Essay on Racial Profiling

Free Racial Profiling papers

Obligaciones Jur Dicas
LAS OBLIGACIONES JUR-DICAS Por obligaci n entendemos que es la facultad que tiene una persona llamada acreedor de exigir de otra, llamada deudor, una prestaci n o una abstenci n. Y s lo que si dicha relaci n se considera *nicamente del lado pasivo toma el nombre de deuda u obligaci n, y si del lad

Racism (Causes)
INTRODUCTION Racism and prejudice are a problem. They have existed for thousands of years and they are transmitted from generation to generation. However, racism have not always been the same, it have changed trough the history and every day it have become more sophisticated. DEFINITIONS Prejudic

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Racial Profiling:

Its Time to Put an End to this Unjust Practice

It has happened to actors such as Wesley Snipes, Will Smith, Blair Underwood and LeVar Burton. It has happened to football player Marcus Allen, Olympic athletes Al Joyner and Edwin Moses, and it has happened to attorney Johnnie Cochran. Police officers stop, question and even search black drivers who have committed no crime, based on the excuse that a traffic offense has occurred. The term black Americans use for these stops are Driving while Black or DWB. Driving while black is a prime example of racial profiling. The issue of racial profiling in America is one of great importance to the future of American society, and regrettably, is not a new issue. For decades black Americans have complained about this practice. Law enforcement officials across our great nation deny that racial profiling occurs, but an over whelming majority of the black community believes that racial profiling is practiced on a daily basis. During the Civil Rights Era, racial profiling was a major issue, thousands of black Americans were unnecessarily stopped and arrested based on their skin color alone. Yet, after all of our progress

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since that torrid period of our past, we continue to fight for the stoppage of racial profiling in the year 2000. This issue screams to be addressed by the government and abolished in American society if we truly desire our country to be The Land of the Free, that we all know and love.

Racism, and stereotyping in general, are issues that date back many centuries. It would seem that skin color alone may very well make you a suspect in America, and more likely to be stopped by our law enforcement personnel. The war on drugs has given police a license to target those people who they believe fit the profile of a drug dealer or a gang member. The prevailing perception in American society today is that most drug traffickers and gang members are minorities, mostly blacks. However, a quick check into the demographics that make up these two groups of people will prove this to be very untrue. Racial profiling is based on the premise that minorities commit most drug offenses. Because of this over riding thought, police search for illegal substances primarily among black Americans, finding an uneven number actually in possession of these substances. These persons are arrested, thereby reinforcing the belief that drug

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trafficking is mostly limited to the black culture. All the while, white drivers receive far less police attention, affording the drug dealers among this group of people to go free. This adds to the perception that whites commit far fewer drug offenses than minorities. The unfortunate result is the innocent people are often persecuted based on their skin color alone. Statistics prove the use and selling of drugs are not limited to minorities in America; in fact, five times as many whites use drugs.

From the outset of the war on drugs, minorities

have been targeted. According to our own

governmental reports 80 percent of the country s

cocaine users are white, and the typical

cocaine user is a white middle class suburbanite.

But law enforcement tactics remain concentrated

in the inner city, continuing to feed the

perception that drug dealers and users are black.

This allowed the drug courier profile, which

possesses racial overtones, to take hold

(Harris 7).

Media attention to this issue has been on the rise over approximately the last five years. In the past twelve months alone, front-page stories and editorials have

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appeared not only in the major national newspapers, but many local papers as well. Talk to almost any black person in the country and you will hear personal accounts of unjustified traffic stops by the police. These numerous accounts leave one with the perception that our police forces are using race as the primary basis for making a majority of traffic stops (Green 6A). It is never pleasant being a victim of racial profiling, often it turns into a very humiliating and degrading encounter. When verbally relating the incidents that resulted from racial profiling, it is difficult to express the degree of pain, humiliation and mental anguish that one has been subjected to. Harvard lawyer, Robert L. Wilkens, and his family were traveling from a funeral in a rented Cadillac when he was stopped for speeding. The state trooper ordered Wilkens, his aunt, uncle and a cousin out of their vehicle and into the rain, for the purpose of searching the car for drugs. Wilkens recalls seeing a young white boy, about six years old, in a passing car with his face pressed against the window and he couldn t help but to think what image will forever be in this little boys head? Will it contribute to the stereotype about blacks, or maybe an unwarranted fear of black men (Green 6A)? There were no drugs to be found, We

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were completely humiliated, says Wilkens. Twenty-nine year old Rep. Harold E. Ford, Jr. (D-Tenn.) told a reporter that he was stopped by a Washington, DC police officer who demanded to see his ID. When the policeman examined the ID he could not believe that Rep. Ford was a member of Congress and that he was driving such a nice car. At which point Rep. Ford told him, If I was treated this way, I can t imagine how folks who don t have the access to the things I do as a member of Congress are treated. Kweisi Mfume, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was pulled over while driving the interstate at night and alone, the police initially thought he had stolen the car he was driving. It wasn t until the policeman found out who Mr. Mfume was that they let him go (Davis 42).

Statistics on racial profiling are alarming; studies in New Jersey and Maryland both demonstrate the prevalence of racial profiling. For instance, 77 percent of motorists searched on the New Jersey turnpike were black or Hispanic, although 60 percent of all persons stopped were white. Similarly, 70 percent of the drivers stopped on a stretch of Interstate 95 in Maryland from January 1995 to September 1996 were black, despite the fact that blacks made up just

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17 percent of the drivers (of all speeds) on that road. The evidence gets even more disturbing, an innocent black driver in the state of Maryland is four times more likely to be searched than an innocent white driver, despite the fact that such practices were banned in the state (Taylor). Profiling is not limited to race; other characteristics such as age and dress are also used as "warning signals" by police officers. This poses a problem, especially when...