Targeting Minorities We all know there are different kinds of people in this world, it’s how we treat them that makes a difference. In Rania Khalek article, it states how an NYPD officer physically took down an African American man. The man tried to figure out what he did wrong, but the officer got physical when the man refused to get out of his car. As citizens, we all have a right to know what we are being accused of. Even though racism was a big issue in the past, we see it happening every now and then. African American pushed to the ground for false accusations of drug exchanges, and Hispanics accused of being in gangs. There is always going to be something to bring minorities down, but we all have to realize that there are more and more minorities overpopulating whites. Minorities will always be the main target with law enforcement. …show more content…
This year there was an African American man who died on the streets of New York. The man died for being accused of selling illegal cigarettes, but the truth is he was trying to break up a fight that took place moments before. The officers not knowing of the man’s condition, took him down with a chokehold allowing the man to have shortness of breath. Even though the officer was soon stripped of his gun and cost the city $30,000 it shows there are still people who will do whatever it takes to bring “Justice” to their homes. We hear on the news about crimes upon minorities every day, but we should also see that even though minorities will always be treated as minorities; Americans are also becoming minorities, and that should push us to treat each other as equals. Are world is slowly changing but it is making a big impact on
This article entitled “Jim Crow Policing”, written by Bob Herbert, is an opinionated article which aims to shed light on the alleged racist and xenophobic behaviors of the New York Police Department. The article was published on February 1st, 2010, almost 7 years ago, which is important to note because of the changing environment that New York is as a whole. Herbert takes a stance against the NYPD, claiming that the officers of the department have “no obligation to treat them (blacks, hispanics, other minorities) fairly or with any respect…” He also states in his opening paragraph that some of the officers that are partaking in the harassment are minorities themselves, and he calls that
The violence that some officers exude to minorities should only be used in extreme, desperate situations not when a teen steals some cigars or is walking home with a hood on. Besides showing an interest in racial justice and issues of race helps to break down barriers, exposed as false perceived misunderstandings, and shed light on commonly held perceptions of a race-infused
The NYPD’s stop and frisk practices raise serious concerns over racial profiling, illegal stops and privacy rights. The Departments own reports on its stop and frisk activity confirm what many people in
The Nation’s short documentary, “The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy,” includes disturbing audio recorded by a 16 year-old Harlem student, named Alvin, who was victim to a rather violent stop-and-frisk. Alvin proceeded to ask as to why he’s been stopped, only to have none of the three officers respond with legitimate reasoning, instead receiving threats of bodily harm and arrest just for “being a f***ing mutt,” as one officer retorted. “I felt like they was trying to make me resist or fight back,” Alvin told The Nation. The New York Police Department deny claims of operating on racial profiling, however Darius Charney, senior staff attorney at the Center of Constitutional Rights, points out “there’s a clear racial animus when they call him a ‘mutt.’” Even while New York State Law prohibits the use of quotas for arrests, summonses and stops, Julio Valentin, retired NYPD veteran, admits, “everything is a numbers game.” With the pressure to meet this quota, and under the stress and fear of facing disciplinary action, officers resort to performing these unreasonable stops. The two anonymous veterans in the video confess, “Instead of being protected by us, they’re [the civilian population] being hunted and we’re being hated. The police department is pushing the news guys to be bounty hunters.” When even good cops are forced to abide these standards, on what basis can we collectively name all officers
Based on the statistics of NYPD’s 2016 second quarterly reports, 1,862 people in the African American community are stopped versus 342 Caucasians (NYPD second quarter reports, 2016). Consequently, this implies policemen classify “blacks” as delinquent even though they are uninvolved in any unlawful acts the majority of the time. The product of racial discrimination furthers the understanding that the country still does not hold minorities equal next to the other ethnicities. This demonstrates just one example on how the Stop and Frisk law variously inflates negative predigest to further the understanding that “blacks” are synonymous with barbarous criminals.
