The Pros And Cons Of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling can be defined, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, as the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials [or security personnel] of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Although this act is not directly illegal, it violates core principles of our democracy: two of them being, the Fourteenth Amendment, which outlines the citizenship of African Americans along with equal protection of the laws, including the right to life, liberty and property, and due process, and the Fourth Amendment, which provides citizens their right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Racial profiling affects a wide range of minority groups. Reports on alcu.org state, “More than 240 years of slavery and 90 years of legalized racial segregation have led to systemic profiling of blacks in traffic and pedestrian stops” (Racial Profiling). Members of South Asian, Arab, and Muslim communities have also been categorized in regards to travel and terroristic activities by federal law enforcement and airline security due to the events on September 11, 2001. Latino communities have too been profiled and alienated due to the

Racial profiling remains a dormant issue in the United States. It is the act of the authority, mostly, police officers linking minority status to criminal behaviour (Glover, 2007). Several police officers in the United States target specific groups because they don’t display characteristics of typical Caucasian individuals (Glover, 2007). To put history into context, before 9/11, not many police officers profiled individuals based on their ethnic backgrounds but after the attack, there was an increase in racial profiling (Harris, 2006). A racial profiling method that became prevalent in the 1980s in the United States was administered by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. Operation Pipeline was a program that they launched to help police officers catch drug traffickers (Harris, 2006). In a video, they taught police officers to look for clues that would help them recognize criminals. It was noticed that police officers made a majority of stops to people with Hispanic last names (Harris, 2006). Marshall Frank, a former police officer was asked what police officers should do if they saw an African man driving around a white community. Frank responded by stating that the police officers should stop the vehicle and investigate the reason to why he was there even if there was no occurrence of a crime (Harris, 2006).

One of the most imminent threats looming within American society is race relations. America is a melting pot of different races, cultures, and religions, yet the matter of racial profiling still remains prominent today. By definition it is considered “an activity carried out by enforcers of the law wherein they investigate or stop any individual in traffic or round up people of the same race or ethnicity for crime suspicion” (NYLN.org ). This profiling has become a significant catalyst in the tension that has been ensuing between minorities and the government. Hostility has grown due to the apparent and intentional targeting of “brown people”, and

One of the most frequent cases of racial profiling would have to take place in our nation’s airports. The airport security teams have a tendency of targeting those whose ethnic background is not of Caucasian descent. In recent years, you cannot even take a trip with your family without running the risk of having an obtrusive body scan or being patted down by a complete stranger if they are wary of your nationality. All while Little Johnny and Suzy Smith are welcome to continue on with their trip

The people has made it clear that the concern on racial profiling is wrong with our core values and principles of fairness and justice. The use of race as the basis for law enforcement decision making clearly has a terrible cost, both to the individual who suffer invidious discrimination and to the nation, whose goal “liberty and justice for all” recedes with every act of such discrimination. For this reason many cases impose more

Racial profiling has been a recurring issue for quite a while in the history of America and it appears as if it will proceed the same. Many individuals do not know what racial profiling stands for and sometimes victims of racial profiling aren’t even aware of the meaning. Racial profiling is often identified as the use of race by any law pursuing organization to any extent, as a reason for unlawful conjecture in non-specific inspections. Every person is entitled to basic human freedoms and rights, which are undermined when discrimination based on religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, or other particular status occurs. It is unlawful to discriminate against citizens regardless of their race according to the United States Constitution, Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Race, religion, ethnicity, and color have been a constant struggle for societies throughout history. Those of authority at times have used their power to prove a point, destroy the underdog, or just to be plain ole mean. People in the minority have always struggled with acceptance and equality and have often lived in fear of the majority just for being different. The following situations seemed, from the outside, to have been another case of racial profiling and possible excessive use of force. During this case study, the discovery of the entire story will be attempted. Going into it, there is not a right or wrong side but only the facts.

Newman, Deborah Wilkins, and Nikki-Qui D. Brown. "Historical Overview and Perceptions of Racial and Terrorist Profiling in an Era of Homeland Security: A Research Note." Criminal Justice Policy Review. SAGE, 3 Dec. 2009, http://cjp.sagepub.com/content/20/3/359.full.pdf .

