Police Profiling Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Police Profiling - Term Paper ExampleIt fanny be remembered that several activists, especially college students, participated in mass protests against racial discrimination i.e. in the early 1960s, with people such as Martin Luther King, Junior coming into the spot (Erlich & Susan, 2000). In the process of conducting these protests, civilians, mostly whites, embarked on a accusation to disrupt through violence and intimidation whereby protestors were beaten to death. Instead of performing their national duties to treasure these citizens, the legal philosophy at that time instead connived with the vigilantes to suppress the blacks, most notably by escorting the buses carrying protestors only to lead and leave them in the hands of vigilantes (Erlich & Susan, 2000). Driving era black in the US is a terminology which emanated from the practice of state police harassing black motorists without any lawful basis (Meeks, 2002). In this context, black citizens ar always suspected to be criminals and it is the perception of most officers that the car being driven by them is either stolen or the occupants are on a mission to commit crime. In San Diego 1997, a Shawn Lee was arrested and detained for more than an hour on the basis that he was driving a vehicle, which, perceivably, did not befit his status as it was an expensive Jeep. In his statement, the arresting officer defended himself by implying that he was acting on information the police had of a similar vehicle which had allegedly been stolen the earlier night, which of course turned out to be a lie (Meeks, 2002). The issue of immigration in the modern America has also promoted police profiling against Americans of Latino origin. This is due to the perception that the society has against these people whereby they are viewed as potential illegal immigrants, who are out to disrupt peace in the commonwealth by the virtue of numerous criminal activities associated with countries such as Mexico, which include a nd not limited to drug trade, involvement in criminal gang activities among others. In this context, a person of Hispanic origin has higher chances of being stopped and questioned by highway police on suspicion that he could be in the country illegally. In 1997 for example, an operation conducted by the US border patrol in conjunction with Chandler Police resulted to the arrest of approximately 430 illegal immigrants. However, more than 200 legal US citizens of Hispanic origin were arrested in the process, an action which resulted to the suing of the authorities, who were made by the courts to pay $400000 as compensation to the victims (OReilly, 2002). Similarly, the September 11 attacks on the US left-hand(a) the country in a state of phobia against people of the Middle Eastern origin (Holbert, 2004). This is due to the reason that the attacks were perpetrated by terrorists i.e. al-Qaida, which is an Arab dominated criminal network. Therefore, the police will always have a predete rmined mind that whenever they encounter such people, there is a high possibility that they could be associated with the terrorist group and thus it is a must for them to act more vigilantly towards them as opposed to the other Americans. According to supporters of this profiling, this is a measure to ensure that the security of the citizens is protected from achievable threats especially if it is conducted efficiently in all points of entry into the country. On the other hand, critics view it as unnecessary and