Pros And Cons Of A Fair Trial

956 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial profiling law enforcement

Do you ever think about a fair trial still being possible today despite racial profiling and the media? Everyone has their own views about how they feel something should be done. When it comes to having a fair trial and racial profiling along with the media, I believe that a fair trial is simply not possible. Racial profiling goes on no matter what and the media is always going to be the first to broadcast such news, whether it be social media or the newspaper. The media is there to provoke its audience; giving them information and allowing for their opinion to be heard on what should be done. A fair trial would be impossible with the way things are set up today. Racial profiling may never end, and because of it a fair trial will be hard to accomplish, especially with the media right there to make details public.
One of the main reasons why a fair trial cannot be possible is because police officers use race as a factor in stopping people on the streets. To be specific, New York City police officers use race as a factor to stop people on the street and sometimes frisk them. Because of this there was a lawsuit against the city and its police force. “In the suit, the Center for Constitutional Rights alleges a widespread pattern of stops based not on reasonable suspicion of individuals but on racial profiling in the Police Department’s ‘stop, question and frisk’ policy” (Baker 1). Statistics have shown that Black and Hispanic people generally represent more than 85 percent of those stopped by police. The police force are making race-based stops and taking that reason to trial isn’t fair at all.
Police officers are violating the 14th amendment by engaging in racial profiling when they stop people on the streets. “The long-awaited de...

... middle of paper ...

... the streets without being stopped and frisked. Just because one person of color did something wrong, does not mean all those of color should be a suspect. Everyone deserves a fair trial. The Police Department and the media need to take that into consideration. When it comes to the media, they should not be able to release any information to the public until the trial is over. And for the police department, when making stops they should have more than just a general description of the suspect. The police force needs to stop basing how they act towards a certain race just because, for example, two black males committed a crime in Brooklyn so all black males in that borough are subject to heightened police attention. A fair trail can’t be possible today despite racial profiling and the media because no matter what there is always going to be racism and media bias.

Show More
Related

  • Racial Profiling In Bob Herbert's Hounding The Innocent

    378 Words  | 1 Pages

    First of all, racial profiling is unfair to its victims . Racial profiling is seen through the police in “Hounding the Innocent”, which is unfair since a person shouldn’t be pulled over more because of their race and that many of these stops have little to no connection to an actual crime. “Young black and Hispanic males are being stopped, frisked, and harassed in breathtaking numbers” (Herbert, 29) This is unfair to all victims of racial

    Read More

  • How Racial Profiling Led to the Death of Trayvon Martin

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racial profiling is wrong! Racial profiling has done way more bad than it has done good. Racial profiling has killed innocence people, and has served no justice. Racial profiling has pushed America one step back from the many years we have come from slavery and segregation. Should people use racial profiling be used as an excuse to interrupt a person’s personal life? Racial profiling takes away from the trust we have in our law enforcement. Everyone wants to be protected by authorities not harmed by them no matter your age, or race. I am afraid of justice system, shouldn’t you be to?

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Stop And Frisk

    1514 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stop and Frisk is a procedure put into use by the New York Police Department that allows an officer to stop and search a “suspicious character” if they consider her or him to be. The NYPD don’t need a warrant, or see you commit a crime. Officers solely need to regard you as “suspicious” to violate your fourth amendment rights without consequences. Since its Beginning, New York City’s stop and frisk program has brought in much controversy originating from the excessive rate of arrest. While the argument that Stop and Frisk violates an individual’s fourth amendment rights of protection from unreasonable search and seizure could definitely be said, that argument it’s similar to the argument of discrimination. An unfair number of Hispanics and

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling in Today's Society

    1740 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling: Is it Intentional? Can We Correct it?

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racial profiling, as defined in Criminal Justice Today is, “Any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin, rather than the behavior of the individual…” (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 294) but is racial profiling limited only to police action? In June off 2002 a telephone survey of adults was conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut, in this survey people were asked, “Do you think that African Americans’ civil rights are being respected by the country’s criminal justice system?” 69% of Non-Hispanic Whites said, “Yes, they are respected.” as opposed to 33% of African Americans that think the justice system is fair. (Cole & Smith, 2007, p. 104) What causes this huge percentage gap among the races? Within our criminal justice system there are many disparities and cases of suspected discrimination, because of that our country is race divided on the issue of whether or not discrimination exists in a system perceived as the best of it’s kind.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling: The Color of Justice in America

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...m. Race is a legitimate factor for police to take into account -- along with other factors. No one should not be stopped or harassed or anything like that solely because of his race, ethnicity, etc. But police officers, who understand the real world, and the workings of actual neighborhoods -- should not be expected to ignore their real-world experiences. Liberals assure that crime is caused by poverty and lack of education. But the big issue is that blacks are, in fact, disproportionately poor, so people end up thinking that it is conceivable to suggest that blacks (young black men, actually) are disproportionately more likely to commit crimes. But, is it conscionable to forget about the Basic American right, the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling by Police

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Reality of Racial Profiling." CivilRights.org. The Leadership Conference, 22 08 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. .

