Racial Profiling Free Essays

Imagine driving home with your family, after enjoying a nice night out of dinner and a movie. All of a sudden you see flashing lights and are being pulled over by a police officer. Your children are asking what’s wrong and why you are pulling over, and you are wondering the same thing. We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Profiling or any similar topic only for you Order Now As if being pulled over was not enough, you are then pulled out at gunpoint in front of your crying children and detained for about 30 minutes. Eventually, the officer tells you to go about your way, without offering an apology or valid reason for pulling you over. As you sit by the roadside, in shock and utter disbelief about what just occurred, you feel totally violated and wonder if you are all alone with your feelings. Unfortunately, you are not because everyday countless others will experience some form of racial profiling, and many Americans do not have to imagine being in this type of situation, because it has been there reality for quite some time. Americans are being subjected to racial profiling by local law enforcement agencies, security guards, airport security and the federal government at alarming rates. In 2005, The Department of Justice released a report that documenting the disparity in regards to racial profiling by law enforcement. That report showed that African Americans and Latinos were 3 times more likely than Caucasians to experience force or threat during a police stop, and were also about 3 times more likely to be searched during a stop as reported on a fact sheet posted by the National Association the Advancement of Colored People (http://www. naacp. org/advocacy/research/facts/Criminal. Justice. 9. 07. pdf). In April of 2008, the ACLU of Arizona issued a report, based on Department of Public Safety (DPS) data, which showed that Minorities were usually stopped for longer periods of time than Caucasians and also 2. 5 more times likely to be searched after being stopped by DPS, even though they were less likely to be found with contraband (ACLU of Arizona, Driving While Black or Brown 3 (2008), available at http://www. acluaz. org/ DrivingWhileBlackorBrown. pd). These figures may seem small, but the effects of these instances are paramount. Racial profiling is an inexcusable and unethical intrusion of civil liberties, based solely upon a person’s innate condition and characteristics. Racial profiling, according to Dictionary. com, is â€Å"a form of racism involving police focus on people of certain racial groups when seeking suspected criminals. † Unfortunately this behavior is not new but a continuous problem that has been ongoing for decades nationally as well as locally. Operation Wetback as it was referred for example, was a U. S. government effort to wipe out Mexicans after the Bracero Program, a labor exchange program, which had brought thousands of Mexicans to work legally in agriculture. According to the Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West, â€Å"in attempting to execute Operation Wetback, police and Border Patrol agents swept through Latino neighborhoods interrogating and otherwise harassing Americans of Mexicans descent or anyone who ‘looked Mexican. † Racial profiling in the past didn’t only involve Latinos but other races and ethnic groups as well. Profiling has also been proved to exist among Asian Americans also. During World War II, after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, U. S. government officials began secluding approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U. S. Citizens and done solely on race. According to Cathy Young, a Boston Globe columnist â€Å"this is almost universally regarded as a shameful blot on America’s history, a cautionary tale of racism†¦Ã¢â‚¬  These are just a few examples of racial profiling in our country, an issue that just about every race has dealt with one time or another. References ACLU of Arizona, Driving While Black or Brown 3 (2008), available at http://www. acluaz. org/ DrivingWhileBlackorBrown. pdf. Lacey, Michaels. (2009, March 19) Are Your Papers in Order? Phoenix New Times. Retrieved September 17, 2009, from ProQuest. Document ID:  1663646261) NAACP, African American Criminal Justice Fact Sheet 2 (2007), available at http://www. naacp. org/advocacy/research/facts/Criminal. Justice. 9. 07. pdf â€Å"Operation Wetback. † Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West, 2009. SAGE Publications. Retrieved September 17, 2009. http://sage-ereference. com/immigration/Article_n231. html. Racial profiling. (n. d . ). Dictionary. com’s 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from Dictionary. com website: http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/racial profiling How to cite Racial Profiling, Papers Racial Profiling Free Essays string(94) " could make airports and flying safer, but it’s not the way that they should be made safer\." Argumentative Essay: Should Racial Profiling be Practiced? Ever since the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, America has been on high alert because of terrorists. People are hesitant to get on airplanes because of the other people that they sometimes see on the planes. They sometimes see persons of the same race of those who attacked on September 11 and are skeptical of them. We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Profiling or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is known as racial profiling, judging a book by its cover. Law enforcement should not be able to use racial profiling as a practice of capturing criminals or illegal immigrants. There are so many different cultures that have had people from that culture do something wrong, and now others become wary of people of that ethnic background. Besides being morally wrong, racial profiling is in violation of federal laws and can cause harm psychologically. This is not right because we all have equal chance of being someone who we are not. As stated from the Oxford English Dictionary, racial profiling is originally and chiefly  U. S. selection for scrutiny by law enforcement based on race or ethnicity rather than on behavioral