Terry Vs Ohio Case Study

Two case rulings have helped fuel the incarceration rate among African Americans, Terry v. Ohio and Whren v. United States. The Terry v. Ohio case in 1968 presents serious questions regarding the role of the Fourth Amendment in the confrontation between citizens and the police officers when investigating suspicious circumstances on the street. The Supreme Court ruled that the practice of stopping and searching a citizen without a warrant or probable cause based on a reasonable suspicion that they are involved in criminal activity was authorized. This practice is known as the Terry Stop and is a nationwide police practice that has caused numerous legal problems for police departments and young Black citizens. Continuing with the trend of African

Some officers, while patrolling the neighborhood in an unmarked vehicle, noticed Whren sitting in a truck at a stop-sign for an usually long time. Suddenly, without signaling, Whren turned his truck and sped away. Observing this traffic violation, the officers stopped the truck. When they approached the vehicle the officers saw Whren holding plastic bags of crack cocaine. Whren was arrested on federal drug charges. The court ruled that this is not unconstitutional, and the officer’s motivations are irrelevant, as long as the police can demonstrate that they legitimately stopped the vehicle for violating a traffic law. According to Alexander “police officers use minor traffic violations as an excuse – a pretext – to search for drugs, even though there is not a shred of evidence suggesting the motorist is violating drug [trafficking] laws. This process of selectively targeting Black drivers on the basis of race led to significant nationwide racial profiling on the U.S. roads and earned the label of “Driving While

At the end of 2015, over 6.8 million individuals were under correctional supervision, including probation or parole. African American males are disproportionately represented among incarcerated groups compared to White males. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , African Americans represent 13% of the United States population, but comprise nearly 40% of state or federal prisoners. The book The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander discusses race related issues African-American males in mass incarceration face in the United States. The book discusses how in 1982 President Reagan announced the War on Drugs. The government spending for fighting drug trafficking increased dramatically, while spending on drug treatment and prevention dramatically declined. Coincidently at the same time inner-city economies were collapsing as manufacturing jobs left the country and unemployment climbed. The main demographic of inner-city residents were minorities such as African-American and Hispanics. Crack cocaine began to quickly enter into American cities which caused violence to increase. In 1986 a new federal minimum sentence for crack cocaine distribution was enacted. Incarceration rates soared with about more than 2 million behind bars by 2000. The New Jim Crow also notes that in 2000, African Americans made up 80 to 90 percent of dmg offenders sent to prison in seven states.