Police Corruption and Ethnicity

Police Corruption and Ethnicity
Gretchen Conwell
CJA/344
Stephen Humphries

On July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a Harvard professor was returning home from a trip to the Republic of China. Exiting the rented limousine the University provided from him, he approached the front door to his home. While struggling with the door trying to gain entrance to his home his driver proceeded to help by trying to force the door open. Police that were in the area proceeded to arrest Gates and spurned an investigation into police racial profiling and corruption toward minority groups alike (Staples, 2011). While a person would like to think the police treat everyone the same, regardless of their ethnicity or race, police corruption occurs more often within these communities than what may believed. Perhaps, previous notions or ideals of a certain race or ethnic group can be the blame for officer’s perceptions of said group, however, corruption need not be utilized within law enforcement at all; especially in those groups that are the minority. It would seem that however diverse this country becomes, police corruption and ill treatment of minorities still persist. One such example is in the form of a LAPD police officer who was found to have been employing racial profiling when conducting traffic stops. This officer would stop any Latinos and ticket them because of their ethnicity (Rubin, 2012). An internal probe into this investigation only proved that the officer did indeed stop Latinos for traffic stops because of their ethnic background. However, because of instances such as this many minority groups have a mistrust of the police and continue to believe police corruption is prevalent only within minority groups and the officers that serve that community. A study that was performed by Menjivar & Bejarano (2004), speaks of Latinos perceptions of crime and police authorities with minorities in the United States. In this study there are documented cases of police corruption within ethnic and minority groups; particularly in this case, Latinos. It is documented there is a mistrust of the police within these communities and the feeling of being on their own in terms of law enforcement issues. Because of this mistrust, minorities are more likely to not seek out help from the police if needed and rather seek out help within the community in which they reside. This study concluded that racial profiling is a direct result of bias against minorities in a majority-White public (police). The question a person may ask is “Why do many minority communities experience rage at certain police search and seizure practices involving their community members?” This question is answered best by Taslitz (2003) who states “because the police act in ways that make minority communities feel disrespected.” Not only does the corruption that some police utilize aim at minorities, but also because of the corruption the minority communities garner a mistrust and lack of respect for the police in their communities. In an article written by Taslitz (2003), it speaks of the lowest level of trust in the police to belong to young African American males with young Latinos pulling in a close second. Racial profiling does nothing to dispel the myths of African American males and Latinos in a predominately White public. The conclusion of this article is that police corruption within ethnic groups did and continues to exist. With documented cases of police corruption within the Black community as well as Latino communities; there is mistrust and lack of respect among these groups with the police. But more importantly, a lack of community, cooperation, and security with the police within these groups is perhaps the most damaging relationship to repair. Perhaps time will tell and the persistence will not continue if the police can be “color-blind” to the fact of just how diverse this country has become.

Reference
Menjivar, C., & Bejarano, C. (2004). Latino immigrant’s perceptions of crime and police authorities in the United States: A case study from the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 27(1), 120-148, 29.
Rubin, J. (2012). LAPD Officer Profiled Latinos in Traffic Stops, internal probe concludes. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 8, 2012, from http://article.latimes.com
Staples, R. (2011). White Power, Black Crime, and Racial Politics. Black Scholar, 41(4), 31.
Taslitz, A. E. (2003). Respect and the Fourth Amendment. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 94(1), 15.