Racial profileing is wrong under any circumstances - Research Paper Example

It involves policing activities based solely on the race, origin, ethnicity etc of individuals. These techniques target certain people based on their religion, color as well as beliefs. Racial profiling is a severe threat to the society as a whole and has the capability of resulting in serious violence and uprising in a community (Racial profiling: definition, Web). The act of racial profiling also poses a threat to the human rights of individuals. Therefore, several agencies all over the world are working to protect individuals from these practices.

Many agencies including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have realized the negative impacts on the society of racial profiling. Therefore, they have started considering racial profiling as a form of discrimination. A number of groups working under these agencies have started responding to such discriminatory practices by studying and collecting data, analyzing trends and then considering ways to overcome such acts in order to protect individual rights (Racial profiling: Civil liberties union, Web).

According to the United States Supreme Court, racial profiling is a form of violation of the constitution which requires equal opportunities as well as equal treatment of all. Due to the act of racial profiling, individuals are stopped or even searched based on their belonging to a particular origin or culture. It is used as a form of stereotyping which violates the basic premise of human rights ((Reality of racial profiling, Web). The use of such racial profiling techniques disrupts the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies and creates problems in creating a fair and just society as well.

Although this practice is unconstitutional, it has been observed that it is used in federal, local as well as state level in the United States. In US, studies conducted show that racial profiling is used by the enforcement agencies for street level crime, immigration law enforcement as well as counter terrorism. Empirical evidence shows that the police were twice as likely to arrest black drivers during a traffic stop as compared to white drivers. An example of racial profiling includes stop and frisk technique used in the Jackson.

An African-American student reported that he was followed and even questioned while walking to his grandmother`s house. The police threatened to arrest him along with other such individuals if they refused to co-operate for field interviews. Such acts related to racial profiling have been observed in the US. After the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, a counter-terrorism campaign continued throughout the country. This campaign was targeted against the Arabs of the Muslim countries who were blamed for carrying out these attacks.

Along with the Arabs, other communities including Sikhs and other people belonging to South Asia were also targeted. Although the federal government has denied such racial profiling acts, several federal programs have been found to be discriminatory. Several individuals presumed to be Arab Muslims were also targeted under such programs. Many individuals belonging to such communities were blamed for being connected to terrorist activity. Racial profiling is also prominent in cases of immigration law enforcement.

Several programs of the immigration and enforcement agency have been used by police to question as well as detain individuals. The Hispanic