The performance of a police officer is always under a microscope especially when it comes to dealing with people from another race. There is also the idea that police officers use racial profiling to conduct and solve many of the crimes that are happening in their neighborhood. The racial profiling aspect is very sensitive and it can be difficult to determine if in reality it is happening because this is coming from someone else 's perception.
According to Wiener, R., et al (2007), profiling is used by law enforcement officer to help them find needles in haystacks - to identify the few bad guys hiding in plain view among the mass of ordinary people (pg. 36). They are cues that an officer can use to find the subject who is breaking the law and
…show more content…
According to Alpert (2004), Black drivers also fared less well than White or Hispanic drivers in most other measures of post-stop outcomes. Blacks were more likely than Whites or Hispanics to have their vehicles towed, to receive a pat down search, or to have record checks conducted, either on thm or their vehicles. The difference on how certain people were being treated were indicated on this study. Even though police officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department were following certain protocols that were set from their department, the racial profiling still existed and many Black operators had to go through a completely different experience compared to Whites and Hispanic …show more content…
In the case of Chicago vs. Morales, under the ordinance, if a police officer observes a person whom he reasonably believes to be a gang member loitering in a public place with one or more persons, he shall order them to disperse. Anyone who does not promplty obey such an order has violated the ordinance. The consequences for someone violating the order is that the officer has the authority to arrest the person. However, the State Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the ordinance violates due process in that it is impermissibly vague on its face and arbitrary restriction on personal liberties. During the three years of its enforcement, the police is sued over 89,000 dispersal orders and arrested over 42,000 people for violating the order (Daley, R. & Hillard, T., June 1998). City of Chicago, R. Daley & T. Hillard, Gang and Narcotic Related Violent Crime: 1993–1997, p. 7 (June
Racial profiling by law enforcement is an overwhelmingly useless and prevalent expression of hate and ignorance to this day. Internationally, a wide variation of races are unrightfully discriminated against by the enforcements who are supposedly there to protect them. Jim Crow policing is an issue that undoubtedly continues, no matter the amount of riots or unjustly arrested/ murdered civilians. Cases like Trayvon Martin, and Mike Brown, as well as Bob Herbert 's article Jim Crow Policing published in the New York Times, February 2nd 2010, explain first hand accounts and statistics to give examples of the fact that racial profiling from the police force consistently takes place.
Annotated Bibliography: Racial Profiling This is an annotated bibliography researching the reasons for, effects of, and solutions to racial profiling by law enforcement in the United States. I am researching racial profiling and is it justified in law enforcement.
There is a point in everyone’s life where they are scared of a police officer pulling them over. The fear is usually getting a costly ticket or taken under arrest; However, darker skinned citizens now have to worry about police brutality. Police brutality is the use of excessive and unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Over the years, the country has been exposed to the truth about what minorities face when pulled over by a racist police officer. Most of the victims from the police mistreatment are from minority groups, therefore, race plays a key role in police brutality.
Since the nature of the; law enforcement frequently requires the police officers to make snap judgments about the danger posed subjects and the criminal nature of their activity, subconscious racial associations influence the way officers perform their job” (Racial Disparities: U.S. Criminal Justice System). Racially profiling people started very recently; the police racially profiling people and arresting them, thus destroys the belief of “innocent until proven guilty” in which is embedded in the U.S. Criminal Justice
According to some charts mainly African American, latino and other minority races are the most common to be stopped by officers because of stereotypes. The Constitution, through the fourth amendment, protects people from unreasonable search and seizure by the
One case that relates to this flaw in the criminal justice system would be the Floyd v. City of New York. The date that this case was filed was on January 31, 2008 by David Floyd, David Ourlicht, Lalit Clarkson and Deon Dennis. This case challenged the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) practices of racial profiling and seeing whether or not the stop and frisk policy is unconstitutional. The clients represents thousands of black and Hispanic New Yorkers who have been stopped for no reason (according to the clients).
