crossTALK with Aryn and Jessie
Arrests should never be based solely on race
Jessie Heath
In 2008, approximately 32 million individuals filed racial profiling grievances against police
officers in the United States. Racial profiling is used by many law enforcement officials as a tool to identify suspects in a criminal case, based purely on skindeep assessments. This practice is immoral and should not be tolerated in a country that boasts itself as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Racial profiling is based on the assumption that a person can be judged solely by their
appearance or ethnicity. Is this not the nation that pledges “liberty and justice for all?” Racial Profiling goes against multiple treaties and laws in which the USA takes party, and also violates the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Racial profiling also violates the 14th Amendment, which states that no person is can be denied equal protection of the law.
Racial profiling prevents communities from willingly working with law enforcement agencies. Because racial profiling does not typically focus on white communities, it tends to send the message that whites are law-abiding citizens and all other minorities are assumed to be criminals. These assumptions lead many minority-based communities to resist aid from local law enforcement agencies. In contrast to racial profiling, citizens of communities that have a good relationship with their local law enforcement are more inclined to report crimes, cooperate in investigations, testify as witnesses, and volunteer their time as community watchmen.
Racial profiling is a practice that can easily escalate into racially-motivated violence. In 2007, Amidou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was killed by a 41 bullet volley in an exchange with the NYPD. Diallo was only trying to show the officers his driver’s license and green card. Diallo’s case was one of many in which police officers acted hastily rather than weighing hard evidence.
Racial profiling is morally and legally wrong. It sends the message that citizens of this country are judged by the color of their skin or their religious beliefs. Racial profiling is an unacceptable practice and a counterproductive tool in effectively protecting our communities.
Stop using the race card with the system
Aryn Hicks
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses. Life would be so much easier if people would take responsibility for their own actions, and quit using their ethnicity as a crutch. It is too often that minorities use the race card when under the scrutiny of the police. When people use their race as a reason for being “targeted” by the police, they are undermining the entire judicial process.
Police and court systems have gotten a bad reputation in today’s society because of the
accusation of racial profiling. In many cases, accusations of racial profiling overshadow the more commendible actions of police officers. Criminal profiles have spent years gathering
information and statistics to predict criminal patterns based on age, gender, and race.
Although the profiles are sometimes incorrect, the police are simply using the information
they are given in order to prevent crimes from occurring. Minorities believe that the police are being racist and targeting their ethnic groups for malicious purposes, but they
are doing their job based on previous findings. What gain do the police have for unjustly
persecuting people? People who think that the police are specifically out to get them because of their race owe their mistrust to their own insecurities or wrong doing.
Reverse profiling occurs just as often as direct racial profiling. For example, the Duke University lacrosse team was harassed because of their high social standing. You may
ask why. Community leaders were convinced that the police were not properly investigating the case because the victim was a lower-class black woman. Despite the fact that the evidence showed that the men were innocent, they were tried because of the pressure applied from community leaders. The men were finally proven innocent in court, and the prosecutor was disbarred for misconduct. The case, however, wasted police resources that could have been better utilized for more pressing crimes than one in which the evidence supported the men’s claim of innocence.
Instead of crying and whining about “I got pulled over because I was black/brown/polkadotted/etc,” minorities should understand that police are doing their job to the best of their resources. The police serve and protect, they don’t target and harass.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|