Racial Profiling
""Racial profiling" occurs when the police target someone for investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples of profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations ("driving while black") and the use of race to determine which motorists or pedestrians to search for contraband.
Racial profiling is prevalent in America. Despite the civil rights victories of 30 years ago, official racial prejudice is still reflected throughout the criminal justice system. For people of color in cities large and small across this nation, north and south, east and west, Jim Crow "justice" is alive and well.
Today skin color makes you a suspect in America. It makes you more likely to be stopped, more likely to be searched, and more likely to be arrested and imprisoned." (http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/profiling.htm)
This is something that is so prevalent amongst cops. As some of you may know, if you have read some of the other discussions I was a cop for a little over 2 years until I quit this past May. What I have found is that this is almost a joke, definately not taken seriously. The practice usually goes--find the "shit box" car or someone who is a minority and follow that car until they do something wrong to pull them over for. You are considered a good cop if you have high stats (arrest and tickets), not from what good you have done. I was a cop in NH and you can legally pull someone over for the stupiest things--example: having their plate light out. At night if you are behind someone your headlights will light up their reflective plate. There really isn't a need for a plate light. You can pull someone over for having a broken side mirror--claiming it is a "safety hazard." I have found if you follow anyone long enough you can find something to pull them over for.
There isn't a way to stop cops from doing these things because they will find a reason for the stop or the questioning. It is pretty pathetic and from what I see something that will always be.
I found my job consisted of ruining peoples lives, not helping them. It sucked. For the 2ish years I worked as a cop I can honestly say I felt I only truely helped ONE person.....
It'd be interesting to hear others views on racial profiling....
Racial profiling is prevalent in America. Despite the civil rights victories of 30 years ago, official racial prejudice is still reflected throughout the criminal justice system. For people of color in cities large and small across this nation, north and south, east and west, Jim Crow "justice" is alive and well.
Today skin color makes you a suspect in America. It makes you more likely to be stopped, more likely to be searched, and more likely to be arrested and imprisoned." (http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/profiling.htm)
This is something that is so prevalent amongst cops. As some of you may know, if you have read some of the other discussions I was a cop for a little over 2 years until I quit this past May. What I have found is that this is almost a joke, definately not taken seriously. The practice usually goes--find the "shit box" car or someone who is a minority and follow that car until they do something wrong to pull them over for. You are considered a good cop if you have high stats (arrest and tickets), not from what good you have done. I was a cop in NH and you can legally pull someone over for the stupiest things--example: having their plate light out. At night if you are behind someone your headlights will light up their reflective plate. There really isn't a need for a plate light. You can pull someone over for having a broken side mirror--claiming it is a "safety hazard." I have found if you follow anyone long enough you can find something to pull them over for.
There isn't a way to stop cops from doing these things because they will find a reason for the stop or the questioning. It is pretty pathetic and from what I see something that will always be.
I found my job consisted of ruining peoples lives, not helping them. It sucked. For the 2ish years I worked as a cop I can honestly say I felt I only truely helped ONE person.....
It'd be interesting to hear others views on racial profiling....
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lorene on -
I have a couple things to say about this topic. I work at a retail job and I can say that people of color are more likely to be targeted as a shop lifter. Maybe it just seems like people of color are shoplifting because they are the only ones people put under the microscope. I remember a Nautica manager said at a management meeting they were told to watch african american women with red hair because it was some status symbol of how much they could steal. It's ridiculous to think that...
On to cops. I have not had many run ins with law enforcement, thankfully, but I have been pulled over for speeding a few times. Whenever my husband (who is african american) is with me they always make him show them his ID so they can go scan it. I have never had a cop do that when anyone else is in my car. So one time my husband decided if it ever happen again he would say he didn't have it. When he said he didn't have the ID they made him give his social security number. Why is there no concern about my passenger if they are white?
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Permalink Reply by January.30.2008 on -
Well speaking from what I have been around the cops are going to ask your black husband for his ID because he is black and "he must have a warrant out for his arrest--and what an easy pinch this will be." Cops are one of the must stubborn people I have ever met, I can't see them ever not racial profiling or changing the way they think.
By them profiling and asking for IDs of non-drivers is just another way they can show their authority....and cops love power. It shouldn't be like this but a lot of cops put themselves so far above the rest of society. It's funny to think that some of them think the rules don't apply to them--for instance they may not be arrested for DWI but given a ride home by the same cop that just arrested another for DWI an hour earlier.
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Permalink Reply by Sirius on -
if have found that if you try to see something hard enough, you'll see it. if you were to watch any other person that closely, you'd notice that they seem to be shoplifting as well, just for the fact that you tried to find the slightest clue that they were.
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Permalink Reply by Xeranar on -
The ugly honest truth is that the human race is born to differentiate and then hate those who are different. It is built into every human being and overcoming it requires a life spent around diversity. Children of integrated neighborhoods tend to be the least race-minded of all people while those who grow up in largely single-ethnicity neighborhoods tend to be the most race-minded whether they intend to be or not.
