Are Minorities Unfairly Targeted By Law Enforcement Essay
Are minorities unfairly targeted by law enforcement?
Many people would answer yes to the controversial topic of do minorities get unfairly targeted by law enforcement. But not only are minorities targeted unfairly, they also get treated unfairly through the legal system.
The bad treatment of minorities in the United States legal system starts at the beginning of that system, the investigation of suspected criminal activity by law enforcement agents. Police departments target minorities as criminal suspects more often than they target non minority groups of people. This then skewing the data between arrested racial groups, putting minorities higher, because they are targeted more. This is more commonly referred to in our society as racial
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During his arrest, the officer attempted to arrest him with a chokehold that had recently been banned by the department because of an incident that had recently occurred. Another problem with Garner’s case is how he was targeted by law enforcement. Minorities are targeted at higher rates for petty crimes such as selling spare cigarettes. In Garner’s case he was profiles specifically because of his ethnic background, but people can also be profiled because of religion, ethnicity, and national origin. This unfair treatment of people directly breaks the constitution, that guarantees equal treatment under that law. Another example of unfair and unjust profiling done by the United States law enforcement is disproportional data, that shows that blacks, and Hispanics are more likely to be stopped and searched while driving. A study took place in Illinois, the data that was found was that black and Hispanic drivers were twice as likely to be stopped and searched, as compared to white drivers. Although white drivers were likely to have contraband or be commit an illegal act. Another study like this took place in New York. The conclusion was that the NYPD targets blacks and Latinos about 85% of the time, and roughly 9 times out of 10 the driver
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