“But the suburb’s widening gulf between the number of white and minority traffic stops is troubling to some civil rights experts and is drawing attention to police practices. Such frequent stops also raise questions that the suburb is seeking to boost revenues by targeting and imposing fines on minority drivers” (Schroedter…
In Eugene Robinson’s essay “You Have the Right to Remain a Target of Racial Profiling,” Robinson argues that police officers still racially profile when pulling over people for traffic offenses. He uses a Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics report that states that white, African-American and Hispanic drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by the police in a traffic stop. He doesn’t believe this to be true and delves deeper into the findings. Robinson notes that African-Americans and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched and be the subject of “police use of force”. Black drivers were also twice as likely to be arrested as white drivers, and Hispanics were more likely to receive a ticket. Whites were more likely to receive written or verbal warnings that blacks or…
1In 2002, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 97,296 times. 80,176, or 82 percent, were innocent. That means that out of 10 people stopped, about 8 were not just innocent, but were being unreasonably harassed by a figure of authority that could probably be assisting in a more exigent situation. In 2010, those numbers skyrocketed to 601,285 people stopped. Of those stopped, 518,849, or 88%, were found to be innocent. The shocking thing about this is the demographics of those stopped. 315,083, or 54%, were black, 189,326, or 33%, were Hispanic, while only 54,810 or 9%, were white. Despite the fact that there are 3,646,109 white people living in New York City in 2010 (44.6% of the NYC population for 2010), only 9%…
As the director of the Center on Quality Policing and assistant professor for the department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, the authors of this article believe that through three methodologies of research, problem police officers can be flagged so that the issue of racial profiling can be addressed more appropriately. Ridgeway and MacDonald present data recovered from various studies which suggest that there is a problem of racially biased policing in many communities. With these efforts of research,…
In terms of motorists, in 2005 Black drivers were three times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than Whites, and were twice as likely than White drivers to be arrested during a traffic stop (“Reality of Racial Profiling”). These findings demonstrate that police are more likely to target people of color than Whites and case studies have shown that this practice is counterproductive and a misallocation of law enforcement resources. For example, in Arizona although Black motorists were more likely than Whites to be stopped and searched, Whites who were searched were more likely to be carrying contraband (“Reality of Racial Profiling”). The case study in Arizona exemplifies a problem in the criminal justice system that must be addressed. Minority motorists are more likely than White motorists to be stopped and harassed by police based off the inherent belief that people of a minority race, ethnicity, or religion are more likely to engage in criminal or unlawful activity than…
Seemingly officers spend more time worrying about minorities than whites. Imaginably a young black male was observed driving by an officer in a nice vehicle going through a white neighborhood. The officer would probably find a reason to pull the driver which is called profiling. A lot of suspects are profiled because of prior history in the system, or stick out due to their environment. “For example, if someone who is obviously poor is frequently seen in a more affluent neighborhood, such a person may be profiled as someone with possible criminal intent” West Encyclopedia of Law (2005). This activity by law enforcement is unjust; sadly most of the officers believe they can do whatever they please. The citizens of the United States have certain rights to privacy; officers need to identify definite criminals making sure they are absolutely committing…
People should normally feel safe in the sight of a police officer. However, even when the contacts are harmless, people often wonder why they have attracted the attention of the police. The fact of experiencing such a thing can itself cause a series of unwanted reactions. The issue of "racial profiling" takes its origin mainly to a lack of…
In the United States of America racial discrimination still exists to this day. Minorities in our country are not seen as equal people. When a person is deprived of their human rights it makes them feel degraded and troubled. In order to become a more civilized country, we must forget the color of our own skin and live with each other as one. In the article “Why Racial Profiling is a Bad Idea” by Tom Head, discusses the way cops pay more attention to those of minority races and how they usually find them guilty of crimes they didn’t commit. Even though many officers will deny their participation in this type of profiling, a lot use this tactic to pull over and arrest Minority races. The article “Racial Profiling Lives On” by Devon Carbado, Cheryl Harris and Kimberle Crenshaw, also displays examples of how racial profiling continues to this day. There are many ways cops can search/arrest African Americans or other Minorities for no reason and still keep from breaking the Fourth Amendment and the authors of “Racial Profiling Lives On” supports there claims with emotional examples that appeal to a pathological type of audience.…