    Read More

  • oscar grant

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history there has been many problems involving racial profiling and police misconduct. Very rarely do police get the proper punishment for their wrong doings. One of the most recent cases was the Oscar Grant case. Oscar Grant was 22 years old when he was killed because of police misconduct. He was killed on New Year’s Day 2009 by Ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle. This misconduct made the people of Oakland extremely angry because they lost one of their own. After the shooting many people around Oakland started protesting. This lasted for months on end because people were very angry. Bystanders videotaped the incident. This has been one of the most racially polarizing cases in California (Ravindhran).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Racial Profiling

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...al profiled. The way is by the color of their skin. People say that racial profiling is a good way to stop terrorism and violence and stolen merchandise, but they don’t know the affect it has to the other minorities. If you were a minority you wouldn’t want to have people look at you differently or even make assumptions about you. To stop racial profiling we should stop judging how people look and stop recalling what happened in the pass with their ethnicity. Witherbee Amy ebscohost.com stated “Those who would defend racial profiling admitted that the policy bound to infringe upon the rights of African Americans who were targeted because of their appearance, but claimed that profiling made sense based on statistics that showed blacks and Latino Americans were more likely to be convicted with drugs crimes.” Would you make an effort to put an end to racial profiling?

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration Of African Americans

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...

    Read More

  • Racial Profiiling In The Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    The justice system is in place in America to protect its citizens, however in the case of blacks and some other minorities there are some practices that promote unfairness or wrongful doing towards these groups. Racial profiling is amongst these practices. In cases such as drug trafficking and other criminal acts, minorities have been picked out as the main culprits based off of skin color. In the article “Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling” it recognizes racial profiling as a problem in America and states, “[In order to maintain national security] law-enforcement officers have detained members of minority groups in vehicles more than whites”…. “these officers assume that minorities commit more drug offenses, which is not the case” (Fauchon). In relationship to law enforcement there has also been many cases of police brutality leaving young blacks brutally injured, and even dead in recent years, cases such as Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddy Gray just to name a few. Many of these young men were unarmed, and the police involved had no good justification for such excess force. They were seen as threats primarily because of their skin color. Despite the fact this nation is trying to attain security, inversely they are weakening bonds between many of its

    Read More

  • Stop and Frisk

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Law Enforcement policy is designed to help law enforcement agencies cut down on the amount of crime in communities and give structure to the agency. It also helps lessen the number of certain cases in certain areas, as well as from a certain group of people. There are several policies that I disagree with, but there is one policy I will be discussing. Law enforcement officers sometimes stop and frisk people based on gender, race, financial status, and social ranking. It is a very controversial issue because anything dealing with race and ethnicity can cause a lot of disagreement and discord. According to a New York judge on dealing with the stop and frisk laws, "If you got proof of inappropriate racial profiling in a good constitutional case, why don't you bring a lawsuit? You can certainly mark it as related . . . . I am sure I am going to get in trouble for saying it, for $65 you can bring that lawsuit" (Carter, 2013, pp.4). The stop and frisk law is one reason I do not believe in law enforcement profiling. Even though some law enforcement officers allow personal feelings and power to allow them to not follow policy, some policies are not followed morally because I do not feel that officers should be allowed to frisk someone who is innocent and has not committed a crime because it takes the focus off real criminals and onto innocent people; it causes emotional stress. I know because I have been through this several times.

    Read More

  • Is Our Justice System Fair to All?

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is important that each case is treated equally when carrying out justice to keep the United States a safe place, to form a nation with good education, and to teach people to judge right from wrong. However, sometimes rights are taken from the wrong people. Our legal system is creating a dangerous path for African Americans in our country because of its’ highest per capita incarceration rate, its’ favoritism towards those in power, and its failure to carry out justice to protect people from the dangerous acts of those who are defined as criminals. Was justice really served in the “State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman” case? Is our justice system fair to all races?

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling: Causes And Negative Impacts

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    This issue should be addressed among police agencies across the country in order to stop racial profiling. Racial profiling has its negative impacts that discomfort and humiliation of many minority citizens. There are many shameful cases that officers have been a part of in not a such good way. It has become such a huge problem. Racial profiling has to be stop in every way there is, is humiliating to see and is strongly unjust. Many innocent people in this nation are killed for crimes not even done by them but are killed or punished because of the race they appear to be. Unfortunately, being racially profiled in the United States is bound to happen to many minorities; however, that doesn 't allow the acceptance of people doing it. Everyone has different opinions on Racial Profiling, but it is something that should come to an end, and many should speak up about being racially

    Read More

  • Racism In The Justice System Essay

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism is happening before the suspect even gets a chance to explain themselves or be accused of any crime, and the rules of being able to do such a thing are becoming even more lenient so that police are able to perform such actions. “The rule requiring police to have ‘specific information’ was loosened. This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race, these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin.

    Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of A Fair Trial

Open Document