Police Profiling - Term Paper Example

It can be remembered that several activists, especially college students, participated in mass protests against racial discrimination i.e. in the early 1960’s, with people such as Martin Luther King, Junior coming into the limelight (Erlich & Susan, 2000). In the process of conducting these protests, civilians, mostly whites, embarked on a mission to disrupt through violence and intimidation whereby protestors were beaten to death. Instead of performing their national duties to protect these citizens, the police at that time instead connived with the vigilantes to suppress the blacks, most notably by escorting the buses carrying protestors only to lead and leave them in the hands of vigilantes (Erlich & Susan, 2000).

Driving while black in the US is a terminology which emanated from the practice of state police harassing black motorists without any legal basis (Meeks, 2002). In this context, black citizens are always suspected to be criminals and it is the perception of most officers that the car being driven by them is either stolen or the occupants are on a mission to commit crime. In San Diego 1997, a Shawn Lee was arrested and detained for more than an hour on the basis that he was driving a vehicle, which, perceivably, did not befit his status as it was an expensive Jeep.

In his statement, the arresting officer defended himself by implying that he was acting on information the police had of a similar vehicle which had allegedly been stolen the previous night, which of course turned out to be a lie (Meeks, 2002). The issue of immigration in the modern America has also promoted police profiling against Americans of Hispanic origin. This is due to the perception that the society has against these people whereby they are viewed as potential illegal immigrants, who are out to disrupt peace in the country by the virtue of numerous criminal activities associated with countries such as Mexico, which include and not limited to drug trade, involvement in criminal gang activities among others.

In this context, a person of Hispanic origin has higher chances of being stopped and questioned by highway police on suspicion that he could be in the country illegally. In 1997 for example, an operation conducted by the US border patrol in conjunction with Chandler Police resulted to the arrest of approximately 430 illegal immigrants. However, more than 200 legal US citizens of Hispanic origin were arrested in the process, an action which resulted to the suing of the authorities, who were made by the courts to pay $400000 as compensation to the victims (O’Reilly, 2002).

Similarly, the September 11 attacks on the US left the country in a state of phobia against people of the Middle Eastern origin (Holbert, 2004). This is due to the reason that the attacks were perpetrated by terrorists i.e. al-Qaida, which is an Arab dominated criminal network. Therefore, the police will always have a predetermined mind that whenever they encounter such people, there is a high possibility that they could be associated with the terrorist group and therefore it is a must for them to act more vigilantly towards them as opposed to the other Americans.

According to supporters of this profiling, this is a measure to ensure that the security of the citizens is protected from possible threats especially if it is conducted efficiently in all points of entry into the country. On the other hand, critics view it as unnecessary and