Introduction
In all lifestyles, and in every species, the congregation of a select type is a common phenomenon. Despite the sophistication and technology, humankind is no different. There are unwritten criteria for all job applications, school admissions, and even military recruitment. The theory of strength in numbers runs deep among human beings since the advent divisions based on class and color. Racial profiling is the act of singling out a particular community of people to discriminate against. In the United States, racial profiling has two sides to the story. There are legitimate actions termed as racial profiling by people who want to escape the actual scope of punishment. There are also actions which discriminate particular communities by exploiting certain conditions. This paper will explore both angles to analyze the possibilities of the use of racial profiling against minority communities in the United States unjustifiably.
Racial profiling during traffic stops
It is customary for police officers to search the vehicle of any traffic stop if there are circumstances which have a case for probable cause. This is perhaps the most controversial practices used by police officers across the nation today. The police departments always claim that the search was legitimate since the officers were either able to see contraband in plain sight or they saw panic among the passengers of the vehicle. This section will analyze why the police claim legitimacy in this practice. All police cruisers have a camera in the front section of the vehicle. Hence, when the police stop a vehicle, they pull up behind it. The entire stop has a recording which is in use as prosecution evidence. If the police wanted to discriminate anyone, they definitely picked the wrong task to perform it.
Furthermore, the police these days also carry body-cameras. It is highly unlikely for them to engage in any practice which violates the Civil Act of 1960 while engaging motorists. In addition, the police have the capability to run fingerprints, social security numbers, vehicle registrations, and driver licenses through their databases during a traffic stop. If they see outstanding warrants, or a prior criminal record, they will proceed to search the vehicle. The information on hand allows the police officers to act with probable cause. In most cases, the owners give permission to search the vehicles. Hence, to dismiss the entire process of stopping vehicles cannot be evidence of racial profiling (National Institute of Justice, 2016).
While the justification provides relief for the police, there are instances when the police officer does not have adequate training to spot symptoms of medical conditions and conducts a search when the driver is suffering from a health issue. The behavior will include sweating, nervousness, gasping for air, and heavy breathing. A novice police officer might misunderstand the symptoms for guilty behavior. There are quite a few instances where the police officers who made the traffic stop got the details completely wrong. The case of Ben and Rachel Kohnen in 2014, where police stopped them for speeding while they travelled at thirty miles an hour. Rachel was going to deliver a baby and did not want to stop. The police officers who made the stop forced the pregnant woman on the ground without letting them explain. This case is important since the victims were Caucasian. Incompetence or lack of judgment affects everyone and not just someone from a minority community.
On 11 December 2014, Helen Smith crashed into a police cruiser while speeding on a highway to see her terminally ill son. The police officers, gave Mrs. Smith a ride with a police escort all the way to her destination. This proves that not all stops have a tragic end. Police officers are compassionate and they respond to emergencies positively most of the time. Race is not one of the aspects which determine the outcome of police action during traffic stops. There are other factors why police officers are overcautious when they approach a motorist and why they are quick on the draw in several of these incidents.
A traffic stop is the easiest situation to ambush a police officer in the United States. The majority of police officers who die in the line of duty are victims of shootings during traffic stops. The recent case of the Missouri police officer is a relevant example in this context. His assailant is from a minority community. The reason why police officers stop members of the minority community is not due to racial profiling. It is on account of the high crime rates among the members of their communities (Evans, 2016). Police departments do not go out looking for members of the minority community to take the fall for crimes they did not commit.
Targeting minorities: Is there valid reasoning?
In the United States, the majority of the crimes originate from the low income sectors of the community. With rampant unemployment, and the safe haven enjoyed by street gangs, low-income neighborhoods become crime hubs in all cities. The African-American and Hispanic communities outnumber the Caucasian gang population in most states. In cities like Detroit, they practically rule the neighborhoods with no natural enemies. The lack of public support impairs the Detroit Police Department from conducting any reasonable action. The law enforcers themselves face violence from African-American community more than any other minority community does. In addition, this community has the reputation to bear arms as early as thirteen years old when the children join drug gangs as enforcers. Hence, it is not uncommon for them to act out with additional caution while approaching an African-American suspect. Incidentally, this is what most African-American police officers do. Hence, there is no justification in claiming that the police take special attention towards this community (Chin and Vernon, 2015).
