Racial Profiling: Discrimination by the Law Research (Essay Sample)

RACIAL PROFILING
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In simple words, racial profiling can be described as a practice where there is discrimination by the law enforcement officials. It happens when individuals are targeted as suspects of crime based on their ethnicity, race religion or even the national origin. In most cases the criminal profiling is practiced by the police. Criminal profiling is a part of the racial profiling which can also be described as the associating a group of individual with certain crimes. An example of the racial profiling is the use of the race in determining the type of the drivers stopped for minor traffic violations. Commonly referred to as driving while black or brown. It can also be applied to use race in determining the pedestrians searched for illegal contraband. On the September 11th, 2001 attacks racial profiling was experienced whereby the Muslims, Arabs, and the South Asians were targeted for the detention of minor immigrants violations even though there was no relation to the attacks on the World Trade Center or well known as the Pentagon. (Bahdi, Marcuse & British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, (2010)
Law enforcement agents are the persons acting in the capacity of the policing either for public or the private purposes. The may include the security guards at the departmental store, police officers, airport security officials or even the pilots of airlines who have recently ordered the passengers to alight from that place flights since the passengers ‘ethnicity aroused the suspicion. The above-stated law enforcement agents have been on the top of the lists of those accused of the racial profiling.
The history of the racial profiling dates backs to the slavery. Back in 1963, the Philadelphia's courts officials gave legal authority to the police to stop and even detain any Negro either freed or enslaved that was seen wandering around the streets. This discriminatory practice of racial profiling continued through the era of Jim Crow. In the present century (twenty-first-century), racial profiling is still a prevalent issue especially in the cities across the United States. (Hirschmann, 2006). 
In 1996, a ruling was made in the U.S Supreme Court that the racial profiling is constitutional if there is absence data that similarly situate defendants of a different race was to be treated differently. Supporters of the racial profiling defend this practice by putting much emphasis on the control model. The claim that the practice is ideal and even efficient since it utilizes the laws of probability in determining one's criminality. The systems focus on controlling crime since it has a swift judgment that bestows full discretion o the police when it comes to handling whatever they perceive to be a threat to the society. (Jack Glaser. 2014)
The support and the use of the racial profiling have in the recent years risen mainly in the North America due to the heightened awareness and tensions that followed the events of 9/11. From this, the issue of the racial profiling created a debate that the centers on the values of equality and self-defense. Supporters of the racial profiling uphold Te stance that the sacrifices of any kind must be made in an effort of maintaining the national safety if even if it means differential treatment (racial profiling). According to a survey by Rasmussen done in 2011, the majority of Americans find racial profiling necessary in the society today. (Pampel, 2014). 
On the other hand, social profiling also has got criticism. The critic of the racial profiling always argues that there is a violation of individual rights of a suspect whenever race is a factor in the suspicion of the criminal activities. There civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that have stood by the voice that social profiling is a form of discrimination. They state so explicitly that discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion or even nationality or even another particular identity is a best described as undermining the fundamental human rights and freedoms entitled to every person. Conversely, those that oppose the policing tactics employ the teaching of the due process model. They argue that the minorities are subject to the unjust treatment since they are not guaranteed equal rights. They also argue that when there is singling out individuals by ethnicity, there is usually a violation of the Rule of Law. (Jack Glaser. 2014)
Racial profiling does not only occur in the streets but also in very many public institutions. However racial profiling is rampant in the law enforcement where this type of behavior risks the types of most of the innocent people. In most scholarly journals it has been stated that in the last thirty years, the use of the demographic and the racial profiling by the higher law enforcers and the local authorities are continuing to proceed with the police being cited as the users of the racial profiling more often.
The public opinion also signif...