Racial Profiling: A Big Issue For Law Enforcement Today

According to the 11 Facts about Racial Discrimination, “The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17% chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance” (11 Facts about Racial Discrimination 1). Racial profiling, or discriminating against a whole group of people based on their race, is an unjust act and a big problem in our society today. Arresting people because of how they look like, or what they believe in is absurd. According to ACLU, “Racial Profiling refers to 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” (ACLU 1). Although law enforcement assumes they are doing their job, they need to remain objective and fair in all situations, because they are violating rights, lacking protection and risking lives.

Since the birth of our nation, racial profiling has been an issue longstanding and troubling among minority groups and still continues to exhibit severe consequences in communities.

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else” (Malcolm X) is a contestable ideal. Do we Americans allow our law enforcement to continue killing innocent African Americans whose own ancestors contribute to the success of this nation? No! We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch innocent lives ruined over and over again. We must auscultate to the cries of our four fathers. In order to halt the self-destruction of this nation we should fight for change in the police force, attempt to cease the embodiment of racial profiling, and support the efforts of those striving to bring about change.

Racism has been a big problem in the U.S. for all races for a very long time and continues to be a problem to this day,. Racism has been a big part in U.S. history and has changed over time, some of these races were African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans, for American Indians it was how they were treated wrong socially and economically.

America; the “so called 'Melting Pot”, where people can become as one. Excuse me but may I be the first one to say, this is far from the truth. People are constantly judging and being judged by others. This “obligation” we all seem to get, in the midst of this action, is one of our greatest character flaws. Whether we choose to accept it or not, everything that revolves around judgement is fear. A fear to be different, a fear to be seen differently, a fear of not being accepted. It is sad to me to think that most people are afraid of being themselves, instead they are trying to find their way to fitting in this world. It is what consumes and brain washes our society into thinking that we are some how superior than the person next to us.

In present times, it has become an understood truth that keeping more than half of the

Profiling is analyzing person mental and social qualities to figure if they are the one who commit the crime. The drug courier profile was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 that it can be used as a legitimate law enforcement tool, because of the U.S. vs Sokolow case (Levinthal, C.F., 2012). The only thing with profiling it is generally tied to some type of racial profiling, and law enforcement get lucky sometime and actually capture a criminal with racial profiling. But racial profiling violates ones constitutional rights, under the 4th Amendment which protect one from an unlawful search. So therefore, a person race is not a reasonable cause for a search. Most times young male African Americans are pulled over, because they are stereotyped

Racial Profiling is a social issue that is capturing more and more attention worldwide but especially by North Americans. Racial Profiling is the assumption that someone has committed a crime based on their physical appearance and the stigma that surrounds that culture or group. Racial profiling, therefore, affects everyone in society as it is about humanity. Everyone deserves the chance to be free of stereotypes and even those who aren’t amidst racial profiling should realise that they are affected as those who are guilty may not belong to said stereotyped racial group or those who are not guilty may be profiled without actions to warrant so. Growing evidence has shown that in a study conducted by the Canadian government “participants who identified themselves as a visible minority felt that they had been the target of racial profiling over the last four years compared to non-minority participants (20% vs. 6%). When asked the extent to which racial profiling occurs unofficially, 20% of the participants felt it happened "all the time" and 62% felt that it happened "sometimes".” (Canadian Department of Justice). These statistics illustrate that even in a country where it is claimed that we are equal and without a biased system people still are treated as if they are something they are not and due to their ethnic background. The article “Ottawa teen claims he was a victim of police profiling” featured on CBC news will only further serves as a real-life example to help

In the Justice System there are a lot of flaws that affect many people of color, and from past history, it has shown how these practices can lead to very unfortunate events, one of these practices is racial profiling. Racial profiling is when law enforcement uses race and ethnicity as grounds to determine if someone, typically of color, is guilty of doing something illegal. Racial profiling is a major problem in this country, this as well affects many citizens that are mainly of color because law enforcement usually sees them as targets, and it is important to improve and fixed this issue because there are many tragic incidents that have been caused of racial profiling.

