Barcenas 1 Edith Barcenas Professor Rust Composition 100s 03 December 2015 Racial Profiling, an issue throughout Society Racial profiling occurs in our everyday life, whether we witness it or not. It’s a common situation throughout society and communities. It’s a problematic situation that causes riots, tension, and death even when innocent; for example, the case of Trayvon Martin. Racial profiling has become part of our lives that one does not seem to realize when it occurs. It comes naturally based on one’s bias or even when frightened or feeling threatened. Brent Staples argues in his article, “Just Walk on By”, that racial profiling happens between women and men like himself. He mentions this situation being a “hazard in itself”, a difficult situation to live with. We rely on law enforcement to protect us from harm and to promote equality and justice in our society. Racial profiling; however, has led people to live in fear, categorizing one another to be a criminal or dangerous simply because of where they come from and look like. We have police officers thinking they’re doing their job and doing the right thing by raising suspicions that can be inaccurate and deadly. Supporters for racial profiling argue that racial profiling is a good way to detect criminals and stop crime. However, skin color or where you come from is not a good enough reason to raise suspicion towards another. Labeling one another to be what they are not has caused people to live in fear and change how they look and act just to be viewed unharmful; moreover, racial profiling is how people end up dead. Barcenas 2 Everywhere you go people are being categorized, just like Brent Staples. Staples mentions that after frequently being a victim of racial profiling he has been a “survivor” by taking precautions of looking as a threat. “I began to take precautions to make myself look less threatening… I [moved] about with care...” (Staples). Staples has changed his way of living; to the fact where he has moved from Chicago to New York, where he states that no matter where you go, racial profiling is always present. Staples mentions that just like people take precautions when they’re around him, he also has to be careful to not draw unwanted attention towards him by policemen and residents. Thus, he “whistles melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi” (1) to appear friendly and relax those who are around him and perceive him as a dangerous individual. It has taken Staples to transition in order to survive racial profiling and to prevent being stop by policemen. Moreover, it has cost him to get use to people viewing him as a dangerous person. It is a melancholy thing to know and see that people are not comfortable, let alone, don’t feel safe around you and reject you just by your looks and background. It is also a bitter situation to change the ways you dress, act or walk in public just so you can make others feel safe around you. Although racial profiling affects the majority of races, black communities are affected the most. We currently see in the news how African Americans are frequently hurt or in most occasions killed by police officers and by others that are bias and blinded by their inaccurate assumptions. “Then there were the standard unpleasantries with police, doormen, bouncers, cab drivers, and others whose business it is to screen out troublesome individuals before there is any nastiness” (Staples). Staples have had bitter experiences where he was racially profiled. For instance, when he waits for the traffic lights he hears cars around him lock their cars doors. Police officers have profiled African Americans since September 2001 (American Civil Liberties Barcenas 3 Union) and Staples acknowledges this by mentioning, “Such episodes are not uncommon. Black men are trade talks all the time” (2). A Civil Liberties Union research analysis made of “stopand-frisk” data from the NYPD in 2011 found that young black men are stopped by policemen 25.65% of the time, young Latino men are stopped 16.0%, and young white men are only stopped 3.8%. The consequences of racial profiling are evident as the relationships between minorities and law enforcement becomes a constant battle. In “Just Walk on By”, Staples claims racial profiling being dangerous as one is perceived “to alter public space in ugly ways”. The effects of being perceived for someone you are not have created barriers between humanity and law enforcement. The world blames it on racism and the system to be racist. Others blame it on having no type of respect towards the law and the rights of the people. The people are demanding for justice, equality; but to end situations like the rioting in Ferguson, one must realize that we are to blame when we categorize each other base on our bias and it will only stop if we change our perception towards others. Moreover, one needs to realize that rioting and causing more damage will not stop and solve the situation. People want action and feel justified with their bitter and wrongful assumptions and actions. After the protests began in the summer in Ferguson due to the “unequal treatment of blacks by local police” (Washington Post), racial profiling data made by the Missouri attorney general discovered that black drivers were targeted by 86% of traffic stops in the city for the past year. In addition, 93% of those traffic stops has resulted in arrest. This has proven that racial profiling results in law enforcement to stop minorities who have committed no crime, leaving black men in risk to deadly encounters. In addition, a 2011 report conducted by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights found evidence of boundless racial profiling demonstrating that, Barcenas 4 aside from African Americans being stopped, Hispanics are also disproportionally likely to be stopped and searched by policemen. Change needs to be made, people need to change their way of perceiving others; otherwise there will be death within the innocent and angrier mobs in the communities demanding for justice and change. Law enforcement has abused their power and has committed distasteful acts. Whether it’s searching another individual without a reason, or attacking an individual by looking “suspicious” and beating them for refusing to cooperate. Police officers claim it to be criminal profiling and have used this term as a justification for racial profiling. This has led for the public to distrust police officers. Profiling treats minorities as potential criminals and it breaks the trust, threatening the ability to defeat crime in the community policing’s best efforts. Nevertheless, its not only police officers, but also people from the communities that are also committing the same mistakes as law enforcement and this is demonstrated and proved in the Trayvon Martin’s case. Trayvon Martin is now dead due to the following reason that he was racial profiled by George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin’s case is proof that assumptions made according to a persona’s appearance and background causes chaos; nonetheless, dead within the innocent. But in reality who is the victim in this case? Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman? According to William Saletan, Trayvon’s death was not about race or guns. Trayvon’s death was caused by the overreaction of the misjudgments made by the verdict, George Zimmerman. Thus, Saletan makes it clear that both Zimmerman and Martin are the victims. They are victims of racial profiling, for they both raised misconceptions and perceived each other as dangerous individuals. “The problem was assumption, misperception, and overreaction” (Saletan). Martin perceived Zimmerman as a “creepy-ass cracker” or pervert; Zimmerman viewed Martin as a dangerous burglar who was armed. Zimmerman is guilty of taking action and confronting Martin that led to Barcenas 5 his death. These misconceptions have led to the death of an innocent individual. This happened and could happen again if people keep misjudging others, clouding their minds with stereotypes and act in incautiousness, just like Zimmerman did. It is clear that it is not okay to put labels on people based on their appearances without knowing the person or their intentions. This actions are dangerous and stupid. This type of thinking leads people to die or be injured and causes chaos within communities. Supporters of racial profiling claim that racial profiling is “nothing more than rational law enforcement” (Harris 11). They believe that if racial profiling is what makes law enforcement to suspect minorities and take action by doing investigations and catching criminals then it should be considered as a high-discretion police tactic. However, profiling pedestrians often result in faulty judgments, for these views are assumptions and not facts. David A. Harris, a law professor, has analyzed and concluded that racial profiling in reality makes police less accurate in catching criminal activity (Washington Post). And this is because law enforcement is wasting time and resources on false assumptions among the people that police officers wouldn’t usually stop; for example, black lawyers on their way to work (Washington Post). "If you want to know if somebody is involved in, say, transporting drugs on a highway, if you want to know whether somebody might be up to no good in an airport, you should watch with unrelenting intensity what they are doing, not what they look like — because that’s the only good predictor," says Harris (1). Learning from the deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and other deaths of unarmed black men it is clear that two issues need to be addressed, racial profiling and the use of excessive force by the law enforcement. Racial profiling is a common practice through out society and communities, which often results with tragic outcomes. In Trayvon Martin’s case, for Barcenas 6 example, Zimmerman perceived Martin as a dangerous individual and then followed him without any actual proof. Nonetheless, he followed him without thinking what Martin perceived him as and now Martin is dead. These tragedies that racial profiling has brought among us has made it clear that racial profiling is continuously plaguing our nation despite the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment for all citizens (Washington Post). 85% of the time police officials are targeting blacks and Latinos and almost nine out 10 of those searches, policemen find nothing to criminate these individuals. Racial profiling threatens public safety and weakens police community trust. When law enforcement target and profile residents based on their background, race, and appearances rather than on their behavior, crime is not being fought effectively. A study of Los Angeles Police Department demonstrated that as minority communities keep getting unfairly profiled, they experience greater mistrust and fear local police officers (Washington Post). So the question is, what are we going to do about racial profiling? To end this ineffective “tactic”, as the supporters of racial profiling like to call it, we need stronger policies against racial profiling. Excessive profiling and force shown by policemen, lead to the killings of unarmed individuals and chaos within the living. Therefore, one must think before taking action and criminalizing an individual based on their appearances. Putting a stop to racial profiling will reduce the candles and will lift the barriers between policemen and residents. Barcenas 7 Works Cited Badger, Emily. "The Long, Halting, Still-unfinished Fight to End Racial Profiling in America." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 05 Dec. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Christensen, Kim, and Matt Hamilton. "California's Racial Profiling Law." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 04 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Coy, Peter. "Ferguson: Economic, Political Conditions Fuel Protest Fury." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Harris, David A. "Profiles in Injustice." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Natarajan, Ranjana. "Racial Profiling Has Destroyed Public Trust in Police. Cops Are Exploiting Our Weak Laws against It." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. "Racial Profiling." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Saletan, William. "Misjudgment and Overreaction Killed Trayvon Martin. Now They’re Driving Our Response to the Verdict." Slate. The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company, 1515 July 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Staples, Brent. "Just Walk on By." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.