The Pros And Cons Of Racial Profiling

Stereotyping and discrimination based simply on a difference in race are two things which are continually discouraged and condemned throughout our legal system, yet are promoted by even the Supreme Court when used by law enforcement in the practice of racial profiling. Police officers nationwide badger pedestrians, make traffic stops, and unjustly search citizens daily sometimes with their only reason being the color of the person 's skin. It is this practice, racial profiling, which encourages law enforcement officials to discriminate against the very citizens they are hired to protect and to be suspicious of all people that might fit the "drug courier" profile. Basically, when applied to the police 's practice or racial profiling, this means that
Recently, many Americans have called out, asking for an end to racial profiling and saying that they no longer trust police officers. Senators Russ Feingold, Jon Corzine, and Hillary Clinton along with Representative John Conyers have introduced S. 989/H.R. 2074 as the "End Racial Profiling Act of 2001." This law would, among other things, concretely define racial profiling and make it illegal, give victims the right to sue the violating police departments, and mandate, fund, and report the collection of traffic stops data by the Attorney General. Also proof of America 's distaste for racial profiling is a Reuters report in the New York Times on March 16, 1999, which states that "an overwhelming majority of people fear and distrust police," and that only a quarter of New Yorkers feel that police treat blacks and whites evenly. This report came in the wake of the police murder of Amadou Diallo, a New York man shot 42 times in front of his apartment by police looking for a robbery suspect. Diallo was not the suspect and he was unarmed, (New York Times,