior with their fellow officers. The results showed that, “Almost 25 percent felt that it is sometimes acceptable to use more force than legally allowable to control a person who physically assaults an officer (Weisburd, 24).” The survey asked police officers a question that dealt with The Code of Silence, when a police officer sees misconduct from another officer and does not report it. The response of the survery revealed that “80 percent of American police do not accept that the code of silence is an essential part of the mutual trust necessary to achieve good policing (Weisburd, 26).” When asked about the attidues of civilians of a different race, the survey results came back as, “Almost 2 in 10 police officers in the U.S. believe that whites are treated better than African Americans and other minorities (Weisburd, 30).” Is there an issue of racism or targeting certain races when it comes to police and their authortity?

The distrust of the police, is caused by the abuse of power given to them, and in some cases use excessive force towards ethnic minorities. The suspicion, distrust and prejudice, that some officers have against ethnic minorities can cloud their judgment when on the job. “In the case of Eric Garner, who was targeted by the Police for a petty crime of selling loose cigarettes, with an attempted arrest the police used excessive force in the form of a chokehold.”(Natarajan 2014). This is just one example of excessive force used by law enforcement. In many cases using racial profiling the victim ends up killed by law enforcement. Racial profiling feeds the misperception about minorities, which can cause emotional, mental and physical trauma to the victim of racial profiling. In an article by Erin Durkin, she reports that the statistics of stop- and-frisk by the

In the article, “Shooting of Philando Castile”, on Wikapedia.org, Officer Jeronimo Yanez comes face to face with his own implicit bias when pulling over African American, Philando Castile and his passenger when believed to be matching the description of a local robbery occurring moments before. Officer Jeronimo Yanez made a personal discretion on the African American when suspecting he was reaching for a gun when asked to pull out his license and registration. Officer Jeronimo was alerted “Castile told the officer he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in his pants pocket” (“Shooting of Philando Castile”). Officer Jeronimo Yanez takes it upon himself to follow through and shoot Philando when fearing he was reaching to pull out a gun, ultimately resulting in the fatal injury of Philando Castile. Suddenly, implicit bias clouded Officer Yanez discretion leading him to make a split decision. In this case, and in an overall aspect in the criminal justice system and it is an individual’s moral responsibility to take control and either except the bias or take an alternative route and do something about it rather than ignore

In the article The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic Context Implicit racial biases were examined in the decision to shoot potentially hostile targets in a multiethnic context. Results of two studies showed that college aged participants and police officers showed anti-black racial bias in their response times: the participants were quicker to “correctly” shoot armed black men or targets and to indicate “don’t shoot” for unarmed Latino, Asian and white targets. In addition to this, the police officers showed racial biases in response times toward Latino versus Asians or whites, and surprisingly, toward whites versus Asians (Sadler, Correll, Park, Judd, 2012, pg.286). These results also

This article implies that we should look at the object and not look the color of skin first. I think this is a good tip in reducing bias when it comes to police shootings. Just by focusing on the object rather than the race, the studies have found can reduce the mistaken shooting of unarmed blacks by as much as 45 percent. In the third article, Researchers have discovered a new and surprising racial bias in the criminal justice system, I found it very thought-provoking that during a research study it was found that judges were harder on the criminal based upon the race of the victim. The fact that white judges protected white victims and black judges protected black victims by ruling with a sentence that was 14 percent longer. I found the fourth article to touch bases the most with me. The article, In push to reform police work, officers examine their own biases, was about training the police forces to recognize their implicit bias and to work towards understanding it, so that you can overcome and make more informed judgments. My goal is to work in policing, so I think this bias training is very important to help avoid prejudice decisions that are