With blacks being stopped more than half of the time, and Latinos being stopped around 30 percent, its clear why these groups along with other minority groups feel they are being singled out and picked on; in fact, Mayor Bill de Blasio even made a public apology for the policy’s negative impact after the New York Times (2014) claimed that Judge Shira A. Scheindlin described it as “a policy of indirect racial profiling.” It’s reasons like these that encourage people to believe this tactic is inherently corrupt. If police officers are not using clear logic and reasonable suspicion when stopping individuals, it can create a major separation between our law enforcement agents and society and allow for noble cause corruption. While this policy has the ability to create major distrust and dislike for the cops, however, it can also have a very positive impact as well. For example, if officers continue to improve the accuracy of their stops and become more successful in taking weapons off the streets and deterring crime, their communities should begin to back them and also this
The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices raise serious concerns over racial profiling, illegal stops and privacy rights. The Department’s own reports on its stop and frisk activity confirm what many people in communities of color across the city have long known: The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are black and Latino. In 2011, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 685,724 times. 605,328 were totally innocent (88 percent). 350,743 were black (53 percent). 223,740
There has always been tension between maintaining a safe society and abiding by the constitutional rights of its citizens. However the New York City aggressive program of Stop and Frisk have been widely criticized and considered unconstitutional. However, Stop and Frisk, per se is not unconstitutional unless people are being stopped illegally. It 's a crime prevention tactic that allows police officers to stop a person based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and conduct a frisk based on reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and or dangerous. Some argue this policy was created to target minorities. Most of the people who have been stopped and frisked under the program have been African American or Hispanic. This concerns
In the United States of America, the land of opportunity and freedom where the words equality and freedom are constitutional, a great injustice is going on against minority races. In many cities anyone with a badge has the power to stop and frisk a person of color just because of their appearance. In the article Jim Crow Policing, Bob Herbert argues, “Rather than legitimate crime-fighting tool, these stops are a despicable, racially oriented tool of harassment.”(Herbert 43) Illegal police are not stopping people of color and minorities because they are suspicious or have probable cause to stop them. These police officers are stopping people of color just because of the their appearance rather than the actions of their character. To make things
As the Civil Rights Leader and former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Benjamin Todd Jealous, once said, “Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve. It has no place in our national discourse, and no place in our nation 's police departments.” Racial profiling is the use of ethnicity as a basis for suspecting someone of having committed a criminal offense, which is both illegal and immoral. Police officers unjustifiably use their power to stop, frisk, and harass minorities based on their identity and appearance. According to statistics, Whites have the most arrests for serious and non-serious crimes yet African Americans and Hispanics are stopped far more frequently than any other race or ethnicity. Police officers need to be restrained from racial profiling because it unfairly disadvantages innocent people due to their ethnicity. As stated by Law Enforcement officials, these stops are described as a “crime-fighting tool” however, are rather a racially oriented tool of harassment. It is essential for police officers to know the difference between racial profiling and criminal profiling to further prevent police brutality from occurring.
According to (nyclu.org), “innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 5 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent.” Many people believe that the police are taking advantage of people just by the way they are dressed, color of their skin, and the area they are in. Although it may seem unfair, police are trained to look for suspicious activity and if they believe someone could up to something they will enforce their use of force, stop and frisk.
“One. The police stop blacks and Latinos at rates that are much higher than whites. In New York City, where people of color make up about half of the population, 80% of the NYPD stops were of blacks and Latinos. When whites were stopped, only 8% were frisked (Quigley, 2010).” Police stops are a very common effect on society. It isn’t fair that police don’t hold everyone accountable the same way. Not every cop is that way but there are that selected few who still have that racist mindset and hold it against innocent people. It’s no secret that in New York especially, there is a lot of crime and gang activity produced by different minority groups in the city. However, The facts does not provide a good reason that in routine stops are people of color targeted and frisked down compared to
Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years, there has been a history of tension and conflict between the police and minority communities in the United States. In principle, the police exist to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of race or ethnic background, yet police departments across the country have been repeatedly accused of targeting and harassing racial minorities, and of failing to root out racist attitudes and practices within their ranks. In recent years, high profile cases such as the beating of Rodney King in Los Angles and the assault on Abner Louima in New York have only served to heighten concerns over the mistreatment of minorities by the police, resulting in widespread calls for major legal and institutional reforms. The recent shootings of Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Terrance Crutcher underscore the danger Black men and boys face when they cross paths with law enforcement officers. In the absence of a coordinated national strategy, state and local police departments have largely been left to develop their own solutions to the problems of policing minority communities and improving cultural sensitivity amongst their officers. Many departments have sought to reform recruitment and selection policies in the hope of attracting greater numbers of minority applicants, while others have instituted diversity training and education programs aimed at improving police understanding of minority cultures and communities. To date, however, these efforts have yielded mixed results. Some departments have achieved notable successes, but on the whole, relations between the police and minority communities across the country remain strained. of cultural diversity and the police.
“Racial minorities, particularly Black Americans, have had a long and troubling history of disparate treatment by U.S criminal justice authorities.” (Birzer, 23) I am not here to give you another lesson on slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s or any other struggle we faced in our history, but I do want you to keep it in mind as you read about the current struggle we still face in 2017. You would think that America would give us a break since we’ve been fighting for equality for centuries, but they are not simply because of the color of our skin. When I say “they” I mean White America. Now, don’t get me
It is easy to agree, at first glance that the Millers tale provides little insight into love. With a joke within every line, Chaucer provides a read that could have no intellectual depth for some. However to others the further in to the tale they read, the more it have to say about issues such as love, sex and gender roles.