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Racial discrimination in the police force
Racial profiling and police discretion
How race plays a role in police brutality
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This analysis will be examining the article “my encounter with Princeton police” by Imani Perry a female black professor at ivy –League University in New Jersey. Perry was pulled over by Princeton police while she was driving 67mph on street with 45mph limit. At which time, the police found warrant for arrest for two unpaid ticket. For these reason, Perry got handcuffed and taken into custody. The conclusion of this argument is clearly police are using inappropriate and disproportionate treatment against African Americans. The author set her argument on two strong primary assumptions. First, police are using disposition in racially discriminatory fashion to ward black Americans. Second, it presumed in this society we found ourselves, sanction …show more content…
Police are using modern license plate reader technology that can read on spot and collect general information about the vehicle and the driver. The technology helps the police to get information; however, the police decides who to stop for violation. There are tremendous evidence that indicates African Americans men and women pulled over by police for minor traffic violation but ends up on body and vehicle search. This fact indicates discretion is exercised in the way one feels racial profiled. In the meantime, police are using these information collected to target African Americans like Imani Perry. Secondly, the author assumes police treated her wrongly and unfavorably because she is African American. Race and class remains an important social factor in understanding disparities in many important parts of life. Even though there is no simple way to show that a correlation between her case and wide police practice, her personal experience is quite similar with most African Americans victim of bad policing. Some critics may also assume this as an isolated …show more content…
Her tone is calm and professional throughout her argument, her purpose for writing is clear as to inform her social media followers. Furthermore, Perry employed ethos, Logos and pathos. First, she established ethos by identifying herself as a professor who teaches African American history. Her extrinsic ethos is strong because she able to give plenty of evidence to her audience about her credibility. For example, when she mentioned about police discretion is exercised, she included that she witnessed thousands of illegal acts that went unpunished in white dominant area while she lives there. Perry’s intrinsic ethos is as strong as extrinsic ethos. She exhibits an outstanding confidence in her articles. Her expression revels that she is one that to be taken seriously by her audience. For example, the way she said how illegal activity handled in this country especially in a police department. Even though Perry’s article is weak in pathetic appeal, her audience may feel sympathy for her experience of being handcuffed on her artistic wrist, and her word choice like “my people…..naked vulnerability over and over again”. In the meantime, Perry’s argument is supported by her use of logical appeal to her audience. For example she uses the following words to show logical appeals” lenience is the rule rather than exception.” And “perfection is not required for white citizenship, it should
Cop in the Hood has taught me a lot about how police work in a city really is. The chapter titled “911 is a Joke” intrigued me the most, for mostly two reasons. First the story at the beginning of the chapter really put perspective on how some people really live in the inner cities and how a police officer would have to react to the situation. Secondly, growing up in a middle class suburb I was always taught the 911 was only to be called in a time of emergency. It was a sacred number that I had never had to call. Me and my friends would joke on each other and type “911” on our flip phones and threaten to call, but never will. When Moskos said the 911 was a joke I was taken back by it because it when against everything I was taught.
The judicial system in America has always endured much skepticism as to whether or not there is racial profiling amongst arrests. The stop and frisk policy of the NYPD has caused much controversy and publicity since being applied because of the clear racial disparity in stops. Now the question remains; Are cops being racially biased when choosing whom to stop or are they just targeting “high crime” neighborhoods, thus choosing minorities by default? This paper will examine the history behind stop and frisk policies. Along with referenced facts about the Stop and Frisk Policy, this paper will include and discuss methods and findings of my own personal field research.
Racial profiling is the tactic of stopping someone because of the color of his or her skin and a fleeting suspicion that the person is engaging in criminal behavior (Meeks, p. 4-5). This practice can be conducted with routine traffic stops, or can be completely random based on the car that is driven, the number of people in the car and the race of the driver and passengers. The practice of racial profiling may seem more prevalent in today’s society, but in reality has been a part of American culture since the days of slavery. According to Tracey Maclin, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, racial profiling is an old concept. The historical roots “can be traced to a time in early American society when court officials permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to ‘take up’ all black persons seen ‘gadding abroad’ without their master’s permission” (Meeks, p. 5). Although slavery is long since gone, the frequency in which racial profiling takes place remains the same. However, because of our advanced electronic media, this issue has been brought to the American public’s attention.
The first symbol that appears in the story is the conch which was found by Piggy and Ralph early in the story. The boys believed it to be held by the person with the power to govern and speak for the people. This power was recognized early to ralph "But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch"(Golding, 22). When choosing their chief the conch appeared to give Ralph power over Jack in the decision for bringing them all together with the conch i...
