Cesar Ramos

Professor Harmon

ENG 1020

2 February 2016

The Acts of Racial Profiling and How It Has Impacted America: Then and Now

Racial profiling is the use of identifying a person by his or her race or ethnicity in order to suspect a person of committing a crime.  Many people in America do not view this as an issue nor do they realize that most of racial profiling is being used by the law enforcement agencies.  The police have used racial profiling on people because they feel that it is the only way to identify someone who had committed a crime.  The habit of this action has been going in the United States since the 1960’s.  Through the years the use of racial profiling has been increasing.  Most of the time it occurs during traffic stops and it frequently leads to misconduct.  The employment rate has gone down because of it.  It is also considered as a way of police tactics and most authorities view it as a proper way to do their jobs.

First, the use of racial profiling in America has gone up.  In “Racial Profiling” by Kenneth Jost a timetable indicates that from 2000-present racial profiling litigations has increased (1015).  In 2003 the Bush administration prohibited racial ethnic profiling by all federal law enforcement agencies (1015).  Some examples: in 2008, Center for Constitutional Rights files new stop-and-frisk suit against the NYPD (1015).  In 2013 Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Police Department has been founded guilty of ethnic profiling of Latinos (1015).  When being asked “whether racial profiling by police was a serious problem in the United States, on November of 2013, Fellow Manhattan Institute Heather MacDonald said, “There is no credible evidence that racial profiling is a serious problem among police forces” (MacDonald 1021).  But, Director, Racial Justice Program, and American Civil Liberties Union Dennis Parker claims that, “racial profiling continues to be a prevalent and egregious form of discrimination in the United States.”  Time has not altered that conclusion.  Numerous studies, data collection, and individual anecdotes confirm that law enforcement agents continue to rely on race, color or national or ethnic origin as a basis for subjecting people to criminal investigations (Parker 1021).  Parker has also included that, “Reliance on racial profiling is not limited to local law enforcement laws that invite the profiling of Latinos.  The federal government routinely relies on programs and practices that delegate immigration enforcement authority to state and local agencies, resulting in the unfair targeting of Latino, Arab, South Asian and Muslim people in the name of immigration control and national security” (Parker 1021).

Next, many states are going with the racial profiling matter.  A map of the United State from the National Conference of State Legislatures shows that only 30 states have passed a law addressing the controversy with racial profiling.  In 2011, The U.S. Department of Justice have observed the policies and practices of more than a dozen law enforcement agencies over the past decade and found an estimate of illegal or if not improper practices, ranging from harsh treatment of suspects and racial profiling to failure to review allegations of sexual assault.  An example of that type of incident was on December 15th, 2011 in Maricopa County, Arizona many police officers were going by the usage of racial profiling on Latinos for failing to understand English commands.  The Latinos were arrested and complaints were made about the law’s abuse of authority.  There have also been studies showing that most racial profiling conflicts occur in New Orleans, Seattle, and Phoenix.

Also, a high percentage of ethnicity being pulled over are blacks, Hispanics, and white.  In “Racial Profiling” by Kenneth Jost, Dennis Parker was stated that, “After analyzing hundreds of thousands of police stops, a federal judge concluded that African-Americans and Latinos in New York City were far more likely than whites to be stopped by police when there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and were less likely than whites to be found in possession of illegal items.  Meanwhile, a federal court in Arizona found the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office relied on ethnicity in enforcing immigration laws in a way that was clearly unconstitutional (Parker 1021).  Statistics have shown that at least 91% of drivers in New York get pulled over from 2010-2012.  When revealing the specifics it indicated that 52% of the 91% were black and another 32% were Hispanics while 7% were other or unknown.  There was also some follow up studies on the data that have concluded on the percentage of driver’s who were ticketed when stopped and their background.  The outcome of the results were that in 2011, 7% of black people who were pulled over were also ticketed in the United States an estimated 6.2% were Hispanics.  In “Racial Conflict” by Peter Katel a graph is displayed to classify the calculation of whites, blacks, and Hispanics who were stopped and frisked in Chicago and New York City from May-August of 2014.  The chart specifically shows that majority of the race’s population and those that have been pulled over by the police in NYC are black people with an estimate of 54.2%, while a higher approximation in Chicago is to be 72%.  The population of black citizens in NYC are around 22.6% and 31.5% in Chicago.  When reviewing over Hispanics information the population of Hispanics in NYC are 28.8% while 26.5% of them get pulled over.  In Chicago the percentage aren’t as high but it reveals that out of the 28.9% of Hispanics 17% of them have been pulled over.  In order to reveal the racial profiling in this situation the chart also exposes the white people’s population percentage and the ones who got pulled over.  In NYC 32.7% of people who live there are white only 11.8% of them get stopped.  Now, in Chicago there is a white population of 32.2% but only 9% of them are most likely to be pulled over by the police.

