Stop and Frisk is one of the most controversial police procedures implemented in New York City. This is a limited search where the police officer confronts a person that he or she deems suspicious with the goal being crime prevention. The police officer does this by patting the person down for weapons, as well as questioning the individual. However, the people stopped are predominantly Black and Latino. Many believe that Stop and Frisk is a form of racial profiling. Racial profiling is defined as police action, such as arresting or questioning, which takes place based on a person’s race, ethnicity, or national origin and not merely the behavior of the individual. This is the definition used by Mathis Risse and Richard Zeckhauser in their …show more content…
The alternative could minimize the use of race so that racial profiling becomes moot. Risse and Zeckhauser respond to this argument by saying utilitarians will always welcome alternatives that effectively curb crime for the benefit of the citizenry (pg.151). This is a convenient way to dismiss an argument, rather than prove the counterargument wrong. It is easier to incorporate the counterargument into one’s own argument. The fact still remains that Risse and Zeckhauser’s utilitarian view on racial profiling is flawed, specifically the expressive harm portion of the …show more content…
This is an assumption that is proven without evidence. For Risse and Zeckhauser, racial profiling is not a form of racism, nor its resulting harms. The harms are a symptom of expressions that occur in society. Instead, the consequences of profiling are viewed as innocent. The relationship between racial profiling and racism painted by Risse and Zeckhauser is implausible. The individual is required to picture a society where racism plays no role in law enforcement’s use of racial profiling over other plausible ways of responding to racial disparities in crime. It also asks the individual to believe that racial profiling of minorities can be executed fairly in a society that is viewed as racist. Only on these assumptions can an individual make the objection to racial profiling as an objection to racism rather than profiling. Therefore, the harms of racial profiling are identified with racism instead of racial profiling. These assumptions are hard for minorities to grasp. Therefore, Risse and Zeckhauser’s expressive harm depends on an implausible relationship between racial profiling and racism. Racial habits according to expressive harm seem peripheral, thus deflecting attention away from the effects of racial
Argument nowadays has become fruitless-getting nowhere because people listen to argue and not to understand. However, in the speech “Hard Truths: Law Enforcements and Race” given by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I), James B. Comey addresses that it is imperative to not only listen but understand the differences in perspectives when discussing racial profiling. Furthermore, he implores his audience to consider that the topic about law enforcement dealing with race is much more complicated than it seems. Comey’s implicit thesis does support that there is evidence of racial bias in law enforcement; moreover, his purpose is to establish sympathy for the two opposing sides: law enforcements and the people of color. Overall,
Some say that stop and frisk policy is harmless unless someone is actually committing or has committed a crime. But there are plenty of incidents that has occurred due to this policy that proves that this isn’t true. One major incident is that stop question and frisk policy was that it was unconstitutional. According to Scheindlin, The New York Police Department has performed 4.4 million stops from 2004 to 2012 and 80 percent of the people frisked was reportedly blacks and Hispanics. This policy was used to racially profile against people of a particular race rather than prevent crime.
The practical imperative orders that we never use people as a means to an end, or for any reason; People can’t be used to further an agenda, or for a result. The intent of aggressive stop and frisks may be a variety of reasons, officer safety, to create police omnipresence, or to further the individual police officer’s profiling agenda. The stop and frisk policy includes the use of many people in 2015, of the 22,939 citizens who were stopped, only 20% of them were arrested. This means that 18,353 completely innocent citizens were inconvenienced, and possibly afraid. The standard of suspicion for stop and frisk is only reasonable suspicion.
In his essay “Arrested Development: The Conservative Case Against Racial Profiling” published in the New Republic on September 10, 2001, professor James Forman Jr. illustrates his disagreement with racial profiling. Forman Jr. is a professor at Yale Law School. He teaches Constitutional Law and seminars on race and the criminal justice system. In his piece, Forman primary goal is to create understanding about the effectiveness of racial profiling and how this affects the black community especially youths. Forman achieves this by appealing to a liberal audience.
