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Introduction to racial profiling essay
Racial profiling and its effects on society
Racial profiling in America
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Racial profiling is stereotyping and it violates civil rights. Also it has harm ethnic minorities. People have different opinions about this kind of situation they have their pros and cons, it has come to a point where they even violated our civil rights. When it comes to racial profiling it has affected society for many years that even law enforcement have become a problem to the community as well retails stores, as we seen, the races that are target the most are non-white. Throughout the years we seen and heard cases about people been innocent and that get followed at a shopping center, get stop just by walking down the street for looking “suspicious” and for their physical appearances. It’s not a great thing to do, but let’s face it we have done at some point.
This type of circumstances have harm ethnic minorities. The main races that are target are Hispanics and Latinos, Arab and Muslims, African American, but they each have a category for why they been stop, follow and harass. First Hispanics and Latinos are been profile because some of them might be illegal. African American for been violent, troublemakers and been theft. Arab and Muslims are category as been terrorist. They have become second-class citizens for all that mistreatment or neglecting society, law enforcement has done to them. An example of second -class citizen is when in April 2010, Arizona authorized SB 1070, a law that would require law-enforcement officers to prove the citizenship of individuals they stop if they have reasonable suspicion that they may be in the United States illegally. (NY Times: Blocking Parts
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of Arizona Law, Justices Allow Its Centerpiece). Other reason why it harms our society is when it comes to physical appearance, people...
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...o humiliates us. I know for a fact that I would not want to be criticized based on the actions of people like me, before I even had the chance to be myself. Whether it’s profiling Hispanics as illegal immigrants, Muslims as terrorists, racial profiling is shameful and
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disrespectful and before you do it you should ask yourself, “Would you like to be judged based on completely different people?” So, next time you see that Muslim, Hispanic, Arab, think twice before you judge. It is unfair to the millions of innocent people who just happen to be of the same skin color or have the same name to those who have committed crimes. Racial profiling is harmful, but there’s a difference as long as you have evidence or reasonable cause and for sure you know the whom the person is or what there doing then there’s no problem. At the end don’t judge a book by its cover.
Our criminal justice book defines racial profiling as "any police initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than the behavior of an individual, or on information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity” (Schmalleger 757). I think it is best summed up as the practice of using race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion as the primary factor in deciding who to subject to law enforcement investigations. Racial profiling can be used as a basis for racist police officers to arrest more minorities and this is documented very often. In the article Jim Crow policing, Bob Herbert talks about the unnecessary frisking and racism connected to searching for potential criminals. Herbert makes several points as to why police are harassing the black and Latino population and how it is wrong.
First of all, racial profiling is unfair to its victims . Racial profiling is seen through the police in “Hounding the Innocent”, which is unfair since a person shouldn’t be pulled over more because of their race and that many of these stops have little to no connection to an actual crime. “Young black and Hispanic males are being stopped, frisked, and harassed in breathtaking numbers” (Herbert, 29) This is unfair to all victims of racial
The justice system is in place in America to protect its citizens, however in the case of blacks and some other minorities there are some practices that promote unfairness or wrongful doing towards these groups. Racial profiling is amongst these practices. In cases such as drug trafficking and other criminal acts, minorities have been picked out as the main culprits based off of skin color. In the article “Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling” it recognizes racial profiling as a problem in America and states, “[In order to maintain national security] law-enforcement officers have detained members of minority groups in vehicles more than whites”…. “these officers assume that minorities commit more drug offenses, which is not the case” (Fauchon). In relationship to law enforcement there has also been many cases of police brutality leaving young blacks brutally injured, and even dead in recent years, cases such as Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddy Gray just to name a few. Many of these young men were unarmed, and the police involved had no good justification for such excess force. They were seen as threats primarily because of their skin color. Despite the fact this nation is trying to attain security, inversely they are weakening bonds between many of its
Terrorism and racial profiling is nothing new in our society. Although some people would like to believe that it is nonexistent, it is still a major issue in today’s world. With that being said, my view on the subject is that racial profiling is going to continue to happen whether we like it or not. I believe profiling isn 't necessarily meant to intentionally harm anyone, but is used as a tool to prevent terrorism. Past terroristic attacks have lead to the many stereotypes and prejudice that our country has today.
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.
