Detroit has also joined Los Angeles and Chicago in having such a regulation. A similar bill was attempted unsuccessfully thus far in Texas (2001). Responding to the concerns of organizations that represent Hispanics, Muslims and individuals of Arab descent, the Detroit City Council unanimously recently approved an ordinance that prohibits city officials from profiling people based on their appearance, race and similar factors. The regulation also bans city officials from asking the immigration status of people who have not participated in a serious crime. The city says that it is against the harassment of individuals who are Detroit residents or who come to Detroit, based on their physical appearance (Kruppa, 2007, B5). Ordinance exceptions for police investigations of active crimes are if the immigration status is relevant and in the assistance of federal investigations of terrorism.
Overall, changes in the law have been slow in coming -- especially on the national level. In 2004, the End Racial Profiling Act of 2004 (ERPA) was introduced in the U.S. Congress. Launched with bipartisan support in the House (H.R. 3847) and the Senate (S. 2132), if passed the legislation would have curbed profiling by law enforcement officials on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or national origin. Prior to 9/11, efforts were supported to combat racial profiling that predominantly targeted blacks and Latinos. Unfortunately, this practice has become even wider since the terrorist attacks (Library of Congress).
The act on the Department of Justice's 2003 guidelines that prohibit racial profiling. Approximately two dozen states have adopted similar initiatives. ERPA would input an all-purpose ban on profiling that is based on race, religion, ethnicity or national origin by federal, state or local law enforcement. House by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced the legislation. ERPA would define racial profiling, as well as implement statistical collection systems that identified and tracked racial profiling that would help repair strained relations between police and minority communities. The difficulty again with such laws is the concern of security vs. civil rights.
It does not appear that problems such as racial profiling will be eliminated soon, especially with the concern of terrorism....
Racial profiling is not new, however, and was a theory of sociology in the late 19th century known as Social Darwinism. Incorrectly using Darwin's theory of evolution, the Social Darwinists believed that some species were morally superior to others, and even some races superior to othersJohnson () Public perception, though, believes in favor of seeing race as a reason for crime, and having a considerable fear of anyone outside their own
Racial Profiling Since 911 The racial profiling implies the discrimination by police to detail a person as suspect basing on the racial manifestations. In the present days the process of racial profiling has changed to a great extent. (Harris, 58) The racial profiling, till the present period was indicated towards the practice of police dragging over the black male drivers discriminately on the empirically valid but morally denounced hypothesis that they
Racial Profiling When discussing law enforcement and crime prevention, one inevitably hits up against a philosophical impasse -- the rights and freedoms of the individual are inherently at odds with the purpose of the government which has its interest in controlling their actions. As law enforcement becomes increasingly tough-minded, it is increasingly true that the rights of the innocent must be sacrificed along with the rights of the guilty. So those
As such, the question of fairness is not easily decided. Yet, we see that the Supreme Court has upheld racial profiling if used as a complementary technique. The American people as well support the utilitarian view that racial profiling is fair when evaluated in the context of all stakeholders, even if it seems unfair to a small few. The philosophical outlook of some may lead them to label racial
In addition the author suggests that the relationship between police and racial minority citizens has throughout history been controversial, and argues that racial profiling is simply a method by which police agents can perpetuate discrimination and prejudice (Bass, 2001). Mcleod (2003) examines the viewpoint that the problem with racial profiling is that it unmistakable identifies a certain portion of the population as 'them' and pairs that description against 'we' suggesting that
For the past several decades the emphasis in policing has been building trust in the community. Making the streets safe for everyone requires mutual cooperation between the general public and the police. Without community support, the police cannot do it alone. In this regard, respect as been shown to be a better tool for decreasing crime than fear and when fear is present residents tend to avoid contact with
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now