The Los Angeles Police Department has a reputation for using race as a basis to catch criminals. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for believing an individual is suspicious of committing a crime. Discriminatory or abusive behavior towards people of color affects the justice system and violates people’s human rights. The LAPD continues to use racial profiling against mostly African-Americans and Latinos. The use of racial profiling by the LAPD prevents the police from serving the whole community. Because of the LAPD’s neglect towards certain neighborhoods, the neglect causes those communities to not trust or want to work with the police. Racial profiling should not be used by the LAPD because it is immoral, ineffective and unconstitutional to use an individual’s skin color to target that individual for being suspicious of criminal behavior.
By the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution, racial profiling is unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment states that people have the right to privacy and freedom from search and seizures (US Const. amend. IV. Sec. 1). The Fourteenth Amendment states, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United states; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (US Const. amend. XIV. Sec. 1). In other words, no single individual should be treated differently from anyone else, whether the individual is African-America, Latino, Asian, or White. Since the US Constitution clearly says that all people shall be treated equally, racial profiling is illegal by the law. Beca...
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US Const. amend. IV. Print
US Const. amend. XIV. Print
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.
Opponents will argue that racial profiling is based on suspicious behavior and not on race. They feel as though racial profiling can potentially stop certain crimes befor...
Civilrights.org. (2002, April 13). Justice on trial. Washington, DC: Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Leadership Conference on Civil RightsEducation Fund. Retrieved April 12, 2005, from Civilrights.org Web site: http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/cj/
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.
"The Reality of Racial Profiling." CivilRights.org. The Leadership Conference, 22 08 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. .
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
Profiling is unconstitutional and violates civil rights. Police can search a person without a warrant if they have reasonable doubt that they are armed and dangerous; however, of people who are pulled over while driving, less than 4% of whites are searched while about 10% of bla...
Tomaskovic-devey, Donald, and Patricia Warren. "Explaining and Eliminating Racial Profiling." Contexts Vol. 8, No. 2. Spring 2009: 34. SIRS Issues Researcher.
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.
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Racial profiling has been a common controversy between law enforcement and communities, specifically those of a minority population. This activity has been ultimately allowed by federal and state governments as they benefit from the aid in pinpointing or otherwise targeting criminals or illegal aliens. Furthermore, racial profiling has become more of a commonly encountered practice especially after the September 11 attacks.
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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 profiling consists of innocent, those chosen because of their skin color and guilty citizens that are being unjustly targeted by law enforcement because of their race and /or ethnicity. Mainly Blacks, Hispanics, and people of color within the minority communities are targeted for such harassment by law enforcement. However, race is the key factor for racial profiling by police, which is unfair on so many levels that people of color are processed differently than white youths within the system. Racial bias, disparity, and racial profiling are considered as a violation of citizens’ rights, that started long before it was actually recognized as a violation, and taking place within the Juvenile Justice and Criminal System. Due to the
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