Racial Profiling In Bob Herbert's Jim Crow Policing

Do to the disparity of who was stopped with the use of stop and frisk there were protest by unsatisfied civilians who saw the actions of the police as unfair and unjust. “On June 17, 2012 several thousand protester marched down Manhattan Fifth Avenue from lower Harlem to then Major Michael Bloomberg’s upper eastside townhouse” to protest the policy of the NYPD of stop question and frisk (Francesani, C.,

US are one of the countries that have a diverse culture and different races such as Europeans, Asians and black Africans American. They have been living together for many years now, and they experienced issues that have a negative impact on the minority of the population. In fact racial profiling is one of the issues that cause the mistreatment of black Africans American by the police and law enforcement.

After reading the article “Jim Crow Policing” by Bob Herbert, I agree with the author that the New York police should stop harass the Black and the Hispanic for no reason. In the article, the author gives the data of the percent of stops that yielded the weapon. The percent of Black and Hispanics have weapon is less than that of the white. It shows that the Black and Hispanics have different color does not mean they are more likely to commit a crime. The police in New York have a degrading way that affect the Black and Hispanics because it seems they only base on their skin color and race to treat the people. We should stop it and I think either the Black or the Hispanics or the white and other race, we all deserve to be treated fairly because

Law enforcement agencies. The Government. Their job is to protect our country from any evil and keep us safe. Criminals are a big issue in our lives today, and law enforcement officers are trying to capture every single one of them. But, how are they going to stop these criminals when police officers are putting lives in danger? Racial profiling is practice by law enforcements officers by targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. Although racial profiling may seem as a good technique, law enforcement officers are violating laws and endangering lives when affected. Racial profiling should not be accepted as law enforcement practice because it severely hampers citizen’s civil liberties, is unconstitutional, and has an effect on victims’ lives.

In recent years racial profile has been the buzz word. So what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is using the race of an individual or ethnicity by law enforcement as factor in the decision whether to engage in the enforcement of the law. The allegations are cops are targeting minorities, seemingly people of Africa decent more than any other race. I have been accused of racism many times in the past with little to no provocation. It usually comes at the beginning of a traffic stop when I walk to the car. I hear the person say “you only stopped me because I’m black”. I have explained to numerous people I didn’t know who or what color they were until I walked up to the car. Contrary to the belief cops know who’s in the car before we pull it over, we don’t. The social outcry that the police, the front-line representatives of government are targeting the minorities is false. There’s no credible evidence that racial profiling exists today, yet the crusade to abolish it threatens a decade’s worth of crime-fighting success.

Sure, there are surveys and statistics all over the internet, are these really true? “Not so fast” says the Manhattan Institute, “the charge is police have ‘too many’ interactions with minorities, but this leaves the questions’ too many’ compared to what”? This is exactly the problem we are facing against the opposing opinion. An officer only does a “stop and frisk” if they see something that looks suspicious. This also leads an officer to suspicion by behavioral tensions such as nervousness, threatening behavior, and of course absence of license plate. This leaves this up to law enforcement to trust their numerous years of training to spot and capture a

According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved. An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer

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. It is possible that minority citizens are more likely to perceive racial profiling when stopped by a white officer than they would be if the officer were a minority (Cochran & Warren,

Racial profiling is a controversial topic in today’s society, it leads to false assumptions without having any facts. People suspect and target people based on a stereotype about their race. Many minorities are targeted by government officials such as police officers just because of their race or ethnicity. Just because a particular person from a particular race did something wrong, everyone from that race is being discriminated against by people from other races. Injustice is all around us and peoples right are being violated. In Citizen, a book of different stories, Claudia Rankine shows how the black community is being discriminated against and socially profiled. Rankine shares some of her and her friends experiences that they encountered

Bob Herbert’s article, “Jim Crow Policing” Publishes in the New York Times on February 2, 2010, states that “The New York City Police Department needs to be restrained”, and I believe that his evidence shows this to be true. The author goes on showing statistic after statistic about the type of people that are stopped by the NYPD and more importantly their nationality. Bob Herbert is not writing this article to bash the NYPD, but to educate the people of America that although we may think racism and humiliation is gone, in New York it is still very prevalent.

Racial profiling by law enforcement is an overwhelmingly useless and prevalent expression of hate and ignorance to this day. Internationally, a wide variation of races are unrightfully discriminated against by the enforcements who are supposedly there to protect them. Jim Crow policing is an issue that undoubtedly continues, no matter the amount of riots or unjustly arrested/ murdered civilians. Cases like Trayvon Martin, and Mike Brown, as well as Bob Herbert 's article Jim Crow Policing published in the New York Times, February 2nd 2010, explain first hand accounts and statistics to give examples of the fact that racial profiling from the police force consistently takes place.

On July 16, 2009, around noon, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a black Harvard professor, was on his way home from a trip to Harvard University and had called a limousine, the driver was black. When he returned home his key wasn 't working, and both he and the driver tried to force the door open. The police were called and Dr. Gates was arrested, the story made headlines nationwide and raised the question; does law enforcement racially profile people?(Staples) This is an example of racial profiling and how it is in law enforcement. Although there is discrimination in law enforcement, many cops are not racist and do not racially profile people. There is discrimination in law enforcement because of cops arresting and being more aggressive towards blacks than whites. However many people think that police are not prejudice and are just doing their job. When cops stop people for seeding or other reasons.

The performance of a police officer is always under a microscope especially when it comes to dealing with people from another race. There is also the idea that police officers use racial profiling to conduct and solve many of the crimes that are happening in their neighborhood. The racial profiling aspect is very sensitive and it can be difficult to determine if in reality it is happening because this is coming from someone else 's perception.

In a viewpoint by Nicole Flatow titled “History Indicates Varied Results in Improving Police Brutality in America,” She believes that there has been little reforms regarding police brutality. Nicole argues for years, America has barely made any effort on improving the use of force by police officers. For example, victims such as Rodney King and Amadou Diallo, led to some reforms, but did not solve the violence of police brutality. With the beating of Rodney King that was captured on camera, it sparked massive outrage that led to a riot when the police officers received no charges. Because of the riots, it created a momentum for a reform of the police. “One of the most significant reforms that did come out of the commission was ending the policy of lifetime terms for police chiefs.” (Rodney King, 1991, Los Angeles) This led to a police chief named Daryl Gates to resign and made serving for a lifetime over. In another case of police misconduct, Amadou Diallo was shot by police because they thought that his wallet was a gun. Just like the Rodney King case, the officers that were involved were also not charged. After a lot of protest, the only changes that were instituted were “adding more minority officers to the special Street Crimes unit whose officer had shot Diallo and requiring all officers in the unit to wear uniforms.” (Amadou Diallo, 1999, New York City) However, these reforms didn’t solve the problem at all. According to data statistics, this tragedy happened because of the law called Stop-and-frisk. The police were overusing this tactic to aggressively made police stops. Data shows that stop-and-frisk was getting extremely worse and the number of police stops that was being conducted is due to racial profiling. After a successful campaign, new legislations were introduce that will have an inspector to oversee NYPD and would allow citizens to sue the

We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way