Similarly, most of the situation of racial profiling has also led to police misconduct.  Many records have shown incidents that included police misconduct.  An example would be in New Orleans where there was use of excessive force, illegal stops, searches, and arrests towards people of individual colors.  More drastic actions were being taken place as the officers used biased policing, racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation discrimination.  There was failure to provide effective policing with those who didn’t understand English.  The state Connecticut has proven to reveal that the police misconduct is not new.  An incident in East Haven, Connecticut took place when orderly judgement against Latinos, including targeting Latinos for discriminatory traffic enforcement, treating Latino drivers more harshly than non-Latino drivers after a traffic stop and intentionally and unhappily failing to design and implement internal systems of control that would identify, track and prevent such misconduct.  New Orleans has a history of racial profiling that led to police misconduct.  After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 two black citizens were killed and four were wounded by New Orleans police officers for trying to escape the flooding by crossing the Danziger Bridge.  Parker expresses his opinion on how racial profiling has a lead to police misconduct and how big the situation has become.  “In both cases, the courts were so concerned about future violations that they ordered the use of impartial monitors to track compliance with remedies intended to stop the illegal practices” (Parker 1021).  Most people who get arrested are mostly those of a darker shade of skin.  In “Racial Profiling” a pie graph was shown that indicated how many different types of people in New York City were arrested in 2012, 51% of African-Americans in NYC are arrested.  The Hispanics fall on this graph with 37% of them being arrested.  Sometimes when someone of a different race is arrested there are chances of that the authorities might go for drastic measures.  A huge percent of non-white people get killed while being arrested.  Statistics by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the U.S. Department of Justice have provided the percentage of “Racial Origin of Those Killed While Under Arrest, 2003-2009”.  I shows that a combined 52% of Hispanics and blacks are killed while being arrested in America.  That’s more than half of 2,958 people from 2003-2009.  It even states that, “All but 27 of the deaths were at the bands of law enforcement officers” (Burch 308).  Between 2003-2009 signs of police killing arrestees have grossly increased each year.  There was a collected 2,931 arrest-related killings by law enforcement officials.  Starting off in 2003 there were 376 killings, 375 in 2004, 377 in 2005, 447 in 2006, 455 in 2007, 2008 had a decrease from the year before with 404 killings, and in 2009 the numbers grew with 497 killings.  With the use of racial profiling it can also lead to arrest-related deaths in America.

Next, after being convicted of a crime you haven’t done there is a well chance you would find it to be difficult to get a job.  Most unemployed people are ex-criminals and a huge amount of those ex-convicts are not white.  In “Criminal Records and Unemployment” by Peter Katel he provides data on “Inmates in State and Federal Prisons” (353).  38% of inmates in state and federal prisons are black, 22% are also Hispanic people, and 8% were identified as other.  Because of the racial profiling and misjudgment use by the police any black, Hispanic, or colored person can easily be convicted, sent to jail, come back to the real world and not get employed.  Not many states in America use the “ban the box” policy for ex-criminals.  Only 20 states in all of America go by the “ban the box” policy.  These are reasons why the unemployment rates goes up every year.  Senior Vice President, Carco Group: Chairman-Elect and National Association of Professional Background Screeners Frederick G. Giles when asked, “Are more limits needed on employers’ access to criminal records?” his respond was, “It is true that former offenders must be able to fairly compete for appropriate jobs and that after a period of time certain crimes should not held against ex-offenders for certain positions” (Giles 367).

In Conclusion, when using racial profiling the outcome has drastically cause a huge impact on America.  Nobody would side on using it but the law enforcements.  The increase in unemployment, police misconduct, arrest-related killings, traffic stops have all been after math of using racial profiling to solve issues that never needed race or ethnicity as a reason.  Most police officers often abuse their authority and it has been revealed throughout the years.

 

 

Works Cited

Jost, Kenneth. “Police Misconduct.” CQ Researcher 6 Apr. 2012: 301-24. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

 

Jost, Kenneth. “Racial Profiling.” CQ Researcher 22 Nov. 2013: 1005-28. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

 

Katel, Peter. “Criminal Records and Employment.” CQ Researcher 20 Apr. 2012: 349-76. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

 

Katel, Peter. “Racial Conflict.” CQ Researcher 8 Jan. 2016: 25-48. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection

When doing my research on Racial Profiling I honestly picked this topic because of witnessing and experiencing past experience from it.  I feel that this research paper helped me in a way to educate myself on the topic and understand how it has impacted this country.  I’m not new to research papers but I honestly had a difficult time trying to find as much articles that can correspond to my topic.  I don’t feel that all of America knows enough about racial profiling which is why not too many articles highlight around the subject.  But with what I was able to obtain from the articles and expanding my information I feel that it really assisted in improving my writing process.  I hope my essay can be a difference to others because of how was able to stay on topic, educate, inform, and use in text citation.  With my research I hope to reach out to many African Americans, Latinos, and etc.; most importantly I hope to reach out to those that have been through racial profiling controversies.  I assume that they would be able to relate on my essay and understand what I was trying to inform.  When writing a research paper it would be very unethical to say the whole piece was your idea.  When you include in-text citations you cannot take full credit.  I tried my best to put my part into the essay without having it seem biased, I tried to avoid that by just simply paraphrasing but also educating my audience.  I believe this essay shine a light to the whole racial profiling issue that has been used since the 60’s.  I feel that overall I learned how to properly use in-text citations while quoting someone or even using a paraphrase.  My big problem that always sets me back is using sentence fragments and grammar.  My way around it was requiring help from the librarian and using smart thinking.  With this essay I feel more confident about my work then my past assignments, I put a lot of time and effort to make this essay the way it is.  I’m glad I read more into my topic because with the lack of knowledge I use to have I’ve become less ignorant and understand what racial profiling is and when it is being used.