Police: Racial Profiling in America

jurisprudence squash racial PROFILING IN AMERICA Naomi D. Hopkins Stevens-Henager College APP 101 9 February 2013 addict This paper allow for discuss the relationship between Fear and how it relates to racial Profiling in legal philosophy Practices. We will also discuss and dilate real life examples under which racial Profiling has occurred and how it is scientific eithery defined. The conversation between peace officers and ordinary everyday citizens will also be examined. constabulary racial Profiling in America The issue of Racial Profiling in America by our police force Force is an undeniable truth and tragedy.Steve Holbert and Lisa Rose in their hand the color of Guilt & white recount a story of a Caucasian woman who is pressure to walk al angiotensin converting enzyme with her young daughter down deplorable un cognise San Francisco streets at nighttime in the dark. Well c wholly this woman Lisa. She had just exited a train car with her young daughter and was wal king down the dark streets unsure of her environs when she noniced that a stranger man, whose features she couldnt pay out, was following her and her daughter.Lisa had fancyd and seen reports approximately a young man in his mid-20s that was dark complected and had been robbing tourists. She felt her torso tighten as she began breathing quick and she had quickened her pace pulling her daughter along without realizing it, until her daughter started pulling her in the opposite direction because she had dropped her enduredy cle atomic number 18 that she had gotten from the cable car employee preceding that evening. After her do it in the city, she began to question whether the irrational fear of monsters conjured up in the mind of a four year old was so different from the monsters in the closet we perceive as adults, the only going away being that the monsters we see as adults pitch a casing and the face is of those who are different or those whose skin color is darker th an our own. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). This begs the question, Did she fear this man because it was nighttime and she couldnt see him and was unsure of her surroundings?Or was it because the man following her reminded her of that minority man who had been on the intelligence activity who was robbing tourists? This brings to mind an separate quote I entrap while paternity this paper Rather, racial write is more about our human solution to an instinctual and primitive fear buried deep in each genius of us. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004) On the subject of Fear and Racism, Im led to another quote in the book used in general for my research on this very subject as it relates to American truth Enforcement practices. When we ponder the concept of fear in the comfort of a classroom, just about all would agree that to fear a person because of skin color, apparitional affiliation, or appearance is irrational. In the phobic sense, this fear is xenophobia, the fear and/or hatred of foreig ners or anything that is foreign. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). I would even go so far as to secern that contempt prior to investigating is in itself, a form or fear and intolerance. How can we tag a situation, let al single a person, accurately without all the facts?Do we assume we are Gods or Goddesses that are worthy to judge our fashion plate men or women? If so, what traces us so different, or dare I say, Superior to another? I am reminded of my own feelings, when as a small child I made the decision to say that all white people are racist. This statement in and of itself is in fact, a form or racial profiling. That is, I was judging a veritable race of people, in this guinea pig, whites and assuming that I had gathered enough culture to do so.This brings me to another quote out of my research, To understand the complexities of prejudice, racism, and racial profiling, we must(prenominal)iness first explore the origin of fear and understand how it can order the way in which our body responds to outside stimuli long before we sire consciously aware of the racial implications. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). In fact, the intelligence fear comes from the old English word for danger. When we, as human beings, experience fear our brains respond to perceived danger by using troika distinct systems.The first is look toed immemorial or Primitive fear system, and is found in most animals and mammals. This system responds first by alerting the body to any danger. This reaction is automatic and triggers our fight or flight response. The abet is triggered by the fight or flight response and is the minds Rational or logical fear system. This system takes everywhere in an effort to assess the strength danger and weighs options for survival or escape. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). This system effectively plans possibilities we need to consider to escape an spry or future threat.The third system is called a persons Consciousness or Awareness, and acts as a m ediator between Primal Fear and Rational Thought. This system will strike a poise between the minds emotion and reason and will decease the ultimate decision maker in the entire process. Now, lets examine some history on racial profiling that is truly quite interesting. This thought brings me to another quote I pulled out of this book I used to research this topic/ Start with a profound idea. Test it thoroughly, and use it with care.Put it in the hands of those who dont fix the experience and training to apply it properly. Add a little secretion and pressure, and turn up the heat for 20 years. What do you start up? Racial Profiling. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). In a nutshell, this is the story of Howard Teten, a former FBI Chief of research in the late 1950s who many criminologists recognition with popularizing the concept of barbarous profiling. A man who lived the best of both worlds, Mr. Teten canvas psychology at the University of California at Berkeley while take sha peing offensive activity persuasions in San Leandro, California.Back in the 1950s, cops typically looked for clues at a crime scene to try to tie the crime to a particular suspect. Teten took this concept one step further by looking at the manner in which the criminal committed the crime in order to develop a psychological profile. This profile ultimately helped officers identify a criminals personality traits and mental state and led to a classification of potential suspects who could subscribe committed the crime. (Holbert S Rose, L 2004). This very method, which is called criminal profiling, has been widely distorted, especially when it comes to the United States War on Drugs. For example, it is assumed that if a person, particularly a person belonging to a minority company (that is not white or Caucasian), is seen wearing gold jewelry that is braggy in size, a corn roll hair style, baggy clothes, and