Preview

Stop and Frisk for Law

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1231 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Stop and Frisk for Law
Introduction
In America, police targeting black people for excessive and unwarranted search and seizure is a practice older than the Republic itself. Ethnicity and stop and frisk laws have called for the attention of the courts to determine whether it is an abuse of power and whether minorities are the majority when pertaining to stop and frisk laws. This research will focus on the effects ethnicity has on stop and frisks laws. Ethnicity and Stop and Frisk laws have become a topic of concern because it questions the constitutional right of the fourth amendment. Police Officers are said to abuse power given their authority to stop and frisk a person under the “reasonable suspicion” clause of the fourth amendment. This research will argue that reasonable suspicion is subject to personal interpretation of police officers and perjury may be involved. With that being said minorities of Black and Hispanic backgrounds are the targeted population for this course of action. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is charged with keeping the public safe by responding to more than 100,000 emergency service (911) calls per year. In addition to responding to 911 calls, the NYPD also conduct patrols by foot and car to ensure the public’s safety. Keeping New York City (NYC) safe is a vital mission of the NYPD. Most residents that reside in NYC appreciate the efforts of the NYPD in keeping their neighborhoods safe; however in conjunction with safety the residents of NYC should trust the police that patrol their neighborhoods. This trust is called into question regarding the highly debated stop and frisk program conducted by the NYPD. Throughout the years there has been expressions of contentment and uneasiness regarding the stop and frisk program. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg along with the NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly—and some residents of NYC—fully support the stop and frisk program and agree that it is an effective crime fighting tool and deterrent, while many


References: Harcourt, Bernard E. (2003). The shaping of chance: Actuarial models and criminal profiling at the turn of the twenty-first century. The University of Chicago Law Review, 70(1), 105-128. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214818818?accountid=27899 Jones, D. R. (2011, Sep 15-Sep 21, 2011). "Stop & frisk" - an abuse of police power. New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/896738696?accountid=27899 Lerner, C. S. (2006). Reasonable suspicion and mere hunches. Vanderbilt Law Review, 59(2), 405-473. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198950433?accountid=27899 Maclin, Tracey. (1998). Race and the fourth amendment. Vanderbilt Law Review, 51(2), 333-393. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198902289?accountid=27899 Stop-and-frisk in new york city. (2012, Aug 9, 2012). New York Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1032720371?accountid=27899 Urbonya, Kathryn R. (2000). You can run--sometimes. ABA Journal, 86, 40. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194363388?accountid=27899 When police violate the constitution. (2013, Jan 26, 2013). New York Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1280204722?accountid=27899 Wilkins, Vicky M, & Brian N Williams. (2008). Black or blue: Racial profiling and representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 68(4), 654-664. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197175131?accountid=27899
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Police Discretion Analysis
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Police Discretion Analysis

    There have been ongoing debates about the guidelines for police officers when conducting discretionary searches. One police department that has been in the headlines for its practices of discretionary searches have been the New York City’s Police Department. New York City’s Stop and frisk policy allowed police officers to stop and search an individual on the street at their discretion based on suspicion of criminal activity. One of the most highly publicized cases of NYPD’s stop and frisk tactic was the 2014 death of Eric Garner in the hands of Staten Island Police Department. The Eric Garner’s case followed outpours from citizens calling for change in NYPD’s stop and frisk guidelines and other police departments as well. This week’s article…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Probable Cause And Frisk Essay
    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Probable Cause And Frisk Essay

    Numerous individuals have a vast misconstruing on the variations between Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion. Why is it important for people to understand the differences between these two important concepts? Understanding the differences between the two is essential on the grounds that one will result in a lawful search and the alternative will cause an unlawful search and seizure. As a quick definition, according to the textbook, Probable Cause is a law enforcement officer’s belief that supported by evidences and circumstances, that a crime has been, is being, or will be committed (Harr, Hess, Orthmann, & Kingsbury, 2015, p. 205). Whereas, Reasonable Suspicion can be considered to be more of an inclination a law enforcement officer will get (Harr, Hess, Orthmann, & Kingsbury, 2015, p. 237). Reasonable Suspicion is employed when conducting an investigative stop; conversely, Probably Cause is required to arrest or place a suspect into custody (Harr, Hess, Orthmann, & Kingsbury, 2015, p. 237). An officer must have both Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion to conduct a stop and frisk. Officers are taught this during their time in…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Power In New York City Police
    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Power In New York City Police

