Racial Profiling by Police Is Ineffective and Reduces Public Safety

Racial profiling is discrimination, and discrimination is wrong. Discrimination taints the entire criminal justice system. Racial profiling is nothing but public stereotyping. Therese extreme tactics make the justice system look bad in cases which their racial profiling was incorrect. It publicly puts all races in once category, bad or good. Discrimination has being going on for years and years in history. African Americans are one group of people who have worked so hard not to be discriminated against, and with racial profiling they are constantly being brought back down to the Jim Crow Era. When will it ever stop?

Racial Profiling is unconstitutional and illegal, yet it’s still used in law enforcement. The practice of racial profiling, as defined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 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 2005). Racial profiling causes more harm than good, it can cause emotional, mental and more often physical harm to the person being subjected to the practice. According to the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments, racial profiling is unconstitutional. It causes distrust in law enforcement because ethnic

I think Stop-and-Frisk is not a racial profiling, here is why. Base on the data provided, most of the murder cases were involving minorities which happen to be Latinos and Blacks. Plus 50% of New York populations are Latinos and Black and most murders victim and suspects were Latinos and Black. I know that most of the Stop-and-Frisk victim were minorities, which I can see why people might think it racial profiling against minorities. However, New York’s police shouldn’t just targeted minorities base on statistic, because everyone can be a suspects. Therefore, I think the intention for Stop-and-frisk to stop crime from happening, it was met for police to stop and frisk everyone, not just minorities. It just so that minorities tend to crime

Racial Profiling, it’s been the buzzword of the decade, its being talked about every time the news is on, it’s thrown around high-schools more often than test answers, it’s what George Zimmerman was accused of doing to Trayvon Martin, and it’s what Darren Wilson was accused of doing to Michael Brown. Everyone seems to have an opinion on Racial Profiling these days, some arguing that its morally right or wrong, others that its statistically supported or disproved, and many people argue over both. In a room of fifty people if you ask what they think about it you’ll get fifty different answers. After the recent incidents in New York and Ferguson that have made Racial Profiling the new poster child of every single media outlet, and after hearing so much about it I decided it was time for me to figure out what exactly Racial Profiling is and come up with my own answer to the million dollar question; should Racial Profiling be allowed as a tool of the police in their investigations?

Racial profiling occurs when authority uses someone’s race or ethnicity to decide whether or not to use enforcement. This controversial act is highly illegal and is mostly caused by stereotypes of certain races and ethnicities. Black males are mostly targeted due to the color of their skin, the type of car they drive, the genre of music they are listening to and how they are dressed. Some call this act DWB, driving while black. Black males are stopped and searched constantly with no probable cause just because of their race and gender. If a group of black males are riding in a car with hats on, and loud music they are more likely to get stopped than a group of white males doing the same thing. It is

Yes, Stop-and-Frisk is racial profiling because it mostly targets NYC’s African American and Latino citizens. According to United States Census Bureau in NYC about 50 percent of the population is Black and Latino, 44 percent is White, and the other 6 percent are other minor races. Therefore, it would be assumed that the Stop and Frisk policy if applied equally would target Black, Latinos, and Whites the most since they are the largest race populations in the city. However, this is not the case because 90 percent of Stop and Frisk searches were conducted on Black and Latino men which clearly shows that out all the races in the city that Black and Latino citizens are clearly being targeted because of the way they look. Some would argue that because most violent crimes are committed by Black and Latinos it is necessary to search them more over any other race. However, out of Stop and Frisk searches done on Black and Latinos 88 percent were found to be innocent. Therefore, most Black and Latino Citizens are not breaking any laws and such not involved in any crimes. The Stop and Frisk policy clearly racial profiles Black and Latinos because of stereotypes of these races being more violent and dangerous when statistics clearly show that is false.

Racial profiling can be defined, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, as the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials [or security personnel] of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Although this act is not directly illegal, it violates core principles of our democracy: two of them being, the Fourteenth Amendment, which outlines the citizenship of African Americans along with equal protection of the laws, including the right to life, liberty and property, and due process, and the Fourth Amendment, which provides citizens their right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Racial profiling affects a wide range of minority groups. Reports on alcu.org state, “More than 240 years of slavery and 90 years of legalized racial segregation have led to systemic profiling of blacks in traffic and pedestrian stops” (Racial Profiling). Members of South Asian, Arab, and Muslim communities have also been categorized in regards to travel and terroristic activities by federal law enforcement and airline security due to the events on September 11, 2001. Latino communities have too been profiled and alienated due to the

