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Racial Profiling in Society
Racial Profiling in America
Racial Profiling in America
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Racial Profiling compromises the very fabric that America is built on. With Constitutional laws that protect us as American citizens from any mistreatment or discrimination, Racial Profiling is still being practiced , and it violates our human rights, and causes distrust in the very police officers that are in charge of keeping our communities safe, and disbelief in the Constitution that should afford all American citizens equal rights.
In the 1990’s The American news media exploded with coverage of the problem of racial profiling. The allegations became so common that the Black community labeled the phenomenon “ Driving while black or brown”. Empirical evidence confirm nation perception about racial profiling. To understand better the issues associated with racial profiling in police stops, concerns about police discretion were broken into two categories: First category, The decision of the Police Officer to stop the car, and how the Police Officer is treating the person being stopped, and how the Police Officer acts during the stop. Second Category, Are they made to step out of ...
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
People of color are being pursued on the highways in the land of the free. In Bob Herbert’s “Hounding the innocent” acts of racial profiling are displayed flagrantly. Racial profiling should be illegal, since it is unfair to its victims, demoralizing, and it breaks the trust between the public and the police.
Racial profiling is the tactic of stopping someone because of the color of his or her skin and a fleeting suspicion that the person is engaging in criminal behavior (Meeks, p. 4-5). This practice can be conducted with routine traffic stops, or can be completely random based on the car that is driven, the number of people in the car and the race of the driver and passengers. The practice of racial profiling may seem more prevalent in today’s society, but in reality has been a part of American culture since the days of slavery. According to Tracey Maclin, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, racial profiling is an old concept. The historical roots “can be traced to a time in early American society when court officials permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to ‘take up’ all black persons seen ‘gadding abroad’ without their master’s permission” (Meeks, p. 5). Although slavery is long since gone, the frequency in which racial profiling takes place remains the same. However, because of our advanced electronic media, this issue has been brought to the American public’s attention.
Racial profiling is a wide spread term in the American justice system today, but what does it really mean? Is racial profiling just a term cooked up by criminals looking for a way to get out of trouble and have a scapegoat for their crimes? Is it really occurring in our justice system, and if so is it done intentionally? Most importantly, if racial profiling exists what steps do we take to correct it? The answer to these questions are almost impossible to find, racial profiling is one of many things within our justice system that can be disputed from any angle and has no clear cut answers. All that can be done is to study it from different views and sources and come up with one’s own conclusion on the issue.
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 race-based assumptions in the law enforcement system a “lose-lose” situation is created due to America’s diverse democracy and destroys the ability to keep the criminal justice system just and fair. Although most police officers perform their duties with fairness, honor, and dedication, the few officers who portray to be biased then harm the whole justice system resulting in the general public stereotyping every law enforcement officer as a racial profiler (Fact Sheet Racial Profiling). When thinking about racial profiling many people automatically think it happens only to blacks but sadly this is mistaken for far more ethnic groups and races such as Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, Native Americans, and many more are racially profiled on a day to day basis. Many people believe racial profiling to be a myth because they see it as police officers merely taking precautions of preventing a crime before it happens, but in reality racial profiling has just become an approved term for discrimination and unjust actio...
In the Fourth Amendment it states “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” (US Const. amend. IV). Even with this right, many minorities in the nation suffer from racial profiling; the singling out of a person as the main suspect of a wrongdoing just because of their race. Many families have endured the departure of a friend or family member since police expected the suspect to be a risk just because of skin color therefore the officers utilize their power to take out the "danger". Even if racial profiling makes sense to police officers, to the eyes of the public and those affected by police actions, it is a form a racism that is not being served justice and it keeps allowing unfair deaths and
Racial profiling is the most idiotic and arrogant thing you can ever do as a person. Usually the people who are affected by racial profiling are minorities, however, any person can be a victim of racial profiling. Some may think that racial profiling is non-existent, however, I would like to bring the situation into focus and show that it is still in existence and has been observed in the past and now in the current year. Although, more than fifty percent of the time racial profiling is conducted it is against a man or woman of color; an African-American in other words. There are instances where a white person can be a victim as well. Trying not to say that there isn't any person out there that is exempted from racial profiling, because there isn't a single person who is just exempted from this cruel method of decision making. In my essay I will talk about racial profiling and what it is, however, you can't forget about where it happens and of course why. Several resolutions will be discussed in this essay to alleviate this problem.
