Is the War on drug policies a major factor in racial profiling?
Introduction
My name is ( ) and the topic I shall discuss is whether the war on drug policies stand as a major factor in racial profiling or not, and I believe that war on drug policies are not a major factor in racial profiling. This issue is important to be because there are many minorities in the country who live under the burden and impression as the supreme targets as drug addicts and racial profiling against them is a major problem. I have friends who feel living amongst the rest of the people are always afraid that they might become prime suspects of holding drugs even if they are innocent, whereas the actual doers are rarely held responsible because they are white. Hence, being a responsible and aware citizen of the country, I believe that the war on drugs in not a major factor in racial profiling.
Racial profiling by any means is a crime according to the Constitution of the
The United States. At the heart of the Federal Law passed in order to protect the various racial minorities, the law protects the racial minorities from being investigated without any need and proper confirmation of withholding any material upon them (Civil Rights.org). The usual premise that a racial minority is bound to carry or hold a particular thing with them such as carrying weapons or having drugs on them is a viewpoint that is supposed to change, and no racial minority can be interrogated or investigated only on the basis of a whim. Because the usual suspects of drug intake and possessions are the African American individuals in the society, hence they cannot be racially profiled and investigated only on the basis of a bias against their skin color (Civil Rights.org). This reduces the chances of the war on drugs becoming one major factor of racial profiling as it does not stand for the sole reason of racial profiling. It is also not a valid reason unless a person has drugs on them. Moreover, California Fair Sentencing Act or the SB 1010 is an act which calls for fairness in arrests and sentencing when a person is found carrying illegal drugs. This means that the Latino and African American minorities targeted for drugs will be freed from the accusation and achieve fairness (Civil Rights.org).
Protection by the Drug Policy Alliance
The Drug Policy Alliance is an organization that works specifically to keep check on the
a number of inappropriate arrests carried out against a specific race in the country. This is meant to reduce racial profiling in the case of drug abuse and to figure out where the real perpetrators lie. The organization knows that there are cases where the African American race is particularly targeted and is questioned first when it comes to drug use (Drug Policy.org). Comprising 14% of the total drug users, the African Americans make up 37% of the arrested individuals in the country (Drug Policy.org). This is something that has been taken notice of, and the war on drugs policies now mean to find out which people have been inappropriately profiled and which of them are the real convicts. This is meant to bring more fairness into the system and free the people of racial profiling due to drug use (Drug Policy.org).
Conclusion
Narrative: A young African American belonging to a heterogeneous group of
individuals out of which some do drugs and others do not, is caught along with the rest of the group. Fortunately, every person in the group is rounded by the cops, and they are questioned and asked to answer truthfully whether they did drugs or not and who supplied it to them. The young African American fears he will be the first one to be questioned and would be arrested anyway because of the color of skin he has. However, the police decides to carry out a drug test and confirm their drug use before making rash decisions and arresting a person only because they are of a specific origin.
This is the result of the war on drugs policies which call for a fairer and more systematic way of finding out drug abusers and to eliminate racial profiling and marginalization of minorities in the country.
Work cited
Civil Rights.org. “The Reality of Racial Profiling.” 2016. Web. 13 June 2016.
Drug Policy.org. “Race and the Drug war.” 2016. Web. 13 June 2016.
