Many people in the United States are against police profiling in our cities and towns against African-Americans and other minorities, while they are supporters of racial profiling in our airports. This research paper investigates how profiling everywhere can help improve our security, while not crossing the fine line into racism. This paper also shows some examples of when profiling has turned into racism, and how we can prevent this.
There are many people in the United States that are against police profiling. Profiling is defined as “the use of specific characteristics, as race or age, to make generalizations about a person, as whether he or she may be engaged in illegal activity” according to dictionary.com. Police are defined as “an organized civil force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws” according to dictionary.com. Combine these two definitions, and you can define police profiling as an organized civil force that maintains order and prevents crime by using specific characteristics to make generalizations about a person. Many people today are against police profiling because of what has happened in history. They associate police profiling with police corruption and brutality, as well as with racism. They look at what happened in big name cases such as the Rodney King beating, and associate police profiling with it. To combine these three separate definitions into one is not correct, as they are three separate things.
Since the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th, 2001, police profiling has turned into two separate parts – profiling minorities in communities, and profiling persons of Arab decent or followers of Islam in our airports. You will find many people in the Unit...
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"Passenger who had Arabic flash cards sues over his detainment - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. .
"Policing | Definition of Policing at Dictionary.com:." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. .
"Profiling | Definition of Profiling at Dictionary.com:." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. .
"Transcripts." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. .
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 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...
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.
Despite having polar opposite views, Rene Descartes and David Hume were both very prominent philosophers of their time. They both contemplated the ideas of reasoning within animals and sought to find the truth about the acquisition of knowledge. Both sides had valid points about whether animals can reason, and it really leaves it up to the individual to decide whether animals have the ability to reason or not.
This essay will bring to light the problem of racial profiling in the police force and propose the eradication of any discrimination.
"I don't want to talk about whether or not racial profiling is legal. Racial profiling is not an effective law enforcement tool." -- Eric Holder, 82nd Attorney General of the United States
Racial Profiling has been used by law enforcement officials from early 60’s during the civil rights movement. The term “racial profiling” which was introduced to criticize abusive police practices against people of different race, ethnicity or national origin. One must assess how to understand the practice, and how to keep it distinct from other issues. Racial profiling is defined as “any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin, rather than the behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity.” (Ramirez 5).
The main benefit of racial profiling, based on opinions of others, is to save costs. The government’s resources are not unlimited, and any strategy that can be successfully used to limit the amount of money and time needed, may allow other demands of the government to use the extra resources (Huq). For racial profiling to be beneficial, the government must use this strategy properly. The race of an individual can be used as an identifier, much like gender and predominate characteristics. It would be extremely irresponsible for a police officer to search for a suspect of a recent crime and ignore their identified race when searching for the suspect. This form of profiling is acceptable because the identification of a suspect’s race allows police officers to use fewer resources than otherwise needed in a larger pool of potential suspects. Often, police officers have very little to go on when attempting to find a criminal. Officers should b...
Afterwards, in the 1990s films portraying Latinos would take a somehow new direction, one of the most famous filmmakers would be Gregory Navas, he directed the movie My Family/Mi Familia, a film that portrays the lives of a Mexican-American family and the difficulty that the couple faced in order to establish in the U.S. “by passing as immigrants and all the struggle to integrate their family in another country” (Peña Acuña, 2010). The film let the audience see a potential reality that most immigrants went through when they first moved to the United States and how the system worked differently and the way immigrants had to adapt not only to the system, but also to the language and culture.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s essay, A Letter from Birmingham Jail he compares the issues of Moral acts verses Immoral acts. This essay was written in response to a letter some clergymen had written after a direct action march Dr. King had participated in. In their letter the clergymen had praised the local police officers and media for the nonviolent and calm manner in which the situation was handled. It was this praise that prompted Dr King to write:
As showed in the film, Latino American often misrepresented and underrepresented both in front of and under the camera. American Hispanic often portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy and criminal. Hispanic women often pictured comfortable sexuality as prostitution in film production; while Hispanic actors limit to criminal characters such as drug dealers, gangster, and provide the power for the white American. Audiences have less interaction with Latino in their real world might be easily framed by media images regarding the race and ethnicity. The lack of Hispanic history and culture understanding allows these media portrayals to change and form unfavorable behavior and attitude against Latino communities.
“It was so hostile. I was so confused. It was happening so fast that I could easily see how this situation could get out of hand very quickly. I didn’t feel safe as all. But one officer stopped his questioning and said, ‘we may not let you go’.” (Perry) This is a quote from famous producer Tyler Perry, talking about his experience being stopped by two white police officers in Atlanta. Police officers are among the most trusted men and women in American society, they should be anyway. However, in some cities and states the trust between officers and people of a racial minority, such as Africans, Latinos and Arabs, has been tainted by mistreatment of policing powers. Some officers are stopping, searching, or pulling people of these races over and breaking the code they stand for by disrespecting the citizen, most of whom are completely innocent. This is not only morally unacceptable, but also completely unconstitutional and needs to stop promptly. With proper legislative action this injustice can and will be righted!
Although it is desirable to incorporate personal experiences of others to get a feel of the encounters that occurred to the typical or atypical individual within the Chicano movement, this does not entirely mean that the filmmakers left out those who studied the history of it. Historian Mario T. Garcia was a prominent addition in contributing to the historical experiences within the movement and brings in credibility. The concept of utilizing Chicanos who endured the reign of oppression and discussed their involvements to the impartiality efforts was a thrilling and clever one, there was still a need of a backbone in the factual side of it. By introducing an essence of experience, it generates a personal and emotional aspect in the documentary that can be unfavorable and stray from the informative attitude of a documentary. Having Garcia apart of the documentary grounds this enlightening dimension that insights as preventative measure which is an adept move on behalf of directors Luis Ortiz and Antonio
The Maya culture has a long history that started in about 1000 BC. The history of the Maya is divided up into four different time periods: The Middle Preclassic Period, Late Preclassic Period, Classic Period, and Postclassic Period. The Middle Preclassic Period was when the small areas started to become city-like in the way that they started to build larger temples. The Late Preclassic Period was when the cities began to expand with paved roads and massive pyramids. The Classic Period was the time the Maya civilization hit it’s peak. Populations were growing rapidly and the structure of politics was formed. The Postclassic Period was when warfare was on the rise and cities were being abandoned(Coe 2005). This paper will focus on the Classic Period due to the fact that that is the greatest time period in Maya history.
SANDU, A., & NIŢU, M. (2013). CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME. Contemporary Readings In Law & Social Justice, 5(2), 454-460.