In almost all the recent shootings involving African-American victims, the victims were suspects who resisted police questioning, or was involved in a crime. In the sensational case of Michael Brown, the media fails to emphasize on the fact that the victims shoplifted a carton of cigarettes and that the police officer was in fact responding to a 911 call. The concept of having a police force is to prevent criminal activity. It is the job of the police to follow up on 911 calls irrespective of the racial description of the suspect. The shooting was unfortunate however, there are no indications to suggest that officer Darren Wilson did not follow the rule of the law. Incidents of police brutality find their way to YouTube and the media within hours and yet despite a road full of African-American with camera mobile phones, not one video implicating officer Darren Wilson is available. This is a suggestion which points to validity for the officer and justification in the shooting. Despite the forensics, there is no version of this story which suggests racial profiling.
Victim psychology
The African-American community does face discrimination in the United States even today. They are unable to gain quality education from the public schools and they are hardly eligible for any scholarship which gains entry into colleges. They have a horrific past in this nation’s history as slaves who once subjected to their Caucasian masters. Despite centuries of passing since the days of slavery and decades of official inequality, they are unable live their lives as equal members of the society. It is not out of the ordinary for such a community to feel discriminated or racially profiled when the police stop them routinely.
The victim psychology pressures the individual to believe that everything going wrong is on account of the color of their skin. It is an understandable conclusion. African-American inmates serve twice as long sentences in comparison to Caucasian inmates for the same type of crimes. The police will first look for an ‘African-American’ or ‘Hispanic’ connection in any drug case before considering a Caucasian suspect. The history is against the law enforcement fraternity. The years prior to the 1970s were discriminatory. Caucasians enjoyed a free reign of criminal enterprise while innocent African-Americans paid the price with lengthy jail terms. The Federal courts were harsh in particular by trying children as young as twelve years as adults for firearm possession. These children did not receive the same consideration as Caucasian teenagers whose cases ended up in Juvenile and family courts. The stop-question-frisk program was exclusive to African-American neighborhoods. There were no such programs even in Caucasian street gang territories. This community believes it is still the victim of unfair treatment based on the quality of life imposed on them.
The downside for this belief system is to overlook the achievements of incredible individuals from the same community who grew up in the projects. Supreme Court judges, star athletes, basketball stars, brilliant businesspersons, tennis superstars, Hollywood celebrities, and an entire generation of successful musicians originate from the African-American community. The politics by community leaders to ensure their control over the masses have led to several misconceptions among the minorities. Despite the adversity, there are always individuals who outshine everyone and they are from the minority communities. They accomplish this by asserting their equality rather than their inequality in society. There has to be a positive transformation socially among minority communities and the practice of hiding behind a traumatic past has to end (Boyd-Franklin, 2013).
Conclusion
Racial profiling and discriminatory practices exist in the United States even today. However, the majority of reported incidents have lawful justification. The history of animosity between two communities’ centuries earlier cannot become the basis for justification in present day events. The police have the task to serve the public (including minorities) and maintain the peace. The minority communities should look upon themselves as equal right American citizens and should conduct their responsibilities as required by law. The police are not on a mission to jail men and women belonging to minority communities. If they had such a mission, with present day technology, there is very little that will make them unsuccessful (National Institute of Justice, 2016).
References
Boyd-Franklin, N. (2013). Black Families in Therapy, Second Edition: Understanding the African American Experience. Guilford Publications. New York: NY. Pp. 28-170.
Chin, G. J., and Vernon, C. J. (2015). Reasonable but Unconstitutional: Racial Profiling and the Radical Objectivity of Whren v. United States. The George Washington Law Review. 83 (8). Pp. 882-942.
Evans, E. (2016). It's not just Dallas — police officers have been killed across the country. Retrieved from: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-police-killings-20160713-snap-story.html
National Institute of Justice Staff (2016). Race, Trust and Police Legitimacy. Retrieved from: http://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/legitimacy/pages/welcome.aspx