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

Racial profiling is an example of police brutality, which is defined by Gross and Livingston (2002) as “the practice of some officers of stopping motorists of certain racial or ethnic groups because the officer believe that these groups are more likely than others to commit certain types of crimes” (p.1413). Therefore, individuals are treated unfairly by law enforcement solely based on their race. This type of mistreatment is unmerited and ultimately a violation of an individual’s rights. However, in many instances the courts do not find it a violation of their civil rights based on the fact that racial profiling is difficult to prove. Often, prosecutors are disinclined in bringing forth a case against officers on this particular matter. Officers are permitted to stop and search individuals and their vehicles whenever there is reasonable suspicion, however, there has been studies that prove that some law enforcement officers restrict these rights primarily to minority groups. Bowling and Phillips found that although there was no formal monitoring of use of these powers, it was concluded that it was particularly heavy use of these powers against ethnic minorities, largely of young black people (as cited in Sharp & Atherton, 2007, p. 747) . In several cases, officers argue that they reasonably pulled an individual over for other probable grounds such as: traffic violations, suspicious behavior, etc., with race never being an

“Racial profiling describes the practice of targeting or stopping an individual based primarily on his or her race rather than any individualized suspicion” as illustrated by Warren of Sage journals. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as reasons for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. African-Americans have been fighting what seems to be a never ending battle against oppression and racism. Over the years 2012-2015, reports of police killing unarmed black men in America have been alarming.

In New York City’s police department report in December 1999, the stop and frisk practices showed to be greatly based on race. In NYC, blacks make up 25.6% of the city’s population, Hispanics 23.7% and whites are 43.4% of NYC population. However, according to the report, 50.6% of all persons stopped were black, 33% were Hispanic, and only 12.9% were white. As you can see, more than half of the individuals who were stopped were black, 62.7% to be exact (ACLU, 2013). In Orange County, California Latinos, Asians and African Americans were more than 90% of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking System (ACLU, 2013). Clearly this database record shows racial profiling occurred when the total population in the database made up less than half of Orange County’s population. This is when the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the ACLU stepped in. One other instance of racial profiling I’d like to discuss occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona. A court ruled in May 2013 that “sheriff Joe Arpaio’s routine handling of people of Latino descent amounted to racial and ethnic profiling”; according to CNN, the sheriff’s office had a history of targeting vehicles with those having darker skin, examining them more strictly and taking them into custody more often than others (CNN, 2014). Judge Murray Snow ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in this

Racial profiling is when someone’s race is used by law enforcement to assume criminal suspicions (Spagnoli, Filip). Law enforcement has used racial profiling to “help” prevent criminal activity. For instance, a survey done by the department of justice when officers focused more on African-American and Latino drivers they found that less of them had drugs the when they least focused on white drivers (The Truth About Racial Profiling: FIVE FACTS). Some officers assume that Hispanics and African-Americans are carrying around illegal substances and weapons. This is not always true! As the survey revealed, most of the people who did have prohibited items were white Americans. Law enforcement should begin stopping drivers by suspicion not by their race. In another survey done by Ian Ayres and Jonathan Borowsky they had found very similar information. “We also found that, once people were stopped, officers were more likely to frisk, search, or arrest African-Americans and Latinos than whites…when these frisks and searches are substantially less likely to uncover weapons, drugs, or other types of contraband” (Borowsky, Ayres). Officers are spending more time on race than focusing on real criminals who are ousting the reasons why this country is remarkable. Other cases like these have been confirmed as well. “Relative to stopped whites, stopped blacks is 127% more likely and

While racial profiling is used to solve many crimes, using race as a description of the criminal being pursued does not constitute discrimination. “Racial profiling does not refer to the act of a law enforcement agent pursuing a suspect in which the specific description of the suspect includes race or ethnicity in combination with other identifying factors.”1 Identifying and defining racial profiling simply on the basis of race can raise several issues. Using this definition solely based on race fails to mention when police act on the basis of race along with a violation. For example an officer who targets African Americans who were jaywalking would not be considered to be racial profiling because the people that were stopped were jaywalking and happened to be African Americans.

Racial profiling is an epidemic. It has negatively impacted communities for generations. THe use of race by American police in their policing activities has received much attention across the world. Social media have exploded the daily news people consume and trends are now visible to those that previously didn’t notice it. Countless studies were released on that epidemic and yet, in 2016, nothing seems to have changed. There are those who will support the idea, but quite often, it’s because it doesn’t affect them. While it’s true that African Americans have a particular past with racial profiling in America, it’s has always been much broader experience. Anyone with Arabic look or with Muslim affiliation would be constantly set aside for extra searching and questioning at airports. As a journalist so well explained “People like

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