Racial Profiling by Police is Not a Problem

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Racial profiling is a controversial topic in today’s society. Many minorities feel targeted by governmental officials such as police officers and U.S. courts. “Statistics have shown that blacks in the U.S. are arrested and imprisoned for committing crimes at higher proportions than any other racial group” (“Crime and Race”). Do African Americans in fact commit more crimes than whites? Or is there racism within the U.S. justice system? Even though minorities feel targeted by governmental officials and have higher crime rates than whites, racial profiling is just an alleged practice.

Minorities feel singled out by law enforcement. Governmental officials are suspected to use the practice of racial profiling; the government activity directed at a suspect or group of suspects based solely on race. Is there use of racial profiling within the United States justice system? In 1976, during the court case United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, a Hispanic man had been stopped by Border Patrol while he was driving in his car near the California-Mexican border. The police has stopped, searched, and interrogated him on the basis of his ethnicity. The man, not being an illegal immigrant, felt that his Fourth Amendment right had been violated because of the unreasonable search and seizure. However, the court ruled that it was appropriate for the Border Patrol officer to search the Hispanic man and the stop did not violate the Fourth Amendment (“Crime and Race”). Racial profiling was not used in the United States v. Martinez-Fuerte case. The officer was just doing his job of keeping illegal immigrants out of the country, and as a part of the Border Patrol the officer has the right to search anyone who he deems under suspicion of crossing th...

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...ials, it does not mean that they are victims of racial profiling. As long as statistics prove that minorities commit a higher percentage of crimes compared to the percent of the population they make up, they can not claim to be victims of racial profiling.

Works Cited

Aries, Dean. Personal Interview. 1 Mar. 2011.

“Crime and Race.” Issues & Controversies. Fats On File News Services. 4 Apr. 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .

“Criminal Profiling.” Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 17 Feb. 2009. Web. 28 Feb. 2011..

“Update: Crime and Race.” Issue & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts on File News Services, 2 May 2007. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.

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