When we are children we are taught not to judge a book by its cover, for most of us this is easier said than done. Racial profiling is something that affects millions of people in the United States alone. Seemingly innocent people are being targeted solely by the color of their skin and their nationality. Whether racial profiling somebody is appropriate or not is a topic widely discussed by individuals everywhere. The question is however, is it right to judge somebody just because they look different then you? I think not.
Despite the fact racism has been around for hundreds of years, upcoming generations are becoming more open minded and less likely to publicly berate minorities; racial profiling, however, is the one loophole of racism America overlooks. Police officials often use the practices of racial profiling to discretely single out minority races. A common approach to this is through traffic patrols. According to a statistic based in San Jose, CA, nearly 100,000 drivers were stopped; during the year ending in June 2000; and of these drivers less than 32% were white, the remaining 68% of drivers were a...
Before any argument can be made against racial profiling, it is important to understand what racial profiling is. The American Civil Liberties Union, defines racial profiling as "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"(Racial Profiling: Definition). Using this definition we can determine that racial profiling excludes any evidence of wrong-doing and relies solely on the characteristics listed above. We can also see that racial profiling is different from criminal profiling, which uses evidence of wrong-doing and facts which can include information obtained from outside sources and evidence gathered from investigation. Based on these definitions, I will show that racial profiling is unfair and ineffective because it relies on stereotyping, encourages discrimination, and in many cases can be circumvented.
Although some would believe that racial profiling does not occur and if it does it is used to keep the society safe, it is more correct to say that it disrespects and mistreats innocent citizens. More and more people are being stopped each year for crimes they did not commit and being singled out because of their race. Being racially profiled, harassed and mistreated is something that Latinos, Asians and African Americans go through every day. I believe that people should not be stopped and judged because of physical appearance. This is something that takes away ones individual’s rights and is very disrespectful.
The issue of racial profiling in America is one of great importance to the future of American society. This issue fairly new, in terms of being recognized is old in its ways. Racism and stereotyping are issues that date back to many years ago. Racial profiling in America is on that needs to be addressed by the government and society if we ever want America to truly be, "The Land of The Free." One of the main examples of racial profiling is called DWB (Driving While Black). This is a suspicious. Many of the cases I read it seems that the officers did not act with training but with suspicion and that has caused the deaths of many innocent people. The last step I think is to for law enforcement to gain t...
Racial profiling is stereotyping and it violates civil rights. Also it has harm ethnic minorities. People have different opinions about this kind of situation they have their pros and cons, it has come to a point where they even violated our civil rights. When it comes to racial profiling it has affected society for many years that even law enforcement have become a problem to the community as well retails stores, as we seen, the races that are target the most are non-white. Throughout the years we seen and heard cases about people been innocent and that get followed at a shopping center, get stop just by walking down the street for looking “suspicious” and for their physical appearances. It’s not a great thing to do, but let’s face it we have done at some point.
Racial bias evolves from generation to generation, and we as citizens are supposed to be protected against such actions of discrimination especially by law enforcement, but such actions as stop and frisk, to include automobile and body searches for no other reason than the color of one’s skin is a violation of our civil rights. Instead of being violated in an inappropriate matter as openly as it was done while fighting for our civil rights, it’s now done through law enforcement. The Constitution is supposed to guarantee equal treatment under the law for everyone, but blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately victimized by police and other front line law enforcement officials. Racial disparities affect both innocent and guilty minority citizens, and are broken down into explanations such as; People of color commit more crimes, The Criminal Justice System is racially bias, and America is a racially bias society (Weich and Angulo, 2002). All of these explanations have been proven true by the actions of law enforcement and society, by using racial profiling as a means to target minority communities. Although, there are efforts
Everyday people are pulled over for speeding, and broken tail lights, but does it become an issue when law enforcement start pulling people over for no reason. Racial Profiling, while sometimes used inappropriately, can sometimes be a good thing because it can help cut down on illegal immigrants, drug trafficking, and help prevent terrorism. Many issues arise regarding legal immigrants and non-legal immigrants in quiet neighborhoods nationwide. Racial profiling has been increasing for many years, from the 1500’s up to present time.