African Americans and Latino Americans have always been presumed as criminals or bad guys to police officers. This is due to how rap artists portray minorities in urban neighborhoods and how society itself looks at them. They are often suspects of racial profiling while shopping. For example, an African American college student was stopped in New York City by two white police officers after they suspected him from stealing from a Barneys store. Barneys is a well-known expensive department store. The police officer reportedly told the student that he didn’t look like he could afford anything from Barney, so the police assumed he had stolen.
The officers also reported that Barneys said that the student had maybe been a suspect of credit card fraud. The student is now suing Barneys Department store and New York Police Department for racially profiling him and for harassment. The charges were then dropped when all the information about him stealing turned out to be false (Winsor). However, not all racial profiling cases turn out like this, other cases sometimes end lethal. Due to racial profiling and police brutality by the police, there has been a negative impact on Latino and African Americans in urban neighborhoods.
When growing up in an urban neighborhood, people are raised with the sense that police officers are bad guys and are often out to hurt or steal from them. No one really knows what started this stigma but it has remained throughout many years. Those people are often minorities and they strongly believe in that. Police officers are here to help us. However, some police officers are corrupt. A corrupt police officer will steal and abuse civilians just because no one stops them. They are corrupt because of how they view Latino and African American males as suspects to rimes they may or may have not done. They assume that African American are always out to steal and they look at Latinos as if they all sell drugs. Those police officers stop and frisk. Stop and frisk is when a police officer can stop any single civilian on the street and start a random search. Those people feel they are being harassed and their rights aren’t holding up in the eyes of the police. It is completely legal and police officers take advantage of doing that. Police officers think they are above the law until they get caught.
In 2015 the police killed 346 black people. If you are African American you are three times more likely to get killed by police than white people. Where you choose to live also matters because you are seven times more likely to be killed by police in Oklahoma then in Georgia. Fewer than one in three black people in America this year were suspected of a violent crime and allegedly armed. Sixty-nine percent of those crimes were nonviolent crimes and thirty-one percent were violent crimes. In 2015 police killed 1307 civilians, in 2016 there was 1152 killed.
So far this year more than 280 have already been killed (https://copcrisis. com/). Often cases don’t always end in murder by the police. Those are the cases that get a lot of attention from the media. Racial profiling and police brutality have become such a huge problem in the United States recently. Racial profiling can happen to anyone, Rich or poor. A famous rapper by the name of Wyclef Jean claims he was arrested for absolutely nothing in a case of “mistaken identity. ” Wyclef said he might sue and wants an investigation into police racial profiling.
Jean, 47, posted video of the incident on social media showing him in handcuffs beside a marked cruiser blocks from where cops say an armed street robbery unfolded minutes earlier in West Hollywood. The video quickly went viral, racking up more than 20,000 views on Instagram. spokeswoman Melanie A. Bonvicino said, “(Jean) citation was subject to police brutality, racial profiling, police bias and the ongoing discriminatory practices of law enforcement officials which remain rampant throughout the United States and for which the LA Sheriff’s office is deeming a case of mistaken identity. She said Jean wants a “formal investigation into racial profiling” by local Haitian bandana Matter “to join him in defense of civil liberties. ” According to police, the artist fit the vague description of the real suspect, and the vehicle he was traveling in also matched the suspect’s vehicle. The LA County Sheriff’s Department later apologized for the mix-up but said the stop was within guidelines as they pursued the real “dangerous” subiects involved in the crime.
A police sheriff released a statement saying “It is unfortunate that Mr. Jean was detained for six minutes during this investigation, as he had no involvement whatsoever in this violent crime”(www. nydailynews. com). This case is a perfect example of racial profiling and police brutality. In this case not only is racial profiling being done but they also humiliated Wyclef by taking off his Haitian bandana. The fact that they were just trying to do their job and catch the real suspect but instead humiliate a man like that in public and on social media there should be consequences for such an incident.
Data from sixty qualitative interviews reveal the presence of racial tensions in 21st-century United States. Black participants expressed experiencing racial prejudice while operating automobiles. Specifically, White participants reported instances of profiling, where they witnessed Black drivers pulled over by police officers, although no traffic violation occurred. Two themes emerged for Black participants: (a) fear that they would be pulled over, and (b) motivation to “survive” the law enforcement encounter. Participants’ experiences insinuate a continued racial tension between Black citizens and White law enforcement officers.
While the United States has made valuable strides, we still have prejudices to overcome. This data shows that not only African Americans witness this happen. White Americans witness this happening and they know it is going on. They don’t have the power to stop it so the most they can do is just watch. (http:// www. tandfonline. com/) (Gina Castle Bell, Mark C. Hopson, Richard Craig, Nicholas W. Robinson-researchers in different colleges). The family of a young African American who was killed by police filed a federal wrongful-death by police in Pasadena, California.
This case is similar to the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida because they both were black and unarmed. The events of that night are very suspicious According to police, a dispatch her received a 911 call around 11 p. m. from Oscar Carrillo, who said that two black men were wearing black sweaters had stolen his computer and backpack from his car, and that one of them “put a gun in my face right now. ” Carrillo told the dispatcher they split up. The officers caught up with two black males in a alley way, the police claimed that young McDade reached for his waistband and they opened fire hitting him several times.
McDade died later at the hospital and no weapon of any kind was ever found on him. The officers didn’t take the right measures and didn’t follow protocol. This incident occurred over five years ago but this shows that this is always going to happen unless the United States government solves this problem because at this pace they are going to have more problems than ever inside the United States with urban communities and the police. The McDade family just wanted justice served and they didn’t get it. Stanford researchers analyzed four million traffic stop in North Carolina.
They found that police in that state are more like to stop and search African Americans and Latino Americans than White and Asian Americans. In North Carolina, both statistical tests provided strong evidence of unfounded racial discrimination. Police searched 5. 4 percent of Blacks and 4. 1 percent of the Hispanics they pulled over, but only 3. 1 percent of Whites. In many cities and towns, however, searches of Blacks and Hispanics were actually less likely to uncover contraband than searches of Whites.
Professor Goel said, “We hope our results spur further investigation into allegations of police discrimination, and help improve public policy. ” (Edmund Andrews) author (news. stanford. edu) Stanford researchers have developed a new statistical measure of racial profiling in traffic stops, which they are applying to data collected from many states. (Image credit: Thomas Hawk / Creative Commons) This matter is being researched by one of the best university in the United States but yet it’s still not solved for what reason?
This issue is getting worse and worse every year and people are begging to fight back. Five police officers were killed in Dallas, Texas. The man went out purposely to kill white cops. The ambush started with gunshots that killed five officers and sent screaming crowds scrambling for cover. It ended when a Dallas police bomb squad robot killed a gunman after negotiations failed. Investigators identified the dead attacker as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, a military veteran who’d served in Afghanistan. Police searched his house and found bomb making materials and rifles.
This is what will happen in the United States unless this issue is solved. One way it will able to get solved is by police using cameras on their uniforms so they are monitored on the clock. That will stop the police officers from discriminating against minorities and abusing them. When that happens people will stop fighting back against the police and we can finally put an end to racial profiling and police brutality. After that we can put our focus into more issues and try to solve those within our country and beyond.