Conflicts of Racial Profiling (selective enforcement
Law enforcement is a term that is used rather loosely. The traditional way to deal with a person who breaks a law is to punish them according to what they did wrong. The conscience comes into action usually when evaluating the degree under which the law was broken. For example, if a man is pulled over for speeding, and the reason for his speeding is because his wife was in labor, then it would most likely result in no summons. Others may include giving someone a break because they presented a P.B.A or F.O.P card, or if the law-breaker happens to be attractive and persuasive. However, there are other kinds of selective enforcement. It is important to understand that punishment and an officers’ discretion should not be determined by race, age, gender, or ethnic background. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Today, many police officers use their discretion to the extent in which color of skin is the deciding factor in punishment (or lack thereof). One of these types is unfortunately racial profiling. Being that the Oxford Dictionary has a definition of racial profiling, it should be clear that it exists. The Oxford American Dictionary defines racial profiling as, “an alleged police policy of stopping and searching veh
Regardless, the data somehow managed to indicate that “minorities were stopped a disproportionate amount of times compared to white drivers,” (9). In San Diego, California, extensive research further solidifies the statement that racial profiling is a common pattern of law enforcement. “African-Americans and Latinos represent 28 percent of the driving population, but are 40 percent of those stopped and 60 percent of those searched,” (7). These numbers are proof that an officer determines the level of law enforcement by race and ethnic background. Also, a study in Texas revealed that the Houston Police Department arrested nearly double the number of blacks after being stopped, compared to the number of whites arrested following a stop, (8). An identical study in Philadelphia was uncovered coherent statistics. “Never in history has there been a study that shows that minorities are more likely to commit more traffic violations, so it seems incorrect to assume that the results of the statistics would in some way reflect the actual percentages each race was in the community,” (9). icles driven by people from particular racial groups.” Consider a situation in which a white police officer gives another white man a break after pulling him over for speeding. Later that day, the officer pulls over a black man who is traveling the same speed in the same area, and issues him a summons. There is much controversy surrounding the ways in which police officers handle their powerful tool of discretion. And although in most cases, officers will deny the presence of racial profiling, there is plenty of evidence that proves that racial profiling does indeed exist. Its presence can be proven through the history of court cases, data, and interviews with the victims of this pattern of criminal targeting. Although the situation involving the African-American victims in Maryland is quite common, there are some instances in which racial profiling has paid off. For example, in 1996 a month following the Turnpike incident, a woman was stopped at Newark Airport because she fit the description of a "drug courier" profile. Although this doesn’t seem constitutionally right, it can be arguable, considering she was carrying 47 pounds of mari
Some topics in this essay:
Police Department,
American Dictionary,
Newark Airport,
African-Americans Latinos,
Police Organization,
Diego California,
PBA FOP,
,
Paul Minnesota,
Jersey Turnpike,
racial profiling,
law enforcement,
ethnic background,
concept racial profiling,
police officers,
selective enforcement,
searches conducted,
police officer,
concept racial,
surrounding police,
presence racial,
presence racial profiling,
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Approximate Word count = 1519
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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