Racial profiling can occur when law officials use race to as a basis to suspicion in non-specific investigations. Creating a profile about the different kinds of minorities who commit certain types of crimes may lead officers to focus more on a particular group and act according to the general stereotype rather than particular behavior. An example of racial profiling could be the use of race to regulate which pedestrians to search for illegal goods or the use of race to regulate which drivers to stop for traffic violations, stopping mostly black or brown colored minorities. Stopping black drivers, just to see what law enforcement might discover, has become so frequent in some places that it has it’s own name: driving while black.
Racial profiling can cause multiple problems. Several law enforcement agencies have gone through expensive litigation over civil rights concerns. Police-citizen relations in those communities have been strained, making policing all the more challenging. Most importantly, racial profiling is unlikely to be an effective policing strategy as criminals can simply shift their activities outside the profile (e.g., if racial profiling begins with police stopping black males in their teens and twenties. The "cumulative impact of racial discrimination accounts for the special, way that blacks have of looking at and evaluating" their experiences in public encounters (Feagin, 1991:115).
Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement officials target individuals because of their race rather than because their behavior suggests they have broken or will break the law. Racial profiling can and does occur in a variety of different ways. Some forms of racial profiling most commonly discussed in the United States today include the practice of stopping African American drivers, singling out Latino/as for immigration checks and searching Arab Americans in airports. It can become a part of all types of decisions law enforcement officials must make, from deciding who to stop, who to arrest, on whom to use restraints and on whom to use lethal force.
Racial Profiling and the disproportionate use of police force are controversial political issues. Debates on racial bias in policing continue to reverberate across the country making headlines, aside from the importance of the debate on racial profiling and police use of force, such events create intergroup conflict, foreground stereotypes and trigger discriminatory responses. A serious issue in today’s society is the rising tension between the police force and the community which has developed through racial profiling and police brutality. In New York City, the controversial “stop, question, and frisk” policy was endorsed by some as essential for reducing crime rates (MacDonald 2001) and challenged by others as racially biased with a heavy burden placed on affected individuals and communities (Fagan et al. 2010).
Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer.
Racial profiling has had great effects on African American communities all over the US. Victims of racial profiling incidents and people who have witnessed have begun to fear and hate the police when they should be trusting that they are there to keep them safe. Many incidents have occured in the US where unarmed black individuals have been brutally killed by the hands of white police or have been pulled over when driving because they have commited the crime of “driving while black”, which in today's world has become something that African Americans have to fear because of the likeliness of them being pulled over by police, because of their racial bias towards them. “Driving while black” is something that black families tell their kids to be careful of at a young age because of their own experiences with police. In between 2007-2010, people of colored skin accounted for 75 percent of the people stopped by Boston police and 65 percent of them were black in a city whose population was made up of 25 percent African Americans at that time.
One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.
Defenseless individuals shot and killed by police officer’s savagery methods of restraining, attempting to bring justice into their own hands in the wrong manner. Police brutality creates nothing more than fear to citizens that should feel protected by their authorities. The excessive violence used by police officers towards citizens results in the deaths of many, which is known as police brutality, and it has left the African American community raving with anger .The atrocity acts of authority figures have caused many unfortunate situations, and outcomes, such as the deaths of innocent black individuals. Police brutality is caused by assumptions of appearances, racism, and stereotypes and results in death, riots, protests, and falsely indicting people.
Several law enforcement agencies have gone through expensive litigation over civil rights concerns. Police-citizen relations in those communities have been strained, making policing more challenging. Most importantly, racial profiling is unlikely to be an effective policing strategy as criminals can simply shift their activities outside the profile (e.g., if racial profiling begins with police stopping black males in their teens and twenties for being drug carriers, criminals may start using other demographic groups — such as Hispanics, children or the elderly — to move drugs). Despite training to avoid discrimination, officers may still rely on cultural stereotypes and act on their perceptions of a person 's characteristics (such as age, race or gender)” (National Institute of Justice, 2013).