Paper Topic:

3-5 Pg Essay on a Controversial Issue

April 15 , 2008

Racial Profiling in the Twenty-first Century

Racial profiling is a subtle and very controversial form of legal bias It is based on personal prejudices and can have dire consequences Racial profiling is a method that police and other law enforcement agents use to catch someone who has committed a crime or is about to commit one (Kops , 9 . Someone is questioned because of his or her race , age , style of dress , the type of neighborhood , and the time of day

Both white and black police officers use racial

profiling because many minorities commit crimes . They think that it is a logical technique for crime prevention (Kops , 10 . Between 1992 and 1996 , blacks were 12 of the population . 58 of all carjackers were black . In 2000 , 18 of blacks were living below the poverty line . In 2004 , 50 of black men living in New York were unemployed (Kops , 10 . Economics is thought to be a reason that crimes were committed

Unfortunately , the United States has a long history of racism and acts of racial violence . It doesn 't matter if the year was 1808 , 1909 1959 , 1970 , or 1998 , prejudices and stereotypes among the races will always exist (Meeks , 9 . The American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey declared that racial profiling was born of slavery , raised by segregation , and has matured under pervasive , patently false stereotypes of minorities , especially African Americans and Latinos (Kops , 10-11 There are many instances in which famous African Americans , like Wesley Snipes (actor , Al Joyner (track and field gold medalist , and Jamaal Wilkes (pro-basketball player ) have been stopped while driving (Kops 11 . They had not done anything wrong nor were they driving while intoxicated

A minority doesn 't have to be driving to be prod . In 1999 , actor Danny Glover held a press conference because cabdrivers weren 't stopping for him in New York City . This has been called hailing while black (Cloud , 43 . Racial profiling is also done at train stations . Amy Bowllan , a six-month- pregnant social studies and science teacher from New York , took a train from Penn Station to Baltimore , Maryland to visit her brother and his family in 1997 . Amy was the only black woman to exit the train when it arrived in Baltimore . Two black officers stopped her they wanted to see her train ticket . They were looking for people delivering drugs and money for dealers in New York . They called them the Yo girls , young black women with long fingernails and hair weaves who carry Fendi bags (Meeks , 67 . Amy did not fit the pro at all She was stopped because she was the only black woman exiting the train Black men get stopped by white officers , but black officers stop black women , said Amy

Racial profiling can result in innocent people being arrested . For Amy and others in similar situations , it is very frustrating to be wrongfully suspected of committing a crime . Most police officers , as in the case with Amy , only look at race...

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