Racial Profiling by the Police Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Racial Profiling by the Police - Research Paper Example Everyone must have experienced profiling at least once in his/her life, but primarily persons are targeted. Such profiling is exercised by people in authority including school administrators, security personnel, criminal justice and law enforcement agencies. Police profiling is a type of racism carried out by the police officials against the offender. It has been seen that this problem has been prevalent in even the most developed parts of the world and it becomes the main reason of discrimination against the civilians. The police department is considered to be one of the most influential departments in all the countries and, hence, racial profiling by this department can lead to many problems within the infrastructure of the country. Recently, the congressman Keith Ellison picked a fight against the department by voicing his concerns for the Muslim Americans. Ellison stated: â€Å"Racial stereotyping is simply not good policing.. It threatens the values Americans hold dear†. He argued that he himself was a target of this discrimination and wanted the relevant authorities to take into notice the current problem going inside one of the most developed countries in the world (as cited in Diaz 2012). Racial profiling threatens our fundamental principles. Racial profiling by law enforcement agencies and the associated prosecution of people of colored skin is one such example. It targets people on artificial basis of color on matters of law enforcement, causing hindrances in policing efforts and making law enforcement agencies lose their credibility within the community which they have vowed to protect and serve. The police force is looked up to maintain fairness and justice in a society; the disgraceful exercise of racial profiling has caused people to fear the system. This unjust practice remains stain on democratic nations and an insult to the claims of racial equality. It is, however, imperative that the origins of racial profiling by the police force and criminal investigators are highlighted. In the 1950s, a high-profile officer at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Howard Teten, introduced and popularized the mere notion of racial profiling by analyzing the attributes and traits of the criminal, his past records and the situation at the crime scene. This practice of profiling, even though stereotypical in nature, spilled over to the police force with time. Since September 11, 2001, racial profiling has grown and the Obama administration and FBI guidelines have been codified by these practices such as the dishonorable treatment of Muslims and Arabs as suspects, denying them equality of innocence and protection under law. What has been more disturbing is the federal government’s backing of record searches of immigrants, such as Latino and Mexican communities, by the local law enforcement agencies. Because any legal cure for racial discrimination by law enforcement presently necessitates specific evidence of committed to dis criminate, it is exceedingly problematic, if not impossible, for single sufferers to voice