I've spent my driving years behind the wheel of older police cruisers so I never had to deal with unwanted attention too often and if I did I used my family ties to make them go away. I still occasionally had to deal with the roving patrol police officer though and the one thing to remember is, they hate being a roving patrol officer. It is the worst duty to pull in a "real" police department (those who live in communities with less than a 100 police, they are more a ticket-giving squad of imbeciles, sorry.)
Nothing is going to change the way people act though until our society completely integrates. Then we can start hating each other on class lines again, where it makes sense atleast. By the end of my life the US will roughly be a third black, third white, and third hispanic. But most likely the poor whites will still live in rural areas while the poor black and hispanics will live in urban centers so the race discrimination will be able to continue on indefinitely.
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Permalink Reply by January.30.2008 on
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Xeranar, I never thought the day would come that I would agree with you on something....haha but I COMPLETELY agree (....and hell freezes over).
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Permalink Reply by The Other America on -
Some of the comments in this thread make it seem that some of you think "all" cops do this. I hope you dont think so as i know some cops, race is not a subject.
My only thing is...and its nothing against the poster, but being a cop for 2 years, i think you could have done a lot of good to go against the...norm i guess you could say. No matter how you see it, it would do a lot of good to do the opposite of what you are posting about in this thread.
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Permalink Reply by BSpot1 on -
This is the big problem with law enforcement in this country, especially because of the war on drugs and poor people. A whole generation of Americans have grown up to think police are a instruments of oppression instead of being there to serve and protect. Some say sever, protect and prevent but you can not prevent a victim less crime without braking the Constitution. Sry off topic. But when the poster says that their job was consistent with ruining people lives not helping, I believe this is the most Truthfull thing about American police.
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Permalink Reply by January.30.2008 on
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I don't want you to think all cops are like this. I have never once said in my posts ALL cops, I don't know all cops and I haven't dealt with all cops. In my experience though it is most cops.....
And about me trying to change the mentality and politics of the job...take a look at my reply to Lashel's post.
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Permalink Reply by Sirius on
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something else i've noticed. this is a topic that feeds off itself. if you ever think of the stereotypical african american (the type that people have come to see them as) you see a person who uses a lot of slang, carries a pistol everywhere, beats the crap out of people, shoplifts, lives in ghettos, etc. (i am by no means saying this is how they really are) this is unfortunate. and when one person feels that people of dark skin are truly like this, it influences others to think the same. finally, you get to a cop that sees black people in the same manner. he becomes suspicious of several and begins to keep a close eye on them. eventually, the cop will find a shoplifting african american. (if he had been watching white people just as closely, he would have eventually found one shoplifting as well). and because he found this shoplifting african american, it enforces the idea that all are like that. so the cop continues to pay closer attention to black people than he does white people, catching more shoplifting black people (since that's all he's following) and continuing to enforce the stereotypical view. a true shame.
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Permalink Reply by BSpot1 on
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" The practice usually goes--find the "shit box" " This could be the chapter title for of my first years driving in a biography about me. For when it turned 16 until I was 19 I was pulled over 17 times. Never once given a ticket or a warning. every time they would run the names of everybody in the car. I was pulled over twice in 20 minutes once. They turned there lights on in the same spot. I told the second cop that i was just pulled over, he called in to confirm it, asked if every body in the car was clear, then told me to be on my way. Never even gave me a reason why I was pulled over.
Anyone you that have read my page will know that I come from as poor a white family as you can get, at least in my town of 40,000. I truly believe that most of the time what people consider racial profiling, is actually classcial profiling. It just happens that most Blacks or Hispanics are poor. But every single example of profiling mentioned in this discussion has happened to me. Now im not saying all profiling is over class, but I think most of it is.
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Permalink Reply by Amber on -
I'm not going to say anything bad about the police.... I may have had some bad experiences with Police Officers, but I know from experience...they have helped me more than hurt me. In my hometown, they didn't do as much racial profiling as they do in Denver(where I am now). OVerall, I think the police help...maybe not all the time, but if you need them, they come(or they have for me)...
As for racial profiling, I know that almost everybody does this.... not just the police. When I worked at a place called "The Wizards Chest" the people we watched for shoplifitng, though, were judge based on how they looked.....clotheswise that is. If there was someone who looked like a stoner, we watched them like hawks.
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Permalink Reply by Lashel on -
It's good to hear that from a former cop, because while in my gut I have a near-rage reaction to the whole racial profiling thing, my brain -- always playing devil's advocate, whether I want it to or not -- replies "but the statistics seem to say there's a reason for it... more crime is indeed perpetrated by certain groups," blah, blah, blah. I know you can make statistics say basically anything you want, but there is a part of my brain that says, "it started from somewhere." Thanks for helping to lend my gut more credence. (I'd love to discuss this with you more!)
But why not continue to be a cop and change things from the inside? I'm sure by being a good person you helped more people than you realized. I've only ever had one really bad experience with law enforcement; surprisingly, the AZ police seem to be quite level-headed. But, then, perhaps that's 'cause I'm pale and blond-ish with light eyes and a stethoscope hanging around my neck. (Is there a form of profiling for people in the medical profession? Like are you more likely to be let off if it's found out you're in that field?)
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