What Is Racial Profiling Necessary?

The PBS film “Policing the Police” brings an insider view into the Newark Police Department. As denoted in the documentary, Newark is one of the most violent cities in America with crime rates nine times higher than New York City’s. The Department of Justice investigated multiple cities including Newark and found that reform was a necessity: 75 percent of the time the Newark Police Department stopped people without legal justification. This is evidenced in the film itself through Jelani Cobb’s experiences; many stops he witnesses are done so based on hunches and use excessive force rather than the cops having reasonable suspicion. In my opinion, the Newark PD as portrayed in this documentary desperately requires reform.

Racial profiling has become a national issue starting in 2015 (“Racial”). Judging someone for their race has been a problem ever since a minority group has been noticed. Racial profiling has spread over all over the world. Racial profiling has been a problem through the years, if the human race can learn what racial profiling is, advantages of the profiling, and the disadvantages.

Throughout history, the failure of the government to protect black people from ruthless enforcement officers, forced blacks to act in their own interests. During the 1930s, the National Negro Congress organized massive rallies against police brutality, the Black Panther was created to stem the tide of police abuse, and in the 1970s the Congress of African Peoples sponsored the “Stop Killer Cops” Campaigns (Fitzgerald, 2007). The list goes on and on of groups and campaigns that African Americans formed to protect themselves from white supremacy and most importantly police brutality. Although some observers claim that racial profiling doesn’t exist, there are an abundance of stories and statistics that document the

One historic example of racial bias in the police force is Dr.King 's march from Selma. In Marion, Alabama on February 18, a group of peaceful demonstrators were attacked by white segregationists. During this attack one of the younger demonstrators, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was killed by a state trooper. In response, Dr Martin Luther King led a 54 mile march early in 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama from Selma that lasted five days to the capital where many oppressed black citizens had been campaigning for voting rights including, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On Sunday, March 7, 1965 protesters got ready to go to Montgomery but Alabama state police officers with weapons

Racial Profiling can be useful sometimes and sometimes it can hurt other people’s feelings. It can be useful to the police because it can give the police an idea of who or what kind of person committed a crime. You can’t always rely on racial profiling to help find the criminal. There is no guarantee that you will find the criminal by using racial profiling. It can hurt other people because you are judging the person by their looks and actions.

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.

Being racially profiled is a part of day to day life as a black male, or maybe racial profiling happens way more of than it should, between black males and the police. Being judgmental most often gives the police tunnel vision to only see the fancy cars and the nice jewelry being worn by black males, and they automatically assume he is a drug dealer. The outward appearance often gives the police a preconceived notation about black males, due to the sagging pants and gold teeth, which in Police eyes marks them as less than a working-class citizen. Police often encounter African American males by traffic stops when driving, often times without probable cause, and executing illegal searches of that individual property. In today’s society, black males are more likely to be racially profiled by Police than any other male ethnicity, creating barriers, hatred, and distrust between black males and the police.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.

Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice, especially by law enforcement officials which targets individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Racial profiling has been and is still an issue today in almost every part of the United States. It is seen in different situations whereby people are treated very unfairly or branded criminals and suspects without any form of evidence. The problem has been a serious issue in Baltimore whose Statistics in an ACLU lawsuit uncovered police data indicating that while 73 percent of suspects pulled over on I-95 be-tween 1995 and 1997 were black and were no more likely to actually have drugs or illegal weapons in their cars than white

Racial profiling is a very important issue that individuals in society face every day. This problem occurs in low income or poverty-stricken areas throughout cities and communities across the nation. Hundreds of anecdotal testimonials allege that law enforcement officials at all levels of government are infringing upon the constitutional rights and civil liberties of racial and ethnic minorities through a practice called “racial profiling” (Ward, 2002). So what is racial profiling? According to the National Institute of Justice, racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin (National Institute of Justice, 2013).

Names like Dontre Hamilton, Michael Brown Jr., Tamir Rice and Walter Scott are plastered on headlines and passionately spoken about on every major news station around the country. They are the names that paved way for the national discussion of police brutality against African Americans. And while these victims of horrific actions deserved much better outcomes than they got, the violence demonstrated by police officers is clearly a product of the social environment in which they parole and the racial stereotypes and discrimination that are deeply embedded in our culture. Police officers have an obligation to maintain order and protect us: the citizens of society.

The use of racial profiling has caused major issues and has had a huge impact among our nation. This has influenced a lot of hate and killing towards different type of race, religion, etc. groups. Law enforcement has become ineffective due to racial profiling. Statistics have shown some situations of racial profiling.

One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.

In the United States, law enforcement continues to reform. Criticism is escalating to the belief that “policing [is] not [adapting] to best fulfill its duties to the public (Gale, part of Cengage Group).” Police reform is addressing issues through “gradual and radical methods (Gale, part of Cengage Group).” As a result, police and other law enforcement continue to experience retaliation with Black Lives Matter protests, including “Defunding the Police” and concerns with racial injustices. With notable police brutality, law enforcement is being placed under public scrutiny.

Random sample surveys were conducted in Seattle, Washington by telephone, which asked citizen’s various questions concerning their feelings towards police. These questions included their level of happiness in regards to police problem-solving, their views on police hassling citizens, and if they had ever experienced, or perceived to experience racial profiling or bias by law enforcement (Wu, 2014). Of all the citizens that took part in the survey, 64% of African Americans felt that racial profiling was a problem inside their neighborhoods, 28% of Asians, 20% of whites, and 34% of Hispanics agreed (Wu,