Racial profiling in many cases has altered lives and destroyed families. Racial profiling is one reason why many African American and other minorities sit in prisons across the nation. Many of these people were guilty until proven innocent, instead of the other way around. For example Cornelius Dupree Jr. was a Texas man who was accused of rape. Court documents stated that a 26 year old woman and a male friend were robbed at gunpoint by two black men in the parking lot of a Dallas liquor store in November 1979. The two men ordered the couple to drive, they forced the man out of the car and took the women to a nearby park where they raped her and stole her fur coat. Cornelius Dupree and another man Anthony Massigill were arrested in December 1979, after the lady picked their photos out of a photo lineup. Both men had no clue who the other one was, they were unable to identify each other. Mr. Dupree was sentenced in 1979 for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced with 75 years in prison. He lost his job, his family, and eventually his house and his car. His case was overturned due to DNA testing in 2011 (Stanley et al., 2008). Although racial profiling has many defects, it is necessary to keep our communities safe. The airport is where racial profiling is used the most. Since other security measures have failed and terrorists managed to get around airport security, racial profiling along with

In all three situations (motorists stopped on roads, passengers stopped at the airport, and shoppers at the mall are questioned about theft), Whites were less likely to believe that racial profiling had anything to do with the hypothetical individual being stopped, unlike Blacks and Hispanics who the majority of believed that racial profiling was the main reason for the individual being stopped. This ties back in with white privilege. The truth of the matter is, 98% of the time, it will be the colored individual who is stopped. There is though, that 2% of the time when Whites are stopped, and as long as that 2% exists, not everyone will believe that something such as racial profiling

Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, millions of people board planes all around the country just like any other day of the year. It was no different for the passengers departing from the Metro Airport in Detroit, Michigan. The passengers were minding their own business and casually waiting for the plane to take off. All of sudden, a group of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents stormed in to the aircraft demanding everyone to put their hands on the seat in front of them. Then, the agents selected three specific people, arrested them, pulled them from the plane, stripped searched them, and locked them up. This was racial profiling because of their ethnic background. What should have been an average day turned into a day that two Indian-American men, and 36 year old, half-Jewish, half-Arab, Shoshana Hebshi, will never be able to forget (Warikoo, 2013).

Even though racial profiling has built walls between the people and the justice system, at the same time racial profiling has driven away unwanted terrorist’s attacks similar to 9/11. Deroy Murdoch states, during a debate,

Today er live in a society that people believe in America as the melting pot. But in actual reality we are made up of a lot of racial profiling. “Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion” (Warren 2009:137). Racial profiling originated from criminal profiling. Mary Sell (2003) wrote: “Before you solve a problem you have to understand it. Therefore, it is necessary to explain criminal profiling before explaining racial profiling ‘(Gillis 2001:201). In our society you would think that this would not be a problem because we are in the 20th century. But racial profiling has become a national problem and has spread to the public eyes

One article that criticize the use of racial profiling is “Flying While Muslim: May Name Made Me a Suspect”. In the article “Flying While Muslims: My Name Made Me a Suspect”, by Sarah Hassaine speaks to the audience of those of different races and faces by providing an anecdote of her personal experience, when she went through something that killed her inside and inspired her to write this piece. Hassaine claims that many such as, Muslims, Arab and South Asian people can relate to the fact that they can be racially and religiously profiled and become suspects, for no apparent reason. Hassaine states that it is very common very many Muslims, Arab and South Asians to relate to being seen as different because of where they come from and seen as a suspect rather than a regular human being (par. 1-2). In other words, they are judged and seen as a suspect based off of stereotypes their race holds. Hassaine is absolutely correct about relating to something that can make you a suspect because, as she may not be aware, WiseGeeks similarly claims that too in their own way, because since day one we have always been judged based off of looks, actions, personalities where we come and the relating characteristics our ethnicity group has. I got to a school, that is somewhat diverse, majority is

Racial profiling is an epidemic. It has negatively impacted communities for generations. THe use of race by American police in their policing activities has received much attention across the world. Social media have exploded the daily news people consume and trends are now visible to those that previously didn’t notice it. Countless studies were released on that epidemic and yet, in 2016, nothing seems to have changed. There are those who will support the idea, but quite often, it’s because it doesn’t affect them. While it’s true that African Americans have a particular past with racial profiling in America, it’s has always been much broader experience. Anyone with Arabic look or with Muslim affiliation would be constantly set aside for extra searching and questioning at airports. As a journalist so well explained “People like