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.
Racial profiling is the most idiotic and arrogant thing you can ever do as a person. Usually the people who are affected by racial profiling are minorities, however, any person can be a victim of racial profiling. Some may think that racial profiling is non-existent, however, I would like to bring the situation into focus and show that it is still in existence and has been observed in the past and now in the current year. Although, more than fifty percent of the time racial profiling is conducted it is against a man or woman of color; an African-American in other words. There are instances where a white person can be a victim as well. Trying not to say that there isn't any person out there that is exempted from racial profiling, because there isn't a single person who is just exempted from this cruel method of decision making. In my essay I will talk about racial profiling and what it is, however, you can't forget about where it happens and of course why. Several resolutions will be discussed in this essay to alleviate this problem.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
Edelman reflects on racial profiling in law enforcement and police cruelty against Black adolescence and Black males all together. The author exposed an unbearable certainty in the Black public that it can transpire to any person to some extent period. He attempt to explain findings on why police are crueler to blacks than they are toward whites in today’s society. He suggests ways to keep our black boys alive and out of the system by controlling the rage behind racial profiling.
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
One of the most controversial issues today is the act of racial profiling. The most common form is direct, meaning victims are directly profiled, usually by the police. In this form, individual officers act on racial stereotypes against racial minorities, especially African Americans. Recent studies in New Jersey and Illinois have confirmed that minorities are disproportionately targeted by police officers, although minorities are almost helpless in reporting ‘color of law’ attacks. It is their word against a legal official and, in most cases, the minority victim does not receive justification because the officers are cleared of charges. Out of nearly 10,000 color of law complaints received each year by the Department of Justice, only about thirty police officers are actually prosecuted. According to a June 1999 study done by the American Civil Liberties Union, many states have denied that racial profiling occurs despite overwhelming evidence supporting it. The public wants to believe that police officers are doing their jobs righteously by protecting and serving; however, according to the study, most Americans can recognize the difference between racism and assertive, effective policing.
Some Advocators argued that racial profiling has a major effect on society. In Arrest Development, James B. Forman Argues that, “Blacks are usually the victims of racial profiling; he also argues that unlike the Republican leaders, the Democratic leaders have publicly denouncing racial profiling. Forman believes that racial profiling, turn the police against minorities instead of for them; moreover racial profiling corrupts the effect of equal treatment under the law.” (qtd in Crime and Criminals, 2004).
Officers are trained and taught different polices that require them not to be biased towards any gender or race. Such officers include Sunil Dutta, if you don’t want to get shot, tasted pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.” (Dutta) uses policies to their advantage. Lack of African-American officers, mainly in communities with citizens of color, can lead to an inquiry that there is a bias in law enforcement agencies and their policies. With recent events in the news displaying the misconduct of officers in an African-American communities like, in July of 2014, where the death of Eric Garner because of “chokehold” by a police officer hit home for many African-Americans and made them question the legislative decisions on policies causing a distrust and lack of confidence within the police departments, shying away citizens from
Piggy beside his glasses symbolizes science and intelligence. Jack, the painted faces, long hair and the naked kids represent wildness and violence, names some of the characters are symbols also, Piggy's name, which considers as a weak animal and in fat the character as well is the week to ( overweight issues, eyesight). The conch also is another symbol, it related to Ralph and Piggy so it represents the order and civilization. The head is a physical symbol as well, it represents evil and the savagery that is inside every
The first symbol, which is used all throughout the book, is the symbol of the Conch. The conch was a large shell which piggy had first unearthed on the island. The conch shows powers all throughout the book and always commands respect form the boys due to its importance. The importance and power would best be compared to that of a congregation when a Rabbi removes the torah from the ark, which holds it. The first quote which best shows the importance of the conch is when it is used by Ralph and Piggy to summon all the boys together when they find themselves alone on the island. "The Conch, we can use this to call the others. Have a meeting they'll come when they hear us- (16)." Then again at the second meeting we see how the boys are drawn to the Conch and how it is like a magnet to the boys, which draws them to who ever uses it. "By the time Ralph had finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded (32)." The conch also shows the first idea of civilization and rules. One example is when there is disorder because everyone I talking at once. "Conch, that's what the shell is called. I'll give the conch to the next person who speaks. He can hold when he is speaking (33)." Finally the conch is used for is to show how Piggy does so much to help them and does not get credit for it. It was used that way when Piggy was the first one to see the Conch and Piggy was the one who knew what it was and instructed Ralph on how to use it.