Racial Profiling: A Career In Law Enforcement

Abstract
The topic that I chose to research and discuss was racial profiling. I felt that it was an appropriate topic because as an African American looking for a career in law enforcement I’m going to encounter these types of situations every day. In my in the following pages I hope to show you how law enforcement officer can either use this to as a positive tool or will it be a mean of abuse and racism. I will give you some history on where racial profiling was developed. Going through the “crack” era of New York City which was during the mid-1980s. At this time as we know there was a lot of drug activity which caused a major spike in the city’s violent crime rate. Assaults, robberies, and murders were at an all-time high due to turfs
Community policing is a philosophy that guides police management style and operational strategies. It emphasizes establishment of police-community partnerships and a problem-solving approach that is responsive to the needs of the community. So basically the police presence in the community will somehow not only protect the community, but to deter others from committing crimes. Now this seems like a perfect solution, but during the 1980’s to 1990’s racial tension was still brewing in the black communities. See the biggest problem was that African Americans did not feel comfortable with the police. In fact the presence of the police would in fact anger members of this community. Now why was this? I have few examples that would probably be appropriate for this
In my experience I grew up in two different environments. On one hand I grew up in an urban area where the crime rate was pretty high so police were always on edge. I lived in Asbury Park for about 10 years out of my life where there were robberies, drug dealing, murders, and numerous violent crimes. In neighborhoods like that it’s very easy to fall victim of some type of racial profiling. Once you have experienced something like this especially by the hands of person who is not only supposed to protect and serve and uphold the constitution it’s very difficult to trust the police. The point that I am trying to make is that racial profiling is not only immoral, but it is also a violation of someone’s constitutional rights. We as citizens are supposed to be protected under the highest law of the land and it’s a shame that almost every African-American male in this country who drives a vehicle has been the victim of racial profiling by law enforcement officials. African-American males are disproportionately targeted, stopped, and searched by law enforcement officials based on race and gender. Those responsible for enforcement of public laws view African-American males as criminals. Unfortunately, the American justice system has condoned, supported, and in some instances encouraged such actions by law enforcement officials to stop,