It has been 3 years since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001. After two commercial airplanes were hijacked by members of the Al-Qaeda, both planes plundered through the towers, leaving nothing but the remains of the collapsed towers. Devastated by the thousands and maybe millions of people that were killed, America was under attack by terrorists.
Al-Qaeda is a well-known global terrorist network that originated in Islam and is led by the man name Osama bin Laden. Ever since 9/11, security has been an issue for congress and the president himself. Homeland security is the first of its kind to be developed; it is the basis or motherboard of all security that protects us within our nation.
What about people who are not Americans arriving to the United States? There should be more restrictive immigration policies because the group that attacked the World Trade Towers was foreigners, immigrants. People who are tan skinned, black hair, do not speak English, have an accent, and are not white skinned are usually people that get looked do...
For example in WWI, the Germans were put in internment camps and put under constant watch as the Americans were scared they would turn on them in the war because they would be loyal to their origin country of Germany. Germans who were citizens of other countries than the US were classified as aliens by the US government. About 250, 000 were to register at their local post office. They had to carry the registration card at all times and to report any change of address or employment. About 6, 300 aliens were arrested while many of them were interrogated and investigated. 2,048 were incarcerated. After 9/11, anyone who looked Arab or had the same skin color as them were suspicious to the US government. Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South-Asian Americans have been a target of that. Like the Germans, they were thoroughly more investigated at the airport than say a non-muslim caucasian and of African origin. They were kept longer at the airports and many have been interrogated and arrested. In 2006, six Muslim priests were ordered to leave their flight after flight attendants and passengers reported they were doing suspicious
On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center buildings one and two were attacked. However, who we were attacked by and even if we were attacked is a hard decision to make. There have been many different claims about how everything on that fateful day happened. There are facts that we know are true, though; Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at eight forty- six in the morning. Soon after, Flight 175 attacked the South Tower. By the end of the day, both towers had collapsed and other hijacked flights had caused damage. The amount of lives lost on September 11 was substantial; 2,749 people from eighty-three different countries died from the attacks (Facts about the attacks…, n.d.). All in all, America was changed forever.
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.
After the fear of terrorism grew in the United States do to the Al Qaeda 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the US Government found a need for a centralized department that umbrellas all other agencies when it comes to homeland security. The U.S. Government found this umbrella agency with the passage of the Homeland Security Act by Congress in November 2002, the Department of Homeland Security formally came into being as a stand-alone, Cabinet-level department to further coordinate and unify national homeland security efforts. (Homeland Security) With the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the government had a pinpoint location for the collection and gathering of intelligence, control of policies that effect national security, and a no fail mission. The Department of Homeland Security started to engulf other agencies and created many more, a total of 22 agencies now fall under the DHS. The DHS is control of all areas that deal with national security which included but are not limited to coastal and boarder protection, domestic terrorism, international terrorism, protection of the American people, protection of key infrastructure, protection of key resources and respond to natural disasters.
Racial profiling is a wide spread term in the American justice system today, but what does it really mean? Is racial profiling just a term cooked up by criminals looking for a way to get out of trouble and have a scapegoat for their crimes? Is it really occurring in our justice system, and if so is it done intentionally? Most importantly, if racial profiling exists what steps do we take to correct it? The answer to these questions are almost impossible to find, racial profiling is one of many things within our justice system that can be disputed from any angle and has no clear cut answers. All that can be done is to study it from different views and sources and come up with one’s own conclusion on the issue.
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.
For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about Islam. In this case, the imaginary cause against Muslims is terrorism. The wound has healed in the heart of the U.S. but the aching throb of terrorism continues to distress citizens every day.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Racial Profiling can happen to anyone, anywhere such as the streets, in the airports, or even just walking home. Racial profiling and the media influence an individual’s perspective on a trial. Racial Profiling is using someone’s race or ethnic background as suspicion for committing a crime. Evidence from past trials dating back to 1920s Sacco and Vanzetti trial to George Zimmerman’s trial in 2013 prove that racial profiling has existed for nearly a century. According to the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he states
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
Racial profiling has been a common controversy between law enforcement and communities, specifically those of a minority population. This activity has been ultimately allowed by federal and state governments as they benefit from the aid in pinpointing or otherwise targeting criminals or illegal aliens. Furthermore, racial profiling has become more of a commonly encountered practice especially after the September 11 attacks.
“It was so hostile. I was so confused. It was happening so fast that I could easily see how this situation could get out of hand very quickly. I didn’t feel safe as all. But one officer stopped his questioning and said, ‘we may not let you go’.” (Perry) This is a quote from famous producer Tyler Perry, talking about his experience being stopped by two white police officers in Atlanta. Police officers are among the most trusted men and women in American society, they should be anyway. However, in some cities and states the trust between officers and people of a racial minority, such as Africans, Latinos and Arabs, has been tainted by mistreatment of policing powers. Some officers are stopping, searching, or pulling people of these races over and breaking the code they stand for by disrespecting the citizen, most of whom are completely innocent. This is not only morally unacceptable, but also completely unconstitutional and needs to stop promptly. With proper legislative action this injustice can and will be righted!
The issue of discrimination has been one that has been with our country for years. It became an issue again with the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. It is known that people of Arab decent were behind the attack. Because of that, a huge issue of racial profiling has come up as people look at all people of that decent as evil terrorists. Most of these people have been living in the United States all their lives, and have done nothing to warrant the accusations. The question then becomes, should we let these people go on living innocent until proven guilty, or should we make an exception in this case? Our nation has lived by the code of “innocent until proven guilty” since its creation so many years ago, but not in cases such as this. Only twice in our history have our borders been broken into by foreign enemies who have launched an attack on us. The first was during World War 2, when the Japanese flew over Pearl Harbor and bombed it. The second was recently with the aforementioned World Trade Center attacks. In the first case, the Japanese-Americans living in this country were rounded up and relocated. Chances are most of them had lived here their whole lives. But that did not matter. Should the same thing be done today? Are there “spies” within our borders? And will the actions of Osama bin Laden spark a new racial war in this country? Americans are not going to forget September 11th any time soon, and this is the debate going on today.
Al-Qaeda Introduction Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization established in Peshawar, Pakistan, between 1988 and 1989 by Osama bin Laden and his teacher Abullah Yusuf Azzam. Al-Qaeda is an international terrorist network that is considered the top terrorist threat to the United States. Al Qaeda is seeking to get rid of all westerns from Muslim territory and replace their own Islamic regime. They are a group of people who work together to plan acts of terrorism against Muslims and non-Muslims especially in the United States. Al Qaeda believes that they are fighting a holy war against the enemy of their religion.
To prevent tragedies like 9/11 from taking its toll on the United States, terrorism needs to be thought about still to this day. One quote that proves this point is, “In 2001, the federal commission warned that terrorists could get weapons that could cause mass destruction. Congress needs to work on the integrated governmental structures to better the nation's security” (Augustine). The nation's security can help with the destruction of weapons that are dangerous to the U.S. This can cause more attacks like 9/11 and create a larger threat to the population.