    “Stop-and-Frisk abuses corrode trust between the police and communities, which makes everyone less safe. I know people that get very scared when the police come around because he had been frisked a lot of times. Police officers also sometimes use physical force when frisking people. For example, if you are getting frisked and you try to resist, the police will sometimes use physical force on you because they may feel like you’re disobeying them. Stop and frisk is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment says “people have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Mayor Bloomberg and police say stop and frisk has helped New York reach a low crime rate. New York has the lowest crime rate among the nation’s biggest cities, said by the FBI. People call the stop and frisk practice racial discrimination. Aggressive stop-and-frisk practices are having a profound effect on individuals, groups and communities…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Racial Injustice By Richard Banks
    • 179 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Racial Injustice By Richard Banks

    Richard Banks wrote this law review which was published in 2001. Mr. Banks is a law professor at Stanford Law School and has published several articles on the subject of racial injustice. This article discusses how the use of race-based suspect descriptions disparately impacts innocent members of society that happen to share the same race as suspects. The author discusses how racial profiling has been condemned but law enforcement is using the practice of race-based suspect description without any scrutiny. This article specifically focuses on the impacts this practice is having on African Americans. Mr. Banks calls into question the colorblindness of the equal protection doctrine. He asserts that race-based suspect descriptions lead law enforcement…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Differences Between Civil Liberties And Minority Groups
    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page

    Differences Between Civil Liberties And Minority Groups

    Civil liberties and minority groups are putting pressure on police departments to remove racial and ethnic profiling in pedestrian and traffic stops, while police groups and some experts insist the complaints about the practice are exaggerated. African-Americans have long complained of traffic stops seemingly for "driving while black," and many -- including President Obama and Oprah Winfrey -- said recently they have felt profiled by store clerks for "shopping while black." Hispanics and Muslims also feel singled out as suspected immigration violators or terrorists. Two big law enforcement agencies -- the New York City Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which covers Phoenix -- are under court order to eliminate the…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Racial Profiling
    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Racial Profiling

    Summary: In “You Have the Right to Remain a Target of Racial Profiling,” syndicated columnist Eugene Robinson tries to impress upon his readers that racial profiling is still utilized by today’s police force. Mr. Robinson utilizes statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, to make his point. These statistics are taken from the Federal criminal justice system. Based on these statistics, he states that minorities (primarily blacks) are at least twice as likely to have their vehicle searched on a routine traffic stop. Mr. Robinson further points out the fact that minorities are statistically more likely to receive a citation, where whites are more likely to receive a verbal warning. Finally, Mr. Robinson…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Arguments Against Racial Profiling
    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Arguments Against Racial Profiling

    To prove the racial neutrality of policing, he refers to the data on crime rates and arrests by race. He claims “that higher levels of arrests and incarceration in the U.S. by ethnicity result substantially from higher levels of crime, not racial bias.”3 Johnson further relies on research on traffic stops that concludes that there are ethnic differences in driving behavior that explain higher stop rates for black drivers. He addresses the issue of equal hit rates among disproportionately targeted population by saying that this is a natural outcome of police “focusing on legitimately suspicious behavior.”4 Moreover, he argues that the restrictions on profiling will have an adverse effect on minority groups who experience higher rate of crimes. Therefore, Johnson concludes that racial profiling is a reasonable and effective practice in modern…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Arguments Against Racial Profiling In The United States
    • 216 Words
    • 1 Page

    Arguments Against Racial Profiling In The United States

    In the wake of unjust police brutality occurring throughout the United States, racial profiling has transpired into an even larger issue than previously perceived. It has led to the targeting of specific minority groups in order to counter terrorism and danger. One can easily manage to see why racial profiling is utilized. Many argue that the police may appear racist when making charges, but are actually being objective. Others believe that all information available in a case is necessary to come to a conclusion and unusual activity is most often associated with particular ethnic backgrounds. Lastly, some feel as though law enforcement officials have the mental capacity to exercise their own professional judgment. These arguments appear valid,…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Traffic Disparities And Racial Profiling
    • 140 Words
    • 1 Page

    Traffic Disparities And Racial Profiling

    The volatile issues that surrounds “racial profiling” has led police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic stops, especially for people of color. The controversy is supported by research that police officers may be racially biased in their decision making to stop someone. The article that was published in 2012 studies the consensus and conflict theories concerning racial disparities in the rate of police stops. The author suggested that both police deployment and race out of place arguments played a significant role in explaining the patterns of street stops, traffic stops, probable cause and consent searches.…

