Racial Profiling
In a country where hispanics and colored people dominate the population and are huge contributors to not only the economy, but also the culture, it is unacceptable that some forms of discrimination are still around. Racial profiling is a type of racism in which police officers base their perceptions on the race, ethnicity or national origin of a person to identify a suspect of a crime when stopping and searching people. This behavior from law enforcement agents is based on those who belong to a certain race or ethnicity that are more likely to be engaged in misconduct than those who belong to another ethnicity. People who belong to minorities like latinos, African Americans and other people of color are in disadvantage with this method used by the police. Racial profiling is the cause of many police brutality such as, shootings, innocent people killed and mistreatment. People have fear and anger of what happens, and all that is a result of law enforcement agents being unprepared.
There are many who agree with the use of racial profiling by law enforcement agents. They argue that it can help our cities be more safe and a decrease the chance of crimes happening. In the article of “Is Racial or Religious Profiling Ever Justified” it is stated that “Racial and religious profiling is no joke, but it also isn't necessarily racism, discrimination, or harassment. On issues of safety, profiling means making practical threat assessments. It's time that we, as a nation, ditch political correctness and choose pragmatism, recognizing that race, religion, and ethnicity can play an important role in criminality.” This article states that people do not see racial profiling as racism or discrimination, but as a way to make the community safer. In other words, they argue that we have to open our eyes and see that, sometimes, race and ethnicity, can play a role in the crimes that occur in the streets. Also, people think racial profiling is the way to reduce the amount of violence that there is in this country by the people they judge as hispanics and African Americans.
Many wonder why racial profiling is such a big topic and why it is so controversial. Well mainly many people say that racial profiling is a good thing to make places safer. In the article
“ Not Race Alone” it states “We have to acknowledge that there is a place for race and ethnicity in police work.” Here the author argues that is necessary to use racial profiling by police if it is required, which includes race as one of many ways to racial profile. While this topic talks about racial profiling being a bad thing it also makes a counter argument in the same article from an event that occurred stating “I was accused of racial profiling on the first traffic stop I made as a rookie LAPD officer in 1998. I had spotted a reckless driver speeding through the streets of Van Nuys in a large pickup truck, so I flipped on my lights and took up the chase. The driver eventually pulled over, but as I walked up to his car, he began shouting at me, accusing me of having stopped him because he was black. I could not sleep that night. A liberal academic before becoming a police officer, I had joined the Los Angeles Police Department hoping to make a difference. Yet here I was, on my first traffic stop, being accused of racism.” Here the officer shows how the people thought they were being stopped because of the color but in reality it was because of his speed which is the police's job to do. Not all times it has to be because of your skin color or race the reason why you are stopped. The people who are mainly affected by racial profiling are people of color, hispanics, people with tattoos, first impressions
Just like people agree with racial profiling many do not agree. Events have occurred because of racial profiling such as shootings and innocent people killed. In an updated Racial profiling timeline it states that in “June 2016 An American born Afghan kills 49 people and wounds 53 others in an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub, prompting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to say that U.S. should consider more racial profiling. Also it states “August 2016 The U.S. Justice Department releases a 163-page report, which asserts that Baltimore, Maryland, police officers were more likely to stop black residents and engaged in other discriminatory practices.” My viewpoint on these two timeline events is that racial profiling should not be allowed at all. You can not judge anyone because of the race or color. Neither should you use racial profiling as a way to determine your “suspect.” If you find the suspect then you find the suspect, if not then you can not go out and disturb other people because they looked similar to the hospital when you do not look like them at all and they just stop you for the sake of it.
After having a new government after the election of Donald Trump it has worried more people because of the strong racist declarations he has said about immigrants. In the article “Racial Profiling of Latino Immigrants Influences Indigenous, Non-Indigenous Families Differently, Study Finds it states that “Indigenous families, mentioned fear of the new government, language barriers, anxiety of participating in public spaces and anguish over social institutions, including law enforcement and education, as threats to their abilities for their families to successfully integrate into U.S. society. ” Here it shows how families are scared of the new government and how they fear a future educationally wise and environmental wise. If the people just let others be and not discriminate because of race and color everything would be different and everyone would join together as a union to improve the country, but a lot of people want to individualize because of the color and instead of improving the country it makes it worse.
Although many believe that racial profiling is the way to go and see it as a very effective method, it has proven to only increase the insecurity among people who belong to minorities. A person’s skin color or race should not have any influence at all on what they can be a potential suspect on. Racial profiling not only is unjust, but it is also an ineffective way to try to decrease the crime rates at our streets. Instead of using these stereotypical methods we should prepare our police officers better through more training and programs to help them do a better job and not just discriminate any person just for their appearance. Methods like racial profiling only increase the insecurity felt by citizens and give a sense of racism out to the world. If we teach our police officers not to racial profile we will make all minorities feel less insecure and more equal among any other race.
In the century we are in there is no place for racism to exist among our communities and racial profiling is a form of racism that, unfortunately, is seen as acceptable by many people. Minorities all together make up a good part of the US population and contribute in many ways to our economy and culture. It is unfair for them to be discriminated through socially acceptable behaviors like racial profiling from law enforcement agents. Instead of making a progress in our country we are just going back to those times of insecurity and racism from the past. It is important for people to realize that this is not acceptable and we should turn to other methods, like better police training, to reduce the crime rates in our country.