Racial profiling has a strong history in these United States. First, what is racial profiling? Basically, racial profiling is an assumption about something solely based on a person’s race. It may also be a filter through one’s eye. For example, when a police officer decides to only stop African Americans, he is racially profiling; if he decides to exclude all African Americans from any stops he conducts, he is also racially profiling. Racial profiling is a form of discrimination people generally associate with law enforcement. In recent times, allegations of racial profiling have been rampant in the United States, having mainly the African American community as the target. Lately, though, Hispanics have also been the alleged target of racial profiling. Regardless, we can all be victims of racial profiling regardless of our race, and there have been laws written to prevent the profiling, but is it enough?

One of the most discussed about issues in our society today is profiling based on race or ethnicity. But what is racial profiling and why is it so important? Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement agents impermissibly use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin in deciding who to investigate for different crimes and offenses. It is being used unjustifiably wrongly in our culture daily. Based on the status of racial profiling currently, it seems as if racial profiling will always be a part of our society and there is nothing people can do to change that. With people making assumptions based on unjust rules, it seems like there will be no end in sight for racial profiling. Law enforcement should be held accountable for their actions, mistakes, and unjustified assumptions. Many instances occur with police officers taking wrongful actions solely based on race or nationality. Police and their practices have been going on for many years with the same outcomes repeating consecutively. A real- life instance of this includes police subjecting people to police brutality just because they are a “person of color” or even a “person of interest.” This has sparked protests and movements such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Hands Up Don’t Shoot.” Many people who have fallen victim to racial profiling and were wrongly accused and lost their lives as a result. Some of these people include, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, with the list continuing on. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed at seventeen years old for “looking suspicious.” Mike brown was shot six times for supposedly running away from a police officer. Eric Garner was put in a chokehold and subdued by a police officer for selling cigarettes illegally. Oscar Grant was already placed in handcuffs and lying flat on the floor when he was shot by a police officer that only served five years in prison. With countless others’ lives lost the list going on and on, it appears that racial profiling and bias have impacted affected a wide group of people and their families who have also suffered from this widespread issue. Overall, racial profiling is a big issue that might not be possible to correct

Racial profiling has been an issue in society for as long as America had a criminal justice system. "Racial profiling is a problem because it refers discriminatory practice bye-law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin." In 1868, the fourteenth amendment was ratified which states, " No state. Shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," would have made racial profiling illegal had it been enforced by the courts." Many years passed and individuals are still being racially profiled. After the 2001 terrorist attack, George W. Bush signed an executive order banning the use of race, color, and ethnicity to profile suspects in 70 different federal agencies." The nature of this social problem is still very serious, so why is racial profiling still a problem in America today?

Racism and racial stereotypes have existed throughout human history. The radical belief associated by thinking the skin color, language, or a person’s nationality is the reason that someone is one way or another has become extremely detrimental to society. Throughout human existence it has sparked tension between groups of people and ultimately influenced wars and even caused slavery. Racism in America dates back to when Native Americans were often attacked, relocated, and assimilated into European culture. Since then, racism within the states has grown to include various other cultures as well. In the essays by Brent Staples, Bharati Mukherjee, and Manuel Munoz, they discuss the various causes as well as the effects that racial stereotyping can place on a victim and the stigma it leaves behind for the society to witness.

Just what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is a law enforcement and security agency practice that encourages officers to stop, search, and investigate people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. While racial profiling is most commonly committed against ethnic minorities, many instances of racial profiling occur in reaction to specific crimes, making any racial or cultural group subject to more intensive scrutiny by the authorities. (ebscohost.com) This is what I think bout racial profiling, it like it occurs when the police targets someone for investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic

One issue that has been prevalent throughout the world in policing is racial profiling. This issue is highly controversial across the world because there are many people who believe racial profiling is a legitimate law enforcement tool, but there are just as many people who believe racial profiling is pure racism. Racial Profiling is using someone’s racial or ethnic characteristics to suspect someone of committing or is going to commit a crime. Since our society isn’t all just one specific type of person and is rather extremely diverse, it makes this topic something many people can relate to. Due to racial profiling, we attribute certain actions to specific types of people without any true justifications. For example, when people hear the word terrorism, they think of a brown male from the middle east who follows the religion of Islam. This is because of the acts that happened on September 11th, 2001 that shaped the society we all live in today. Now we all have an image embedded into us of who we should look out for and who should raise red flags of potentially being a terrorist. However, are these types of actions the right thing to do or is our society doing the wrong thing by racially profiling people? Before I make my decision about which side seems more valid than the other we must look at both sides of the issue of racial profiling.