Essay on Racial Profiling

Free Racial Profiling papers

Russian Mafia
Protectionism in the New Capitalist Russia The Russian Mafia has always exercised an important role in the Russian economy. The contemporary mafiosi are descendents of the seventeenth Century highwaymen and Cossack robbers. These men occasionally murdered families prior to raids preventing them f

Second Amendment
The United States of America has taken drastic steps in taking away the American peoples God given rights and Constitutional rights. The United States government is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people. There are very clear signs of a cancerous growth within ou

The great era of civil rights started in the 1960s, with Martin Luther King,

Jr.’s stirring “I have a Dream” speech at the historic march on Washington

in August of 1963. At the same time Birmingham Police Commissioner “Bull”

Connor used powerful fire hoses and vicious police attack dogs against

nonviolent black civil rights activists. Although these years proved to be the

highlight and downfall of civil rights in America, even with the 1964 Civil

Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act being passed, time has repeated these

tumultuous events again in the present. Racial profiling has been one of many

civil rights issues concerning the unnecessary stopping and arresting of people

based on race, color, ethnicity and gender. Skin-color has become evidence of

the propensity to commit crime, and police use this “evidence” against

minority drivers on the road all the time. This practice is so common that the

minority community has given it the derisive term, “Driving While Black or

Brown” – a play on the real offense of “driving while intoxicated”.

Although many law enforcement officers defend themselves by saying they are

fighting against the “War on Drugs” by arresting these law offenders, recent

trials and reports show that no basis of arrest have been found against these

minorities. Official skin-color prejudice is still reflected throughout the

criminal justice system. Today, skin-color makes you a suspect in America. It

makes you more likely to be stopped by a law enforcement officer, more likely to

be searched, and more likely to be arrested and imprisoned. Tens of thousands of

innocent motorists on highways across the country are victims of racial

profiling, and these discriminatory police stops have reached epidemic

proportions in recent years. Fueled by the “War on Drugs”, this fight has

given police a pretext to target people who they think fit a “drug courier”

or “gang member” profile. At many times, these minorities have been stopped

and arrested for illegal offenses, however we are not sure if these stories have

been filed truthfully by law enforcement officers. Many police departments face

issues concerning racist law enforcement officers who cause the problems of

racial profiling. One such example comes from the Hillside Police Department,

where several racial bias charges have been made against them. Racial slurs have

become common in the Hillside district, where even the department supervisor

does background checks on minorities IN the squad, even to kick them off the

squad. In this department, only two officers are Hispanic and one is of African

decent. The officers, many of whom are white, are encouraged to target

minorities first to fill their ticket quotas for the month. Hillside officers

defend themselves saying that Hillside is 40 percent black and 20 percent

Hispanic. However, the actions taken by Hillside officer, such as targeting to

fill quotas and background checking, seem disconcerting. The Reverend Jesse

Jackson even needed to call for federal protection for whistleblowing police

officers. Because of the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, passed this

year, other officials who witness this discriminating act are protected. It

says, “The identity of a law enforcement officer who complains in food faith

to a government agency or department about the unlawful practices of a law

enforcement agency shall remain confidential and shall not be disclosed by any

person except upon the knowing written consent of the law enforcement officer.

This section shall not preempt any right of confrontation protected by the

Constitution of by Federal, State or tribal law.” In many cases, we can not

determine whether the racial profiling comes from the individual law enforcer,

or the department itself. Many policies have been suggested to either report

these discriminatory acts, or to record the ethnicity, race, or gender of the

person being stopped. However, without the correct supervision of these

officers, we can not truthfully tell whether these policies will be followed.

There have been bills proposed to even make the slightest positive effect on

racial profiling, yet many have been overlooked. Former California Governor Pete

Wilson served as best he could to fight key civil rights issues such as

affirmative action and immigrant rights, however Governor Gray Davis has had a

disappointing civil rights record. Although he has helped establish new civil

rights gains for the lesbian and gay communities, he has also vetoed a number of

bills aimed at reducing discrimination against communities of color and

immigrants. SB 44, a bill sponsored by Senator Richard Polanco, encourages state

and local governments to conduct outreach...