possibly gold teeth, impartiality Enforcement Officials automatically a ssume that this individual is a medicate courier, or an individual that smuggles drugs or money into or out of the country. It can be said that a persons appearance, jewelry, and travel habits can be used as a basis for identifying and prosecuting those involved in the drug trade. The end get out of these discriminatory attitudes is that these profiles do not license well-behaved science or offer sensible approaches to productive Law Enforcement procedures. Now, lets examine the other side of the coin, as it were as it relates to basic race relations. When we all think of a legal philosophy officer, we all have this stereotypical view that they are tough, intimidating, and very arrogant. In actuality, police force officers have learned their very behavior and personality traits from the general public. nigh people, when contacted by a police officer, become irritated, hostile, overbearing, and even belligerent.So, in turn, officers have learned how to desensitize or become num b to their emotions and feelings. It wouldnt be a far cry to say that they have learned to stick out as not human just so that they can get through their day without having to worry about what they said, was it rude, decently or wrong, what the repercussions index be, and so on. So it is accurate to say that the general public ourselves, have contributed to the attitudes and behaviors of our own Police Force in America. What we dont hear about or realize often times is that when an officer goes on duty, he or she faces any mo of different variables.For example, having a flatulence pulled on them, being attacked, being shot, taken hostage, being kidnapped, and any number of other things that would threaten or endanger their lives either mortally or fatally. I will illustrate an example of what ought to be advertised when hiring police officers WANTED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS Must be a social worker, mediator, a fighter, a priest. Must be savvy to the criminal element up to now have an unblemished criminal background. Candidates should be human yet distant. f ripeen yet gentle. Aggressive yet always in control. Daily guess of death.Low Pay. Must be willing to work all hours of the day and night in hazardous and extreme conditions. The low-cal of Heart need not apply. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004) WANTED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS Must be a social worker, mediator, a fighter, a priest. Must be savvy to the criminal element yet have an unblemished criminal background. Candidates should be compassionate yet distant. Intimidating yet gentle. Aggressive yet always in control. Daily risk of death. Low Pay. Must be willing to work all hours of the day and night in hazardous and extreme conditions. The Faint of Heart need not apply. Holbert, S Rose, L 2004) Realizing these facts, we all ought to be a little gentler with the officer next time we are pulled over for speeding or contacted about a conflict resolution issue. Police Officers deserve respect, but they also do not have the right to demand respect, and it is the same with the rest of us. That being said, when we think of use of force by police officers, we all know the familiar image conjured up the Rodney King beating on March 3 1991. In case youre wondering, the case went to trial and all of the officers involved were NOT convicted. The result was the L.A. Riots of 1992. When we think of this case, we wonder, what could have gone so wrong in our evaluator system? The answer is not as clear as one might speculate. The code of silence is as much to blame as ignorant and wrong attitudes are to blame. The Code of Silence also known as The Blue Wall of Silence is based on the stick in that an officer does not reveal negative information about a fellow police officer. (Holbert, S Rose, L 2004). I can back out an experience I had in California with an officer who responded to a call about me when I was homeless and sleeping in my vehicle.The officer responded alone, without backup, and c ontacted myself and ii friends of mine. He falsely accused us of smoking weed, arrested my friend for a warrant she had, shined his flashlight deliberately in my face, and pulled his Taser on me when I reacted unfavorably to his bullying behavior. I then had to demand that he call his abide by Commander, or Supervisor out to the field to discuss what happened and what I cute done about his misconduct. I told the Watch Commander that I cute an apology, both written and verbal, but to my dis may, he responded and told me, Im high-risk maam I cannot do that.If I promise to prattle to him about this chance, will you refrain from reporting it? I was appalled to say the least. I later had to go through the channels to report this incident at the Police Department in person, but this is a height real-life example of The Code of Silence in action. How many times has this happened to other citizens, but for whatever reason, they are too afraid or fright to report such misconduct. If we as a society wish our Police Force to be more accountable, we must take the action to make sure that happens. Otherwise, we are just birds preaching to a choir with deaf ears.The sad fact is that many Police Departments still retain the right to police themselves on such issues of misconduct and use of force incidents. This is the important reason that the officers involved in the Rodney King beating of 1991 were cleared of guilt. frontmost of all, to even file a complaint against a police officer, citizens must endure a lengthy and time consuming process that involves appearing in person at the police department, then weeding through the strike and intimidation of even telling a department employee or selection out a report about the alleged incident, and sometimes are refused and intimidated out of that process.Second and most important, even after all that flurry has been endured by the complainant, little or nothing is ever done about the problem other than to refe r it to the Internal Affairs Division of the police department and they in themselves have their own policies and procedures which may or may not include final review by the Chief of Police and even then, the issue may not be resolved to the contentment of the complainant. In conclusion, I have learned it is sometimes better to dissolve arrogant and racist comments by officers unless I have the time to place to a complaint and investigation process.Ill end with this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the mean(a) words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. (King Jr. , Martin Luther 1963) References Holbert, S Rose, L (2004) the color of GUILT & INNOCENCE RACIAL PROFILING AND POLICE PRACTICES IN AMERICA King Jr. , Martin Luther (1963) letter from Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963 Retrieved from www. history1900sabout. com/od/martinlutherkingjr/a/mlkquotes. htm