or evidentiary criteria; discrimination or stereotyping on racial or ethnic grounds. People are sometimes judged by their race or ethnicity because of what others of the same race or ethnicity have done. What gives us the right to judge someone just because of their race or their ethnic background? Everyone should be treated the same no matter what ethnic background they come from. We all know that Middle Eastern persons were responsible for the attacks on September 11th, but that was only a specific group of them. Just because some people did this, it does not mean that the whole race has the same intentions. Let’s say A is a certain race and B is another. When a certain number of people of A perform a significant, heinous act towards B, should others in A be judged the same way? No, not all people are going to be the same. Daily, people are judged because of the color of their skin, where they came from, or their religious beliefs. One example of racial profiling that is fairly recent is the law that was enacted in Arizona. The law states that state and local law enforcement are required  to reasonably attempt to determine the immigration status of a person involved in a lawful stop, detention or arrest in the enforcement of any other local or state law or ordinance where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien  and is unlawfully present, except if it may hinder or obstruct an investigation (Morse). This is pretty uch saying that if there is a person who looks like they can be an illegal immigrant, they may be asked for papers proving their citizenship when stopped for an illegal action, i. e. traffic violation, parole violation, etc. Although, the law also states that law enforcement cannot consider race, color, or national origin when implementing these provisions, except as permitted by the U. S. or Arizona Constitution (Morse). If the officers aren’t allowed to consider race, they should be asking all people, when stopped, for proof of citizenship. Most, if not all, unauthorized immigrants along the U. S. -Mexico border come from Mexico. According to a Department of Homeland Security report, in 2011 there was an estimated population of 6,800,000 Mexicans who were unauthorized immigrants. The total estimated number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States in 2011 is 11,510,000 (Hoefer). That means that the percentage of Mexicans that make up the total unauthorized immigrants is 59%. This is a very large percentage compared to all other countries that have illegally immigrated to the U. S. There is very little chance that you will see a person of Caucasian ethnicity and American background trying to sneak into the U. S. Police officers will have more of an inclination to ask residents who look of a Latin decent because of how many Mexicans come here. This is not right and this law that was enacted in Arizona is racially profiling most Mexicans as illegal aliens. It is not fair to those who have legally come here and have the right to stay. On September 11, the world witnessed one of the most heinous acts committed against the U. S. Nineteen Arab men hijacked four planes and aimed them at major civilian areas. Two planes were flown towards the World Trade Center, one was flown towards the Pentagon, and the last was taken down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania (Lee). Since that day, airports have greatly tightened up there security. In response to the attacks, â€Å"Bush signed into law the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), This act established a new Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which consolidated security efforts inside the Department of Transportation (DOT)† (Blalock 2). In the airports, the number of screening agents was increased to about 56,000 workers by the end of 2002 (Blalock 5), and the number of hours needed for training was increased from twelve to one hundred hours (Blalock 6). Along with this and more thorough baggage screenings, airport security was also able to use airport profiling. â€Å"Airport profiling ‘permits investigators to correlate a number of distinct data items in order to assess how close a person . . . comes to a predetermined characterization or model of infraction. The modal characteristics and behavior patterns of known violations . . are determined relative to the characteristics of others presumed to be non-violators’† (Macdonald 132-33). Furthermore, the only people who have hijacked airliners for the purpose of mass murder have been Arab men. So the FTSA should incorporate gender, race, and age into profiling procedures (Macdonald 134). They shouldn’t, the only people to hijack planes for mass murder of others may have been Arab men, but every one of us has an equal chance of doing the same thing. Airports are technically targeting one specific group of people because of what they did what anyone could have done. Airport profiling could make airports and flying safer, but it’s not the way that they should be made safer. You read "Racial Profiling" in category "Essay examples" Along with being morally wrong, racial profiling also interferes with peoples constitutional and legal rights. In the U. S. Constitution, Section I of Amendment XIV says that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (U. S. Const, amend XIV). Racial profiling procedures could have an influence on any person whose combined characteristics, such as gender, race, age, etc. , could permit closer examination. Along with Amendment XIV, â€Å"the Equal Protection Clause ‘prohibits selective enforcement of the law based on considerations such as race’ and is the ‘the constitutional basis for objecting to intentionally discriminatory application of laws’† (Macdonald 116). Racial profiling is blatantly in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause and we cannot change that. This country was founded on the fact that we all wanted to be free and all to be treated equally, why should we be discriminating against others because of their ethnicity? The only people who should be targeted are those who have actually done something wrong, or those of which we have evidence to prove them to be immoral. Throughout