The job of the police officers is to protect all citizens from any threat and help us to be safe on the streets. Stop and frisk is a practice that the New York City Police Department uses as a way to fight crime, however, stop and frisk is unjust and has resulted in racial discrimination by officers, as well as an abuse of power. Over the years many civilians have been stopped and frisked by the police, this irritates some people as they feel they are stopped purposely or for no reason. So can police frisking in some cases go too far?
Jesper Ryberg, a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Science Studies at the University of Roskilde, Denmark, questions the use of racial profiling as a way of reducing crime. He also examines the ethics of the criminal justice system in its degree or levels of punishment for certain crimes. His first contention is that when racial profiling is used by law enforcement as a means of reducing crime, there will be a disproportionate number of that ethnic group charged and punished for crimes. That certainly will reduce some crimes. However, that leaves the majority group with more liberties and freedoms to commit more crimes.
This law usually targets youth and people of color and this is extremly important reasons to stop it. A first example that shows that the law is not legal is that tons of people who get stopped are innocent. The second example that shows the illegality of the law would be that it is a discriminatory and racist law. However, other people have different opinions, other people think that "stop and frisk" help protects people from people that look suspicious and may risk the safety our society. " Stop and frisk" should not be a law because instead of helping and protecting people it discriminates against people and disrespects the.
Regarding to racial profiling and the multiple perceptions that go along with it, the issue refers to the use of race as the answer in police decision making. More importantly, let’s look into the public’s perception of profiling through the classification of race, class, and personal experience. Weitzer and Tuch (2002) conducted this study to stretch this issue that has grown over the recent years and has touched based on the classifications mentioned earlier. Their major findings from surveying the respondents’ attitudes contributed towards the citizens’ hostility with the police. Basically, the classifications that were most affective to the citizens in their findings were race and personal experiences.
Racial profiling has been going on for hundreds of years now by everyday citizens and law enforcement. “Racial profiling happens everyday,in cities and towns across the country”(ACLU).When will this humiliating profiling stop?Often people have walks and boycotts just to show how serious they want their equal living. “Racial profiling is a longstanding and deeply troubling national problem despite claims that the United States has entered a “post-racial era”(ACLU). Racial profiling is when law enforcement target individuals based off their race ,ethnic or religion as harm to the society.
Racial profiling can cause multiple problems. Several law enforcement agencies have gone through expensive litigation over civil rights concerns. Police-citizen relations in those communities have been strained, making policing all the more challenging. Most importantly, racial profiling is unlikely to be an effective policing strategy as criminals can simply shift their activities outside the profile (e.g., if racial profiling begins with police stopping black males in their teens and twenties. The "cumulative impact of racial discrimination accounts for the special, way that blacks have of looking at and evaluating" their experiences in public encounters (Feagin, 1991:115).
Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement officials target individuals because of their race rather than because their behavior suggests they have broken or will break the law. Racial profiling can and does occur in a variety of different ways. Some forms of racial profiling most commonly discussed in the United States today include the practice of stopping African American drivers, singling out Latino/as for immigration checks and searching Arab Americans in airports. It can become a part of all types of decisions law enforcement officials must make, from deciding who to stop, who to arrest, on whom to use restraints and on whom to use lethal force.
For me racial profiling is wrong and I see why but in some cases it is understandable. The main question always asked or thought about is racial profiling illegal well it depends the power of an authority to stop and frisk vary from the location or country. But profiling
Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer.
Racial profiling, using someone’s race to suspect they are ar committing an offensive crime. Modern society has come to where we will judge someone for individual protection . People have a habit of having a negative judgment for “foreigners” that come in . Many illegal immigrants have slipped in the U.S in the past few years. The perception one a group then leads to the deception of any individual in that group .
The safety of the community is crucial and attempting to deam stop and frisk as unconstitutional limits law enforcement. There is much controversy on how it can target a certain group or race but I believe the goal of any police is to deter crime when implementing stop and frisk. I believe stop and frisk can help reduce crimes and eliminate potential crime in a city, neighborhood, or street. Boyette, C., & Martinez, M. (2013).