Why they were in the neighborhood

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Reference no: EM133764648

Case: Racial profiling is defined as "the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense." It sucks to say that racial profiling is still common practice in many places. It is just disguised as attempting to do what is right. For instance, the Supreme Court case Whren v. United States is the perfect example of officers getting away with racial profiling and disguising it as a traffic stop. I agree that the officers had probable cause to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation, and finding drugs during their stop was a win for them because their assumptions were correct. However, the stop only happened because of where the undercovered officers were. More than likely, two undercover officers canvasing a neighborhood would not worry themselves with a car running a stop sign. Considering the race of the people in the car, their neighborhood, and why they were in the neighborhood, the officers profiled the driver and passenger. They used a traffic violation as a reason to search a vehicle that otherwise wouldn''t have been searched.

Mark
Racial profiling has been around for a long time especially in the court systems. The Racial Justice Act was passed in 2009 and amended in 2012. It is one of two such statutes in the nation, allows death row inmates to present evidence that race was a significant factor in the capital sentencing process, (Racial Profiling Court Cases, n.d.). When it comes to African Americans 41 percent of them think they have been stopped or detained by the police because of their race. The use of the word racial profiling is used by mostly law enforcement, and it is targeting individual''s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Racial profiling is very huge in the United States. Racial profiling sends the dehumanizing message to our citizens that they are judged by the color of their skin and harms the criminal justice system by eviscerating the trust that is necessary if law enforcement is to effectively protect our communities, (Taking Steps to Ban Racial Profiling: Due to the Seriousness of Racial Profiling, the Justice Department Has Developed Guidelines to Make Clear That It Is Prohibited in Federal Law Enforcement, 2003). According to an article by ACLU in 2009, racial profiling is running rampant through the United States. Racial profiling is not just in African Americans, according to ACLU, in 2003, 13,740 foreign nationals were placed in some sort of deportation services, but none were charged with any type of terrorism.

Even though you can tell by reading this, racial profiling is a big thing, but can it be a good thing in protecting ourselves and others? Racial profiling is patently illegal, violating the U.S. Constitution's core promises of equal protection under the law to all and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. It is against our constitution to racially profile and should be frowned upon if used.

According to Whren vs. United States when the police officers that were narcotics officers, not patrol officers pulled a car over for a car for a simple traffic violation. With the police officers pulling over the car, they saw that the occupants had illegal drugs in their car. The occupants said the vehicle stop was not supported by probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion, that the defendants were engaged in illegal drug activity, (Pretext Traffic Stops: Whren v. United States | Office of Justice Programs, n.d.).

The Supreme court unanimously said that this was not about a simple traffic stop it was racially biased. There was no reason to follow the car for a prolonged period of time and wait for it to make a simple violation to pull them over. Even though the occupants had illegal drugs in their car, it should not have been pulled over just because the police officers wanted to. They had no probable cause to do so, and the stop should not have happened, so I agree with the Supreme court in their unanimous decision. This case was based off of racial profiling, most fundamentally, searches or arrests motivated by race are "unreasonable"
under the Fourth Amendment, (Washington, 2015).

Reference no: EM133764648

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