the years, there have been several smaller incidents of racial profiling. A lot of them have been traffic stop related or minor confrontations. In May 1992, Robert Wilkins, a Harvard-trained African American attorney, was pulled over ecause he and his other family members fit the profile developed and used by Maryland State Police to uncover drug-running activity along the highway. They were male, black, and were driving a rental car. In 1993, two 15-year old Asian-American girls, Minhtran Tran and Quyen Pham, were shopping in a strip mall in Garden Grove, California. While they were leaving the mall, they were stopped by the police. The police had said that the girls were dressed in â€Å"gang attire. † The articles of clothing that they were wearing were form fitting shirts and baggy pant, what all American teens wear. The Orange County police had specifically identified Asian youth as being involved in gangs. On September 14, 2001, an Indian-American and his family members were stopped and cited for a broken taillight. The officer then began asking them questions about their nationality and had asked for their proof of citizenship. The motorist told the officer that their papers were at home and the officer replied, â€Å"You are lying. You are Arabs involved in terrorism. † He ordered all of them out of the car and he searched the vehicle. When he found a knife inside a toolbox, hand cuffed the driver and later reported that the driver â€Å"wore and carried a butcher knife, a dangerous deadly weapon, concealed upon and about his person† (Lawson 9-10). All of the people mentioned above were targeted because of their race, none of which had actually done something terribly wrong. Officers assumed that minorities were more likely than others to be involved in certain types of criminal activities. There are several types of racial profiling, â€Å"driving while Black,† being the most widely known. The case of Robert Wilkins demonstrates this. Law enforcement has viewed the black minority as being involved in illegal drug activity. Hispanics have also caught the attention of law enforcement because of their involvement in drug activity and illegal immigration. This is known as â€Å"driving while Brown. † Since September 11th, Arabs have begun to also grab the attention of law enforcement in what is called, â€Å"driving while Arab† (Lawson 11). A study in Los Angeles showed that only 10 percent of the population of LA was Blacks, but 18 percent of the traffic stops were Blacks. Broken down further, â€Å"22 percent of Blacks who were stopped were asked to step out of their cars, as compared to only seven percent of Whites stopped. Once out of their cars, 67 percent of Blacks were patted down and 85 percent subjected to a body search. Fifty-five percent of Hispanics removed from their cars were patted down and 84 percent searched. By contrast, only 50 percent of Whites were patted down and 71 percent searched† (Lawson 12). That is only in Los Angeles; there are many other cities in the U. S. that experience this kind of discrimination. Other forms of racial profiling include â€Å"stop and frisk† tactics and customs service profiling. Along with racial profiling, there are the consequences. When law enforcement stops and interrogates one based on race, and then later on the person is let go because they were found completely innocent, that can be kind of humiliating. Officers go around and stop people and happen to find the few that are criminals and they deserve to go to jail, but there are far more of those who are innocent and do not deserve to be picked out just because of their race. A 1999 Gallup Poll revealed that 42 percent of African Americans, and 72 percent of African American males between the ages of 18 and 34, believe they have been stopped by police because of their race (Lawson 19). Law enforcement has taken their privileges a little too far in just having a hunch that that man/woman may be involved in some sort of criminal activity just because others of their race tend to be criminally involved. All in all, racial profiling is not going to go away, but that still does not make it okay to practice it. There are so many more innocent people of minorities compared to the guilty. Whether it is driving while Black, Brown, or Arab, not all are going to be criminally involved. Airport security has been heightened since 9/11. Although airport profiling may make airports and flying safer, it still is not morally right. Racial profiling is also in violation constitutional and legal rights. â€Å"A social problem is one that concerns the way in which people live together in one society. A racial problem is a problem which confronts two different races who live in two separate societies, even if those societies are side by side† (Pauline Hansen) Works Cited Blalock, Garrick. â€Å"The Impact of Post? 9/11 Airport Security Measures on the Demand for Air Travel. †Ã‚  The Journal of Law and Economics  50. 4 (2007): 1-42. Print. Hoefer, Michael. â€Å"Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2011. †Ã‚  Department of Homeland Security. Mar. 2012. Web. http://www. dhs. gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe How to cite Racial Profiling, Essay examples Racial Profiling Free Essays This paper is going to review recent studies on racial profiling and critiques many of their methods. I will be using the conflict theory to review a number of ways that may explain racial disparities in the rates of crimes. Also I will be using conflict theory to review how it affects people in society. We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Profiling or any similar topic only for you Order Now It addresses the major problem of inequality that exists in society today. Racial profiling in America is where those in authority use race factor when arresting citizens. Racial profiling occurs when the police target someone for investigation on the basis of that person’s race, origin, or ethnicity. It has led police agencies across the world to start collecting information about traffic and pedestrian stops. The controversy over this is that all assumptions are race based. One example of this research states that police