1. BIAS IN POLICE STOPS? In the late 1990s, popular, legal, and political concerns were raised across the United States about police harassment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. These concerns focused on the extent to which police were stopping people on the highways for “driving while black” (seeWeitzer 2000; Harris 2002; Lundman and Kaufman 2003). Additional concerns were raised about racial bias in pedestrian stops of citizens by police predicated on “zero-tolerance” policies to control quality-of-life crimes and policing strategies concentrated in minority communities that targeted illegal gun possession and drug trafficking (see Fagan, Zimring, and Kim 1998; Greene 1999; Skolnick and Caplovitz 2001; Fagan and Davies 2000, 2003; Fagan 2002; Gould and Mastrofski 2004).…
For most people, the police have been typically seen as the embodiment of fairness and impartiality. Contradictory to this mentality, social inequality exists in law enforcement, arguably the most in the police. This is due to the increased amount of contact with the general populace in their normal lives, as compared to the courts which only deal with the population when they are convicted. This essay will investigate the kinds of social inequalities present in the police, as well as the implications of these inequalities, namely gender specific, racial and sexual discriminations relating to females, ethnic minority groups, and the population in general.…
One of the major problems that police deal with is bias-based policing. Bias-based policing is best described as practices that police intentionally use based on ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and sexual orientation. It also includes racial profiling (p.31). In my opinion, this problem will always be around, because there will always be at least one bad police officer. In order for us to minimize this problem, police officers should interact with the people in the community more. If the police made relationships with people of all races, it would make it easier for the community to trust law…
Although most cases of police brutality occur south of the Mason Dixon Line, this is the imaginary line which divided the North and South during the tine of slavery, and states with histories of racism and segregation, police brutality happens throughout the United States of America. The influence of people and the media, ignorance, and the unwillingness to accept others can explain why this happens. One can also look at statistics and come to the conclusion that minorities are not favored amongst police officers. Because being colored is a metaphysical dilemma that many have not learned to accept, all minorities, African Americans and Latinos especially, almost always seem to “fit the description: There is a statistic which asserts that minorities are two to four times more likely to be stopped, questioned, frisked, ticketed, etcetera while driving or walking by…
Often when a person thinks of discrimination, they think of discrimination against different races, however, there are different types of discrimination that exists in our society, regardless of skin color, wealth or social status. There are different types of discrimination such as, race, religion, sexual orientation, height, weight and more (Dempsey pg. 197). There are no limits where discrimination takes place and unfortunately it can take place at the store, church, on the street and even in the work place.…
The volatile issues that surrounds “racial profiling” has led police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic stops, especially for people of color. The controversy is supported by research that police officers may be racially biased in their decision making to stop someone. The article that was published in 2012 studies the consensus and conflict theories concerning racial disparities in the rate of police stops. The author suggested that both police deployment and race out of place arguments played a significant role in explaining the patterns of street stops, traffic stops, probable cause and consent searches.…
Although racial profiling is technically illegal, due to the United States Constitution which provides everyone equal protection under law, it is commonly found in police departments throughout America. Throughout the history of the United States, police have had a reputation of being racist and hating African Americans, and although this is not the case for every officer, the examples of policemen using the so-called “strategy” of racial profiling are easy and accessible to find. An example of racial profiling against innocent people is found in a recollection of many events including racist police officers. Two friends, Marie Robinson and James Fields, were sitting in Robinson’s car in front of Fields’ house because Marie Robinson’s blood sugar levels dropped and she was drinking a cup of juice. The pair, both over the age of 50, were bombarded with accusations by a police officer saying that it was a drug deal and that Robinson was a prostitute, and when Fields attempted to object, he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Not soon after, Robinson required medical attention however the officer delayed over an hour to call an ambulance because he did not believe she was diabetic (Risen). So the question is, does driving while black make one more “guilty” looking than the next? More often than not, research finds that black drivers are more likely to be pulled over…