The Michael Brown Case

Many can agree that racism and prejudices are the both the biggest social issues found in this country. On a daily basis adults and children are judged/discriminated against whether it be it be in school, work, or just out on the street. A form of institutionalized racism is racial profiling. There are so many cases and statistics that show how mainly African Americans and Latinos are the ones who are victimized by being racially profiled. The ones who mainly carry out these profilings are law enforcement officers. Officers target individuals because they believe they hold certain distinctive features, which most of the time is their skin color, that they think can be related to crime. Minorities who are either witnesses or victims of racial

This case involves Michael Brown, an 18 year old African American who just like Travyon Martin was unarmed. Brown was shot several times and killed by officer Darren Wilson on August 9th, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. The officer approached Michael and his friend because they were jay walking and ordered them off the street. Right off the bat the officer already had a bad attitude and told them to get the “f” out the street. There was an apparent struggle through the police car window between the office and Brown. That is when one shot was fired from inside the car. Then Brown and his friend and the officer got out of the car and chased Brown firing at least six shots and killing him. This killing of this young man is another dreadful act due to racial profiling. From the racial profiling data from 2013 of the Ferguson Police Department more than two-thirds of every stop, search, and arrest were African Americans. Whites maybe stopped because of actual suspicious behavior, where blacks are stop because of reason driven by race. It seems like being black or any other minorities is a direct target for being

Trayon Christian, an African American college student, who at the time was 18 years old walked into Barneys New York on Madison Avenue on April 29, 2013 was accused of making a purchase with a fraudulent debit card. Christian visited Barneys because he wanted to purchase $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt. He goes to pay for the belt and is asked for identification, then pays and leaves the store. About a block later Christian is stopped by two undercover cops and is again asked for identification. They then question what he has in the bag after they see what he purchased they asked: “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt?” The officers then tell him they received a call from Barneys claiming he used a fraudulent card to purchase he belt. He is then accused, handcuffed and he was detained. Christian was put in a holding cell for a about 2 hours and was then released with no charges against him. He wasn’t charged because the police proved that all his information was accurate.
This wasn’t the only incident that occurred in the particular Barneys. Nursing student, Kayla Phillips was also accused of paying for $2,500 Céline bag with a fraudulent card and was arrested in the same manner as Trayon Christian. These two students filed a lawsuit against Barneys. Which led to an even bigger investigation