Racial Profiling: Driving While Black is a Real Offense in America

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Recommended: Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

“In recent years, scores of African Americans and Latinos, including prominent athletes, members of Congress, actors, lawyers, business leaders and even police officers, have experienced the humiliation of being stopped on the nation’s highways upon suspicion of a crime. Few white motorists can tell the same story.” (Bouie 2014). Most colored motorists have had this feeling at least once while driving. The article, "It's Been Proven: "Driving While Black" is a Real Thing" takes a look at incidents around the United States where the multitude of racial stops have been questioned. They explore three sides of the “driving while black” issue: whites who feel they have never experienced this or were let off for not being colored, blacks who feel they have been discriminated against, and cops defending the force and believing this does not happen.

Many State Troopers were being investigated for a variety of discriminatory stops. An attorney, William Merton, has been a part of the investigation of the troopers and found some very interesting information. A man named John Mean was pulled over by the troopers, where he was driving the same speed as the cars around him and he was pulled over. He then was threatened, with the probability of a search warrant, to give up his privacy rights and be searched. His car was then searched and he was release with a warning, twenty-five minutes later. This incident, like many others, was not reported, which shows a suspicion in the data collected from the department (Bouie 2014).

Through a debate with Christopher A. Darden, an Associate Professor of Law at Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles and Byron Warnken, a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, they ex...

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...tute. Web. 28 May 2015.

http://www.policemisconduct.net/

Bouie, Jamelle. "It's Been Proven: "Driving While Black" is a Real Thing" The Daily Beast. Jan. 10 2014. Web. 1 June 2015.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/10/watch-out-driving-while-black-is-still-a-problem.html

Martin, Rich. (2010). "Police Corruption" FBI Web. 23 May 2015.

http://leb.fbi.gov/2011/may/police-corruption-an-analytical-look-into-police-ethics

Harris, David A. ACLU. (1999). "DRIVING WHILE BLACK: RACIAL PROFILING ON OUR NATION'S HIGHWAYS" American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 18 May 2015.

https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways

Harris, D. (n.d.). Cost of Getting Stopped. THE STORIES, THE STATISTICS, AND THE LAW: WHY "DRIVING WHILE BLACK" MATTERS. Web. 30 May 2015.

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/dwb02.htm

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