face the use of race to make decisions during traffic and pedestrian stops. The public is concerned that these decisions reflect racial prejudice, and racism. Many researchers continue to defend theses profiles, saying that they are based of accurate facts (Hersezenhorn, 2000; Kennedy, 1997; Taylor ;amp; Whitney, 1999). Other experts have tested the accuracy of these profiles, and still have argued that even if accurate, all decisions based off race is inappropriate (Harris, 1997, 1999a; Kennedy, 1997). There are two meanings to racial profiling. â€Å"Hard† racial profiling uses race as the only factor. E. g. an officer sees a black person and pulls him over for a search and pat-down. â€Å"Soft† racial profiling is using race as one factor among others in criminal suspiciousness. E. g. a report says that a Jamaican drug lord is driving a Jeep, so troopers pull over black males who are speeding in Jeeps. Even though the driver was speeding, the reason the officer pulled him over instead of the other cars, was due to his race. Minorities are usually the ones affected by racial profiling. According to the public, the war on drugs immediately became a war on minorities. There is evidence for racial profiling. One is anecdotal, which is a limited value. The other is statistical, which research is entirely worthless. Any evaluation of the evidence for the use of race profiling in policing must keep the contexts distinct. Today, skin color makes you a suspect in America. You are more likely to be topped, searched, be arrested or imprisoned. Racial profiling does not only exist in crime but in our society. People are segregated by race and ethnicity. A certain race may think that they are wealthier than others. They also believe that they have more power and education than other races. This creates a conflict between different races and ethnic groups. Class rank also conflicts when it comes to racial profiling. Upper class ideally has more power than middle and lower class. Thus, resulting in a group conflict. Lower and middle class want equal protection and power. Whites are usually in the higher rank, and blacks are in lower ranks. Stereotypes also fall into the category of racial profiling. When we see someone who is black we automatically assume they are African. When we see someone who is Hispanic we automatically assume their Spanish. When we see an Asian person we automatically assume their Chinese, and when we see a white person we assume their American. It’s the little things like this that are considered racial profiling. Most of us don’t think that it’s bad but someone could take it offensively. Another way we use racial profiling is when we meet people. When you see a nice dressed white male you assume he’s wealthy and intelligent. When you meet a black male, who is not dressed as nicely, you assume he’s a thug, or has dropped out of school. The saying â€Å"Don’t judge a book by its cover† not only works for books but for people as well. The labor laws state that no one should be turned down for a job due to disabilities or their age. Shouldn’t this be the same with race, ethnic, and skin color? In conclusion racial profiling still exists in the United States because we allow it too. It must be stopped, before crimes go up. We should not make decisions off skin color or ethnic backgrounds. We’ve come a long way and everyone should be seen as equals. Even though racial profiling exists in crimes and police stops, we should make an effort to change this. There are other ways to go about making an arrest or sentencing someone to jail. Skin color, ethnic background, and religion should not be factors when deciding to arrest or pull someone over. I believe that if we make an effort to let everyone know that racial profiling is still happening today we can make a difference to prevent it. References Robin Shepard Engel, Jennifer M Calnon, Thomas J Bernard. Justice Quarterly: JQ. Highland Heights: Jun 2002. Vol. 19, Iss. 2; pg. 249, 25 pgs Katy Hurst (2008). http://www. mightystudents. com/essay/conflict. theory. explain. 70034 Heather Mac Donald (Spring 2001). The Myth of Racial Profiling: http://www. city-journal. org/html/11_2_the_myth. html John Reitzel, Alex R. Piquero. Does It Exist? Studying Citizens’ Attitudes of Racial Profiling: http://pqx. sagepub. com/content/9/2/161. abstract How to cite Racial Profiling, Papers Racial Profiling Free Essays Racial Profiling Racial profiling has been around for hundreds of years and it’s still around, but not as bad as it use to be. Racial profiling is wrong for many different reasons and here is why. For example, racial profiling is wrong because you can’t judge somebody just because their skin color isn’t white. We will write a custom essay sample on Racial Profiling or any similar topic only for you Order Now Police officers were often pulling over people of color just for the fun of it. It was humiliating to the people because it made them feel like they were nothing more than a piece of garbage. The police officers didn’t take colored people seriously and just did what they wanted. They asked permission to search the car and when he refused they searched it anyway† clearly states that the police had no respect for colored people and their feelings. Furthermore, racial profiling is wrong because it really does not matter what color skin you have, you can still be a good person at heart. â€Å"Virtually everybody is innocent, and virtually everybody is not white† is a true statement because it’s not just black and hispanic people who are in gangs, rob stores, steal cars etc.. it’s white people to. It makes people feel sad and unloved, and sometimes pushes them to a point to where they want to commit suicide. Also, it starts fights and arguments and if it goes to far, you end up getting arrested. In reality, everybody makes mistakes. All in all, I feel racial profiling is wrong because if you think about it enough and try and understand what it feels like to be constantly harassed and humiliated, you wouldn’t like it either. Hopefully in the future, people stop being racist and just know everybody is human and everybody has feelings. How to cite Racial Profiling, Essay examples