Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling Throughout many communities, racial profiling has been brought up numerous times due to the fact that many feel as though they are being discriminated against through law-enforcement policies. Race and ethnicity play a big role in this debate because police tend to pull over individuals due to their color rather than if they have suspicious activities going on. It is said by Jim Cleary that several officers pull over people of a different race on a daily basis yet never record why (Racial Profiling Studies in Law Enforcement). Some areas may have an increased crime rate but the question is should racial profiling be a legitimate law-enforcement policy in these areas? If racial profiling becomes acceptable, it may become more common in areas where it should not. It may also lead to various other crimes such as harassment, not only from civilians but from law enforcement also. Sarah Childress states in her Policing the Police article in 2004 that “national lawmakers plan to introduce a bill in early February requiring police officers to record the driver's race at traffic stops or risk losing federal funds” (Childress). The problem with this is that people tend to get pulled over when there not close to home therefore may be judged for suspicious activities such as going through a neighborhood that doesn’t “suit them”. Also, in high crime areas, Blacks and Hispanics are stopped more frequently than whites whether there driving or walking to the grocery store and are questioned. This may lead to harassment or aggressive behavior because they feel as though the law-enforcement had offended them. David Bruser writes in his Toronto Star (Canada) article that when innocent unsuspicious minorities are stopped and questioned for no apparent reason is when they begin to lash out which then gives the cops a legitimate reason to handle the “problem” that shouldn’t have begun in the first place. It is almost as if the police are instigating bad behavior to