Racial Profiling Essay

IntroductionWhat is racial pen? The Ameri layabout Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defines racial write as the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting sepa place for suspicion of aversion based on the individuals lean, ethnicity, religion or national origin (2005). Do not conf riding habit racial write with criminal write criminal profiling is usually practiced by police in which they use a group of characteristics that argon associated with crime to target individuals (ACLU, 2005). Examples of racial profiling include using ones race to target specific drivers for traffic violations and pedestrians for illegal contraband another prime example is the targeting of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians since 9/11 in regards to minor immigrant violations without any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (ACLU, 2005). Without a doubt, racial profiling occurs on a daily basis all over the world merely lets focus on racial profiling in t he United States and specifically amend here in our homeland, stops.Background & HistoryWhen did racial profiling first begin? Even though racial profiling still exists now, it is not a recently new phenomenon. Racial profiling provoke date back to the 1700s when slavery was a common way of life for many African Americans. equivalent present-day racial profiling, ones skin color is what has made them subject to discriminatory discussion from law enforcement (Rushing, K., 2013). In South Carolina, black-and-blue men policed the black slaves on plantations and hunted for escaped slaves this was referred to as slave patrol. Most slaves were not free, and if they were they had to carry freedom papers or a extend to to prove that they had permission to be off of the plantation (Rushing, K., 2013). If a black person was found to catch run away they were beaten, whipped or even killed as the consequence. Even into the 20th century, after slavery, blacks were again obligate into a nother form of involuntary servitude called convict leasing this is where they were leased to work for private companies, whether it be on plantations or railroads and coal mines (Rushing, K., 2013). Regardless of what the 14th amendment states in the Constitution, laws were still broken and applied differently to blacks and face cloths. This became a study issue when the War on Drugs began in 1982. Reagan wanted to stop drug use and sales with pitiless sentencinglaws they focused on urban black neighborhoods to promote anti-drug efforts. Although the prison population tripled there were substantial racial disparities in 2010 the US Bureau of Justice Statistics indicated that black males had an imprisonment rate that was nearly seven quantify higher than white men (Rushing, K., 2013). And the rate of incarceration among black women was almost three times that of white women a Human Rights Watch study in 2009 showed that blacks are arrested at much higher rates than whites even t hough they commit drug offense at comparable rates (Rushing, K., 2013). Racial profiling isnt specifically focused on drug offenses but focuses on any form of crime being committed by any person who isnt of white decent.There are many notorious instances where racial profiling has occurred including bicycling time black and brown in Eastpointe, moolah, walking while black and brown in New York City, and gang database racial profiling in Orange County, California. In Eastpointe, 21 young black youths were stop by police because they were riding their bicycles through a white suburb. The ACLU joined the suite against Eastpointe, Michigan, to represent the youths. They argued that the bicyclists were stopped in this predominantly white suburb of Detroit because of their race and not because they were doing anything wrong (ACLU, 2005). In 1996 a memo sent to the Eastpointe City Manager had a statement from the causality police chief that he instructed his officers to investigate any black youths riding through Eastpointe subdivisions. Through prolonged searching of police logs, it was found that Eastpointe had over 100 incidents between 1995 and 1998 just like this one (ACLU, 2005). In New York Citys police department report in December 1999, the stop and lark about practices showed to be greatly based on race. In NYC, blacks make up 25.6% of the citys population, Hispanics 23.7% and whites are 43.4% of NYC population. However, according to the report, 50.6% of all persons stopped were black, 33% were Hispanic, and only 12.9% were white. As you can see, more than half of the individuals who were stopped were black, 62.7% to be exact (ACLU, 2013). In Orange County, California Latinos, Asians and African Americans were more than 90% of the 20,221 men and women in the Gang Reporting Evaluation and Tracking System (ACLU, 2013). Clearly this database record shows racial profiling occurred when the resume population in the database made up less than half of Orange Countys population. This is when the California consultative Committee of theU.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the ACLU stepped in. One other instance of racial profiling Id like to discuss occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona. A court ruled in May 2013 that sheriff Joe Arpaios routine handling of people of Latino descent amounted to racial and ethnic profiling according to CNN, the sheriffs office had a history of targeting vehicles with those having darker skin, examining them more strictly and taking them into custody more often than others (CNN, 2014). come close Murray Snow ordered a monitor to oversee retraining in this office and to create a community advisory board to prevent further racial profiling retraining and monitoring the sheriffs office will cost the county $21,943,107 over the next year and a half (CNN, 2014). As you can see from the information above, racial profiling is still an issue in present America. In todays policing environment especially, race relati ons is one of the most important issues and challenges to the point of state legislatures contemplating bans on racial profiling, mandate data collection, require police officer training, make funds available for motion-picture show cameras in police cars and other measures to help put a stop to racial profiling (Portis, E., 2001).Issues/Problemsa. wherefore racial profiling is an issueb. What problems have resulted from racial profilingi. Deathc. What problems have occurred because of racial profilingII. Racial Profiling & the Lawa. Past/ usher in laws on racial profiling in Michigani. House Bill 4927- Racial sensitivity training & retrain officers guilty of racial profiling, along with instructing Michigans attorney generals office to investigate stop & search patterns (Police Foundation, 2005).b. Past/Present court cases in Michiganc. Public attentioni. Racial profiling costing Arizona $22 million to retrain officers and monitor the retraining (CNN, 2014). III. Conclusiona. So lutions to racial profilingi. Retraining police departmentsSourcesAmerican Civil Liberties Union ACLU. (2014). Racial Profiling Definition. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from https//www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling-definition CNN US. (2014). Racial profiling costs Arizona county $22 million. Retrieved February 21, 2014 from http//www.cnn.com/2014/01/03/us/racial-profiling-payments/ Portis, Ervin. (2005). Racial Profiling The State of the Law. Retrieved February 20, 2014 from http//www.ethicsinstitute.com/pdf/Racial%20Profiling%20State%20Laws.pdf Rushing, Keith. (2013). Dissecting the Long, Deep, Roots of Racial Profiling in America. Retrieved February 20, 2014 from http//www.huffingtonpost.com/keith- rushing/dissecting-racial-profiling_b_2740246.html