Ethical Arguments Against Racial Profiling

To what extent can race, or ethnicity be used in targeting suspects for stops, searches, and arrests? This has become an increasing disturbance since the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, in New York City. Previously looked upon as unethical ad almost globally blamed, the use of profiles based solely on race to identify possible terrorists is getting a second look. The United States has fought a long and difficult battle against racism and discrimination. Many lives have been lost and many liberties have been fringed upon in search for race equality. Racial profiling is when an officer of the law targets an individual not on their behavior but rather their personal characteristics, such as their race, ethnicity, and religion.

For instance, during World War II, hundreds of thousands of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans were confined in camps throughout the United States even though many were American citizens and never had any problems with Law Enforcement officers in the past (Anderson and Callahan, 2001). More currently, after the September 11th attacks, the war on terrorism was announced and individuals across the country were detained, questioned and arrested by federal law enforcement agents. Many support groups have ridiculed the government for what they believe is questioning or harassment based solely on individuals race, ethnicity, or national origin (Anderson and Callahan,

United States (1996) that any traffic violation was a legitimate reason to stop a vehicle, even if the alleged violation (ex: changing lanes without a signal, rolling through a stop sign) was clearly an excuse for the officer to stop and search the vehicle. For other reasons such as, reasonable suspicion, there was no requirement that speeding laws (ex: all drivers were speeding) were constitutionally acceptable. In Whren v. United States, Whren and his partner were stopped at a stop sign in a high drug area, Vice squad officers found it off that they stopped for about 20 seconds at the stop sign and turned without signaling and sped off at fast speed. The officers followed the defendants and pulled them over, as one of the officers walked over to their vehicle, he spotted two large bags full of drugs. The victims were convicted for possession of drugs. The defendants appealed and argued that the officers didn’t stop them for the traffic violation, but to conduct an investigation for a crime the officers had no probable cause for and that it violated the defendant’s fourth amendment rights. The defendants also believed that since they were black that the officers used the minor traffic violation to verify their stereotypical suspicions. Once a vehicle is stopped, it is a police officers duty to obtain consent to search the vehicle when drivers do not object to the officer 's