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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 vehicles 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.


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