Problematic Racial Profiling
In the United States, how many racial profiling stops actually had illegal substances in their vehicle? Traffic stops are conducted to be used to stop and investigate a possible crime or violation of the law. Sometimes, the intentions behind the traffic stop are not always justifiable which is talked about in the article Exploring the Influence of Race Relations and Public Safety Concerns on Public Support for Racial Profiling during Traffic Stops; many argue that they were racially profiled because of their race or ethnicity. When those two things get involved, no one is absolutely happy in any way. The intentions of racial profiling is not always plausible because it goes against two amendments: the Fourth and Fourteenth. The fourth amendment states that it protects people from unreasonable search seizures from the government, and the fourteenth amendment states “No state shall make or enforce any law which denies to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Both amendments are violated effortlessly when you involve race and ethnicity on the road.
How is it Problematic?
Racial Profiling is problematic in the United States because of its baleful intentions. When blacks and Hispanics are behind the wheel, they are presumably the target of racial profiling; they are automatically suspected of a crime or violating the law. These quick assumptions anger many people on the road and put them in distress when thrown into situations they did not ask for in the first place. Racial Profiling is deliberately used incorrectly and innocent citizens are getting stopped for the accusation of handling illegal substances and committing illegal acts.
Who are the targets of Racial Profiling?
Anyone is capable of smuggling drugs in their vehicles, but certain races are picked on when it comes to these situations. When black and Hispanics are on the road, they are more likely to be pulled over because they are presumed to have possible illegal drugs. The involvement of illegal substances in dire circumstances like traffic stops means no good. No one wants to be caught and pulled over with what can be weed or heroin because anyone in the vehicle will be held responsible, arrested, and charged with possessing illegal drugs. People are suddenly pulled over for no reason and this is where Racial Profiling comes in. You are being treated unequally and using your race and ethnicity against you to assume you have illegal substances in the car. Significant findings from Kelsey Shoub and her colleagues’ analysis of the North Carolina data set included in the article named Racial Disparities Revealed in Massive Traffic Stop Dataset “Blacks were 63 percent more likely to be stopped even though, as a whole, they drive 16 percent less. Taking into account less time on the road, blacks were about 95 percent more likely to be stopped.”
When talking about racial profiling, there was a percentage of people who supported the idea. Many thought it was justified and the proper way to deal with traffic stops. Though profiling was useful to catch criminals because it aided them during hard times, racial profiling was the number one tactic. A former police captain from Miami, Marshall Herald said in the article Racial Profiling: Past, Present, and Future?
“Label me a racist if you wish, but the cold fact is that African Americans comprise [sic] 12 percent of the nation’s population, but occupy nearly half the state and federal prison cells. African Americans account for 2,165 inmates per 100,000 population, versus 307 for non-Hispanic whites and 823 for Hispanics.”
He argued that most African Americans commit serious crimes and that police should continue to use profiling which his statement will be contradicted in the next paragraph.
The tactic of racial profiling had supportive reasonings on why it was inefficient. In the article Racial Profiling: Past, Present, and Future?, it was said that
“In jurisdictions using racial targeting in their stops and searches, police hit more often when they stopped and searched whites than when they searched either blacks or Latinos.”
With the mind-blown facts, Marshall Drnak’s statement was overridden and dismissed. His evidence, along with others assumed targeting the right people who were racial minorities was the best idea, but turns out hit rates got worse. In this article named Racial Profiling Doesn't Work, it was said
"In any event, statistics suggesting that a particular group commits a disproportionate amount of crime can often be skewed because of racial profiling itself. If a particular group is stopped more often, even if they are committing less crime than the rest of the population, the fact that they are scrutinized more frequently will result in higher charge rates. "
This statement tells us that if you solely only focus on racial profiling and it then will become the judication for profiling.
It’s wrong to assume and racially profile people because of their race or ethnicity. Traffic stops are used to conduct searches of potential criminals or violations of the law. The intentions behind these stops are not always justifiable; many argued they were racially profiled because of their race and ethnicity. While these issues expand throughout America, the Fourth and Fourteenth amendment gets violated because of inequality. Racial Profiling is used incorrectly and innocent people are getting pulled over for accusations of handling illegal substances and committing possible illegal acts. With a plentiful amount of supportive facts behind Racial Profiling being unjustifiable, you are safe to say all statements targeted to induce profiling have hit an end. Sadly, in today’s modern-day society, we still issue lots of reports of profiling races and ethnicity. However, we need more people to get educated on problems that affect our nation.
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