    • 140 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Police Misconduct Case Study
    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Police Misconduct Case Study

    The most prominent case for this is the numbers of wounded and killed minorities versus those of the wounded and killed white population. The systematic racial background of America plays a large part in today’s police misconduct. From the days of slavery to the civil rights movement to modern day, authority figures and minorities in this country have been against those whom have darker colors of skin. Referring to the disenfranchisement, stereotypes, and exploitations African-Americans have been subjected to in America historically. African Americans have been disenfranchised through…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Influence Of Community Policing
    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Influence Of Community Policing

    A controversial area in the United States law enforcement policy in recent years has been the practice of using racial profiling to attempt to identify or curb criminal activity. National Institute of Justice defines racial profiling by law enforcement as, “A practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Creating a profile about the kinds of people who commit certain types of crimes may lead officers to generalize about a particular group and act according to the generalization rather than specific behavior” (2013). While supporters of this practice believe that it is necessary, critics believe biased-based policing (racial-profiling) is a violation of civil rights and takes a heavy toll on police-community relations.…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Essay On Aggressive Policing
    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Essay On Aggressive Policing

    This paper deliberates the issue that has developed between minority communities and the local law enforcement. Gau and Brunson (2010) indicates that aggressive policing is used by police to control social disorder. However, this has created an uprooting with the relationship built between the police and their community. The other four articles discussed within the paper supports Gau’s statement by giving the reader statistical evidence of the damaging effects that have occurred over the years. This paper focuses on the most common form of aggressive policing that causes discrepancies within this nation. In terms of decreasing social order within communities, law enforcement mainly use the “stop-and-frisk” tactic.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Police Responsiveness
    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Police Responsiveness

    In this article, Richard J. Lundman and Robert L. Kaufman explore the racial discrimination that white officers possess when interacting with individuals of color. The authors present a study, arguing that African-Americans and other individuals of color are more likely to be stopped and pulled over by law enforcement in comparison to their white counterparts. Furthermore, the authors use statistical data and personal accounts from those individuals involved in police encounters to examine how police force harass individuals of color with little to any legitimate reason. Through surveys from individuals of color and logistic research, the author attempts to discover whether or not “Driving While Black” is a myth or an actual phenomenon. From the results discovered, the author concluded that police nationally make traffic stops more frequently of African-American male drivers and that African-American males and Hispanic individuals are less likely to report that law enforcement act justly during the traffic stop encounters. The author’s argument relates to my analytical essay entitled NWA: Disregard Tha Po-lice!, as it demonstrates the racialized motives that many police officers possess when interacting with individuals of color. In my essay, I argue that Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 critiques America’s aggressive and racially-motivated police force. This scholarly article provides statistical data, illustrating how the police force is more likely to stop a person of color in comparison to a white individual. In addition, the evidence found within this research exemplifies how many of these officers had little to any legitimate reason for stopping these individuals of color. These two pieces of literature relatively coincide as the display…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Argumentative
    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Argumentative

    New York City streets have become a target for minority. According to the Paul Butler in his article “Don’t antagonize those who could help”, if a citizen who thinks of police as the rough men who humiliated her grandson by throwing him against a wall when all he was doing was walking home from school, she is not going to be eager to help them (par4). As citizen of a free country witnessing such an act can have a lasting impression, of and individual who should be wearing their uniform proud and carrying out their duty in a respectable fashion. It is easier for one to turn a blind eye when the police come searching for information in their communities.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Racial Profiling in Florida
    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Racial Profiling in Florida

    A controversial topic in American Policing is the issue of racial profiling. Many people have different views when it comes to this subject matter. Many people believe that racial profiling is a myth or ploy and is ultimately nonexistent. Others feel that racial profiling does exist and is a key contributing factor that law enforcement officers use to determine whether to perform law enforcement. The topic of Racial Profiling has been passionately debated among citizens, law enforcement officials, policy makers, and legislators at various levels of government. These debates has led to a large number civil lawsuits nationwide, court-ordered data collection, investigations into certain law enforcement agencies, and the passing of various laws mandating cultural diversity training and prohibiting racial profiling practices in various law enforcement agencies. Still, the following questions have not been thoroughly answered: Are African-Americans and other ethnic groups stopped by police because they are more likely to have committed certain types of traffic violations? Is race a significant predictor of being “pulled over”, cited or search by police? Does law enforcement officials target motorists based on race? This research paper will emphatically prove that African-Americans and other ethnic groups are disproportionately cited for traffic violations more often than whites.…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More