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Ever since the era of the nation’s founding father, President George Washington up to the incumbent Barack Obama, the United States of America has endured innumerous struggles in its rise to become the world’s ultimate global force. Despite the extensive nature of these kinds of struggles, protection of fundamental human rights has become one of America’s greatest symbols of success and prosperity. It has become the world’s most established democracy with high regard for civil liberties for people from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. In line with this, the issue of racial discrimination is more or less synonymous with the violation of these fundamental human rights. Even since the early days of slave trade, racial profiling has always been a negative part of such a revered country’s history. Consequently, it is despicable to envisage a situation whereby racial profiling is accepted as a practice for law enforcement. Profiling occurs every day in the United States and innocent people are convicted of crimes that they didn’t commit. The government's policy on this topic has also had adverse effects on American society and if something is not done to ameliorate the situation, the United States will never be the true protector of human rights, a principle on which this country was founded.
"Racial profiling is irrational, unjust, and unproductive, but one thing it is not is un-American. Racial profiling has been part of the U.S. criminal justice system for as long as there has been a U.S. criminal justice system, and part of North American colonial justice systems in the centuries prior to its formation." (add citation) Racial profiling is not just a modern issue; it has existed in America since 1533, (O’Neal, 2014) when K...
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...al segregation of suspects within the minds of police officers, and it creates a second-class citizenship for black and Latino Americans” (Head) Therefore, racial profiling in the United States must come to an end. Our founding fathers established a nation based on natural rights and freedom yet for over five decades Americans (Native Americans, blacks, etc.) have been discriminated against and treated like second-class citizens. Without the support of the federal and state governments along with the Supreme Court, the nation is doomed to failure and racial profiling will endure until the war is over. Our nation was founded on the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and there are too many minority groups that have been subject to prejudice and racial profiling for this to truly take place in a country that prides itself on these ideals.
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.
This essay will bring to light the problem of racial profiling in the police force and propose the eradication of any discrimination.
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.
This demonstrates that if these stop-and-frisks, which were designed to reduce larger crime, continue to occur, more constitutional rights will be broken resulting in damaging consequences. If this program remains as it is, interpersonal racism and racial profiling will resume, and the white privilege versus minority disadvantage gap has the potential to increase. The implications and desires for this program are on the right path. However, it needs to be restructured in a way that will emphasize the necessity of having true reasonable suspicion without regarding race entirely.
Racial profiling is not a new activity but is now more widely seen on the streets and in social media which in turn has caused a negative impact on law enforcement and social unrest among minorities. In fact, "Carter indicates that the debate involving racial and ethnic profiling following the terroristic attacks opened the doors for the federal government to conduct more extensive routine enforcement and investigations which will probably get out of hand" [1].
Even the United States struggles with issues of racial discrimination despite being a society highly based on immigrants and multicultural diversity. On one hand, people frown on treatment based on race, whether that is on an individual or group level. On the other, people are tired and annoyed by the seemingly constant call of discrimination. All of these feelings culminate into the debate pertaining to the use of racial profiling. Likewise, there are some individuals that hold a certain level of acceptance in regard to racial profiling. However, what is lost in the process because of that acceptance? There are many components that need to be thought about in reference to the use of racial profiling. In addition, it can be viewed from varying perspectives, such as through the use of statistics, by looking at social norms and taking into account moral/ethical values. Although racial profiling has been denounced, its use has continued to come up repeatedly. Furthermore, it is very apparent that certain circumstances cause the use concept of racial profiling to resurface.
* Terris, Bruce J. "Ethnic Profiling is Necessary." Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. New York: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
This paper will define the topic of racial profiling as well as the history, present day issues, how it may be dealt with in the future, and my opinion on the topic. Racial Profiling is the practice of targeting people of color or a certain ethnicity for investigation or arrest. History starts with the New Jersey State Police department of investigation of activities instituted the term racial profiling that we know today in order to raise awareness of the issue. Some of the current issues today with racial profiling have caused many problems for the criminal justice system entirely, hindering police efforts in communities and losing the reliability of the people. The future of racial profiling has been a debatable topic but though it may be impossible to get rid of entirely much progress has been made in controlling it. My opinion on the topic is that maybe more training in how to use discretion when making a gut feeling about a situation.
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
Racial profiling in America, as evidenced by recent events, has reached a critical breaking point. No longer can an African American, male or female, walk into a store, school, or any public place without fear of being stereotyped as a person of suspicion. Society constantly portrays the African American
Conflict theory plays a major role when looking at racial profiling due to the fact of a patriarical society it looks at the power struggle and one of the reasons behind racial profiling is to keep society in “order” and the way it currently is , which is a society dominated by white males. For them to keep this power their needs to be a obvious distintion in majorities and minorities. Racial minorities are seen as a threat to the ruling class. Conflict theory states that the ruling class will crime control as a way to limit the minority threatening them , which is partially what racial profiling is about. “ Organizations will minimize strains on themselves by processing those who are politically weak and powerless, while refraining from processing those who are politically powerful.”(Chambliss and Seidman (1971, p. 269) (Petrocelli et al., 2002) Conflict theory looks for the problem to result in positive change. . Racial profiling would have never been a ground to appeal your sentence 50 years agao but today it is. Thus showing a positve change has already been
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.