Racial Profiling: Dividing the Lines
Imagine yourself walking down the street, minding your own business when a cop confronts you and says that somebody who looks like you just committed a crime. What would your reaction be? This is the scenario that is happening on a daily basis between police departments and minorities, especially black Americans. This is due to the stereotypes a lot of the Blacks had to endure with throughout the years, and how ingrained these things are in our minds. The black people had to endure a lot of hardships and even after the Civil Rights Act, and are still going through some hardships, such as inequality and negative stereotypes. Police officers are confronting and incarcerating black Americans at an alarming rate, much higher than the white race. Racial profiling is a problem that plays a big impact on society and creates increased racial tensions among African Americans and cops. Solutions can be accomplished by having police behavior be accounted for, hiring more minority cops, enhancing training of police to avoid racial disputes, and increasing dialogue among the black community and police.
The problem of racial profiling by cops against minorities, especially black Americans, has been going on for generations. Many things have gotten better; such as having some police departments now even include minority members. But the problem remains the same. Statistics from Ferguson, Missouri, showed that black people, especially black men, were stopped in traffic stops at a rate exponentially higher than anyone else. In an article from the Kansas City Star, it stated that in 2016, black drivers for 75 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers in Missouri (Sanderson). Most of the time, black males are stopped with no cause except seen as a suspect. These are the battles that have to be fought. In a Ted Talk, Jamil Jivani states “and that type of disproportionate interaction is seen as unfair and illegitimate breeds a distrust of law enforcement, makes people distrust cops, who are the most visible faces of our legal system” (Jivani). This tells a story of a community that is frustrated with the police department that will eventually boil over into violence.
On August 9, 2014, there was a confrontation between an 18-year-old African-American named Michael Brown and police over a suspected strong-arm robbery at a convenience store. Brown was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer Wilson states that Brown attacked him earlier and tries to take his gun. Wilson engaged in firing upon Brown. However, witnesses say they saw Michael Brown's hands up during the confrontation and was shot. This event created unrest in Ferguson as people took to the streets in violent and peaceful protests. These protests continued for more than a week in Ferguson and police initiated a nightly curfew. Wilson was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. This eruption in violence in protest did not just happen overnight, but was increasing frustration of the black community towards police and their instances of racial profiling and abusive treatment upon African-Americans. There was another instance like this back in 1992 in Los Angeles when four officers beat suspect Rodney King for supposedly resisting arrest. The video of the beating was shown nationwide and sparked outrage upon the Black community. The four officers were tried and found not guilty in the beating. This was another tipping point in the unfair treatment of African-Americans by police, as they took to the streets in violent protests throughout Los Angeles. The black community, along with some politicians, is fed up with the abuse of power by the police departments upon the black community.
There has been a long history of racial tension and division ever since the inclusion of African-Americans as slaves in the 1800s. The white masters of the slaves would subdue the Blacks and submission in order to do their deeds. The slaves felt an increasing resentment and often retaliated with revolts and violence toward their masters. After the American Civil War, the Blacks were freed, however, it took another hundred years before they had equal rights among whites in the 1960s. This era was a chaotic time for America as African-Americans often protested for equality, many of which turned violent. The whites had a perception of Blacks as “violent animals”, but as soon as the civil rights act of 1964 was passed, African-Americans were now freed from oppression and seen on the equal playing field in regards to occupations and other rights. However, today whites as well as other races still stereotype the black Americans in the same way they did back then. This was only a few generations ago which is not a long time to get over the fact and memory of seeing Blacks as a substandard race as seen in the 60s and before. Author M. H. Barlow states “in fact, perceptions about the presumed racial identity of criminals may be so ingrained in public consciousness that race does not even need to be specifically mentioned for connection to be made between the two because it seems that talking about crime is talking about race” (Welch, 276). African-Americans are trying to get over the fact of their unequal treatment, but it is very hard when they are seeing as still being unequal and perceived to be criminals upon the White race. Generations upon generations of believing that criminal behavior is a characteristic of black Americans is not an easy aspect to get rid of, especially by looking at today’s crime statistics.
The question then arises how racial profiling by police can be eliminated, which would then result in improved relations between the black community and police. There needs to be accountability and oversight through the use of body cameras. The last few years, body cameras have been initiated nationwide to accommodate police officers in effort to prevent police brutality and racial profiling. Body cameras will not only show how the police treat suspects, but on how suspects react to the police. These videos would be public record and add to the growing statistics of police interactions with African-Americans, but this time there would be substantial evidence behind these interactions. This solution to eliminate police misconduct seems plausible as it may help not only to keep the police accountable for their actions, but also to help improve relations between police and black communities by rebuilding trust and legitimacy.
Hiring more minority officers need to be done, especially in high minority population areas. People will be less afraid of police that look like them. Community outreach will also become easier. Jivani references Ferguson, Missouri’s population is sixty seven percent black, while three of the sixty-three police officers are black. This disproportion of black citizens and cops is really unfair as the majority of interactions among this large population is mostly gone being countered by white police officers, which gives a negative stigma on the community and will increase likelihood of misconduct by the police.
Police will need to be retrained in dealing with altercations among minorities. Probable cause would be a big factor in determination from a police officer to stop somebody on the streets and officers need to recognize that instead of stereotyping black citizens and create a reason to stop and question them, assuming they did something wrong. This would be effective through just having awareness of ethical policing, but it can also be ineffective for when officers are out on patrol, their subconscious nature of stereotyping would still come into play when confronting African Americans as well as encountering the unpredictable nature of the streets. Instinct would determine the outcome of a particular situation.
Increased use of the complaints process and mediated conversations would need to take place to combat the problem of police misconduct. An increased dialogue among community members and police would be beneficial to create more of a bond between the community and the police and to speak on common ground between the two groups. Jivani states, “ through dialogue is the only way for them to trust with law enforcement” (Jivani). He describes a story of how he was encountered by two police while he was watering his lawn. He felt violated as they ran his information and questioned him, eventually causing him to file a complaint and ask for a mediated conversation with the two officers. The request was granted and they spoke out there differences and mutually saw more common ground. This would be beneficial if the police force would actually listen to the complaint process and encourage the public to speak out of any injustices they see. Community activists would eventually have to rise up, creating a council.
Opposition to these proposals state that their privacy would be violated and taxpayer money would be wasted with the implementation of body cameras. A lot of these people arguing against solutions for racial profiling are mainly those that don’t see a problem with the police, but instead see the problem with the black community. Steps have to be taken to curb the racial profiling and injustices going on upon the black community today and these steps are a starting point to continue the discussion. What are the people going to want, more accountability over police officers during their patrol or more privacy?
Even after all the rights and all the disputes between African-Americans and the police, racial profiling still exists in the world today. It seems like the equal rights act of 1964 really accomplished a lot of things, but inequality upon African-Americans and the rest of society are still at large today. Solutions need to be imposed in order to stop this treatment of African-Americans by police. This issue just cannot be swept under the rug as opponents intend upon. Communication and dialogue upon these groups as a way to help see common ground and settle differences between these two groups.
Works Cited
Jivani, Jamil. "How racial profiling hurts everyone, including the police." Online clip. YouTube, 8, October. 2014 Web. 4, May. 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCX_Th-IjjE
Sanderson, Shane. "Report shows black drivers more likely to be pulled over in Missouri" The Kansas City Star. 06 2017. The Kansas City Star. 05 2018 <http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article153987164.html>.
Welch, Kelly. "Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling." Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, vol. 23, no. 3, Aug. 2007, pp. 276-288. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=26477965&site=ehost-live.