No Officer, I m Not A Criminal - 1415 Words

Milton Gordon Mr. Hines Ela 11 Period 4 2/9/16 No Officer, I’m not a Criminal In the U.S, people are judged every day, whether it be by the way they look, talk, dress, or act. Humans are judgmental people who look for the faults in another. Race is one of these faults, and is a huge cause in civil rights violation. The dictionary defines racial profiling as, â€Å"the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense†. However, in reality, racial profiling is violating the civil rights of minorities and Muslims. According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) â€Å"Racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race,†¦show more content†¦Stolberg points out that racial profiling still continues even though it is against the law of the United States. While some may see this as a way of stopping crime, instead they are violating a person’s rights. An example of this is shown in the U.S today with Black Drivers. † Under the law, officers may not use race and ethnicity in making police decisions... They apply to routine operations, to investigations and to traffic stops.†(Stolberg).Stolberg takes note on the fact that this is not uncommon and in fact is used in the regular practices in some police officers decision making. According to the Bureau Justice Statistics, in the year 2008, Black drivers were three times as likely to be stopped as White drivers. These statistics show how people of color are more likely to be tagged as a person of interest to police. But what the officers do not understand is that they are violating someone’s fourth amendment. The fourth amendment puts a restriction on the power of the police to seize and search people, their property, and their homes. There are multiple cases in which a person of color has been profiled, and has had their rights violated by an officer of the law. An example being Samuel Dubose, an African American man who after being stopped by the Cincinnati Police, was fatally shot for trying to drive off when the cop tried to remove him from his car in 2015. Another being Sandra Bland, an African American woman who was arrested after a traffic