Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement Officials

As one law chief maintains, "Racial indite is common sense" (Derbyshire 2001, 38).

In the wake of numerous and widely-publicized abuses against minorities, many argue that racial write is far from common sense. Instead, they be that race should non be a determining factor in whether a tarry is initiated or how an encounter unfolds. Such opponents of racial compose make that it is nothing more than racism and prejudice that unfairly targets minorities and leads to law brutality against minorities. New York City, Los Angeles, and Dade County, Florida, law enforcement officials keep been criticized for a judicious of incidents of police brutality against minorities. Cases in which innocent African Americans are stopped, harassed, and beaten because of being suspected of criminal activity have led many opponents of racial profiling to demand an stamp out to the practice. Carl Dix, a promoter of the 22nd Coalition Web range devoted to banning racial profiling, maintains "This past year has been tag by an upsurge in police brutality and mangle by law enforcement agents across the country" (Boyd 2003, 42).

Opponents of racial profiling cite examples like the case of Alberta Sprull, an African American 57-year-old grandma residing in New York City. Police used a buffet ram to break down Sprull's door, threw a stun grenade into her Harlem apartment, and handcuffed the fair sex because a snitch said her house was a do drugs rendez

vous location. Sprull died of a heart glide slope later that morning. Numerous such cases, including the shooting deaths of more than a few unarmed African Americans, have created protest from civil liberties groups, minorities, and pleaders of justice. Homeland Security measures have increased the number of Middle-Eastern descendants under the radar of racial profiling. Lawmakers are trying to consort a bill that requires law enforcement officers to record the race of drivers at traffic stops or lose federal funds.

unmatchable study conducted by Missouri civil-rights groups maintains that "blacks are 40 per centum more likely to be stopped than whites" (Childress 2004, 9).

Boyd, H. (Oct 16, 2003). Wear black, difference back! New York Amsterdam News, 94(2), 4-5.

While law enforcement officials advocate racial profiling as an effective deterrent to crime, minorities come about to argue that they are stopped, detained, and often treated harshly by law enforcement officers based solely on fell color. It is not only minorities who are opposed to racial profiling. One tip conducted on Americans revealed that "81 percent of the public disapproves of racial profiling" (Derbyshire 2001, 38). Even a conservative like Dick Cheney, when speed for vice-president, admitted a "sense of anger and frustration" stemming from being detained because of skin color (Derbyshire 2001). Such law enforcement tactics seem to go against American characteristics of democracy, such as justice for all and match rights for all. However, after September 11, 2001, heightened fears of terrorism helped change the views of many Americans toward racial profiling.

Childress, S. (Feb 9, 2004). Policing the police. Newsweek, 143(6), 9.

Meeks, K. (2000). Driving While Black: Highways, Shopping Malls, Taxi
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