When police stop someone of a minority because they fit the profile of suspect people become outraged and say that the officer was racially profiling. White argues that profiling based on statistical evidence is an effective way to save time, money and sometimes lives. Many people feel the opposite of White and say that profiling is a way to harass minorities and make them feel unequal in the land of the free. Many people that are pro-profiling say that it happens in almost everything we do, from applying to college to interview for a job. Even shop owners profile so why can’t the police department profile when they are trying to keep the city streets safe. The individuals against profiling say that it targets minorities in order to make them feel out of
Racial profiling in the dictionary is “the assumption of criminality among ethnic groups: the alleged policy of some police to attribute criminal intentions to members of some ethnic groups and to stop and question them in disproportionate numbers without probable cause (“Racial Profiling”).” In other words racial profiling is making assumptions that certain individuals are more likely to be involved in misconduct or criminal activity based on that individual’s race or ethnicity. Racial profiling propels a brutalizing message to citizens of the United States that they are pre-judged by the color of their skin rather than who they are and this then leads to assumptions of ruthlessness inside the American criminal justice system. With race-based assumptions in the law enforcement system a “lose-lose” situation is created due to America’s diverse democracy and destroys the ability to keep the criminal justice system just and fair. Although most police officers perform their duties with fairness, honor, and dedication, the few officers who portray to be biased then harm the whole justice system resulting in the general public stereotyping every law enforcement officer as a racial profiler (Fact Sheet Racial Profiling). When thinking about racial profiling many people automatically think it happens only to blacks but sadly this is mistaken for far more ethnic groups and races such as Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, Native Americans, and many more are racially profiled on a day to day basis. Many people believe racial profiling to be a myth because they see it as police officers merely taking precautions of preventing a crime before it happens, but in reality racial profiling has just become an approved term for discrimination and unjust actio...
There is considerable evidence that minorities and police are not in agreement on many issues, and the blame is being shifted from all parties involved. The police feel that they are fair in their treatment of minorities, but the evidence in many instance prove otherwise. When we view articles on the arrests of minorities versus whites, you will notice a variation in how various nationalities are treated. When reading the newspaper, you will see the photograph of a minority with previous criminal history and other issues outlined. This to me is done to paint a picture that shows the accused is already known for violating the law.
Imagine being at risk of being pulled over at any given time, the only reason? The color of your skin. “2010, the state of Arizona passed a law authorizing local police to check the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being in the United States illegally.” (11 Facts...). The ability to pull people over for the sole reason of looking illegal. This seems aimed at Latinos because they are the ones that are easily recognizable, and often stereotyped as not being legal residents of the United States. For example, if two people were lined up and one had a light complexion and light features, and one had tan skin and darker skin, when asked who looked like an immigrant, a large majority would choose the individual with the tan
Racial profiling in America, as evidenced by recent events, has reached a critical breaking point. No longer can an African American, male or female, walk into a store, school, or any public place without fear of being stereotyped as a person of suspicion. Society constantly portrays the African American
Despite the fact racism has been around for hundreds of years, upcoming generations are becoming more open minded and less likely to publicly berate minorities; racial profiling, however, is the one loophole of racism America overlooks. Police officials often use the practices of racial profiling to discretely single out minority races. A common approach to this is through traffic patrols. According to a statistic based in San Jose, CA, nearly 100,000 drivers were stopped; during the year ending in June 2000; and of these drivers less than 32% were white, the remaining 68% of drivers were a... ... middle of paper ... ...
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 that racial profiling is different from criminal profiling, which uses evidence of wrong-doing and facts which can include information obtained from outside sources and evidence gathered from investigation. Based on these definitions, I will show that racial profiling is unfair and ineffective because it relies on stereotyping, encourages discrimination, and in many cases can be circumvented.
Every day you see and hear about minorities groups complain about cops and their tactics against them stopping them while in traffic taking them in to custody or even getting kill over nothing. Racial Profiling is a common thing in this community and it is causing a lot of trouble. According to Minnesota House of Representatives analyst Jim Cleary, "there appear to be at least two clearly distinguishable definitions of the term 'racial profiling ': a narrow definition and a broad definition... Under the narrow definition, racial profiling occurs when a police officer stops, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone solely on the basis of the person 's race or ethnicity... Some ways to stop it is find out who is guilty of it, look at their
Bad economic results can occur when racial profiling is accepted and urged to be used. Matthew Rothschild states, “Better to take nonviolent action and press our case with boycott”(3).Rothschild is referring to Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law that allows local law enforcement the power to ask any suspect for proof of citizenship. This law outraged many people and city also took offense to this new law. Rothschild also goes on to state, “San Francisco is leading the way. Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that prevents city officials travelling on official business to Arizona” (3). We can see this law hurt states by losing support because of acceptance to racial profiling. Having acceptance for racial profiling can cause outrage and boycotts, but more important it can...
...al profiled. The way is by the color of their skin. People say that racial profiling is a good way to stop terrorism and violence and stolen merchandise, but they don’t know the affect it has to the other minorities. If you were a minority you wouldn’t want to have people look at you differently or even make assumptions about you. To stop racial profiling we should stop judging how people look and stop recalling what happened in the pass with their ethnicity. Witherbee Amy ebscohost.com stated “Those who would defend racial profiling admitted that the policy bound to infringe upon the rights of African Americans who were targeted because of their appearance, but claimed that profiling made sense based on statistics that showed blacks and Latino Americans were more likely to be convicted with drugs crimes.” Would you make an effort to put an end to racial profiling?