Racial Profiling Paper

Racial profiling is the prejudicial practice by law enforcement of singling out individuals for suspicion of a crime based on the persons ethnicity, religion, or origin. Many cases over racial profiling have ended with the police accused of the act being acquitted for their crimes. An officer from Maryland received no punishment for releasing a police dog on multiple unarmed Mexican immigrants ( ACLU, 2017). This has been a problem in the United States for centuries. During the 19th and early 20th centuries southern Sheriffs sat by while the Ku Klux Klan harassed African Americans (ACLU, 2017). Racial profiling has not changed much since then, just the tactics of the crime. In the beginning of the 1930’s, the Las Angeles Police Department

One case would be that of Shoshanna Hebshi, a half-Jewish and half-Arab woman. Hebshi and two men were forced off of a plane by Frontier Airlines when passengers reported suspicious behavior apparently performed by the two men. She was then stripped searched and held in a cell for 24 hours with no cause behind it. Hebshi has since filed a lawsuit against the FBI, Frontier Airlines, and other federal agencies (Warikoo, 2013). “Stop-and-frisk” has been a practice in the United States for many years. This is where racial profiling comes into play with law enforcement. It gives law enforcement the authority to harass anyone of any color without reason. “Stop-and-frisk” without clause is now considered a violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments (Goldstein, 2013). The government could try different tactics to stop this harassment of people of color, different ethnicities, and origins. The American people should feel protected by law enforcement not afraid. I believe that racial profiling could be stopped if officers convicted of these crimes were put to justice instead of getting a slap on the