Race/Ethnicity in Modern Day Policing - Term Paper Example

? Race/Ethni in Modern Day Policing Introduction In modern and rapidly changing world, every government has to play a key role to provide peace and security to their people; particularly we can refer this as an ‘internal affairs’. Provision of universal fundamental rights to the entire citizen equally and maintenance of the same has become a very crucial task for the present day governments. As far as, the United States of America is concerned, its diverse composition of population with dissimilar race, ethnicity, religion and nationality has made it complicated to maintain the peace and security with simple general guidelines. This makes the fact clear, that the USA faces the security challenges, both from outside countries as well as with in the States too. In such cases, the administration is bound to design effective policies strengthening the potentiality of legal authority to facilitate them with capacity to scrutinize every anti–law activities. To bring such policies in action, the legal body of the state has to follow the varied patterns of programs based on several researches and investigations. That provides the approximate hint of the happening. That helps them detain the offender without harming any innocent; so that the chances of disturbing an individual liberty in avoided. However, such cautious investigation, sometimes, becomes bogus; if it’s the issue of involvement of many offenders and there is no clue of suspects. Such situations can be solved by doing a mass arrest; it may include a group of students, members of several gangs and ethnic or racial minority community. Other form of legal investigation include, man to man check by stopping the person for individual investigation; this also depends on the nature of the case and its history which gives a concrete shape to their suspicion which may point out a particular minority community or a community in general. As far as crime is concerned, the percentage of crime and violence record are high among the minorities, especially African-American in the USA. Thus, the diversion of suspicious investigation among these people is reasonable in certain cases. Stopping some one becomes necessary for the police when the circumstances are under suspense and tracing the offender is crucial. To combat all the above mentioned problems the role of law in any government is indispensable necessity. Now, let us discuss the role of law in detailed way. Role of law in a state Normally, it is said: role of law is to maintain peace and security in the country. However, this normal statement holds a lot of planning, policy making and execution of the same. Law is a success; when it really maintains the peace while providing security to the public. A minor mistake in its execution, may lead to unwanted loss of life. Every people in the country are normal citizen for law, unless they are detected for a crime. Therefore, execution of legal sanction to any community, especially minority ethnic or racial community, sometime, results in an anti-government revolt too. Therefore maintaining a peaceful environment in a state is critically, a sensitive responsibility in a country like the United States of America. As we have already discussed about USA’s critical factors of diversity. That has forced the legal system in the country to combat the internal violence since long time. Resultantly, the country’s legal system has been able to cite several criminal and anti-legal groups in the country. That made it easier for them to find out, the nature of the crime a particular group is expected to commit; making the police job easier to trace the suspect in a particular area. But the situation does not remain same all the time; the offender does not always leave the clues. In such situations, stopping people in the streets, airport or metro rail becomes other option to trace the suspect of particular category. ‘Particular category’ is taken very differently from a racial or ethnic discrimination by the police; they are supposed to prove the case before the court. Police needs the evidences; they consider the case as an intrinsic one. Since, the frequent involvement of minority people, especially, African- American in several, the police normally stops the suspected black people to avoid any kind of mischief. But it gives an impression of ethnic profiling in the USA. Accusations of racial profiling of visible minorities who accuse police of targeting them due to their ethnic background are a growing concern in Canada also. In 2005, the Kingston Police Service released the first study ever in Canada which pertains to racial profiling. The study focused on in the city of Kingston, a small city where most of the inhabitants are white. The study showed that black skinned people were 3.7 times more likely to be pulled over by police than white skinned people. (CBC News, 2005) Race/ethnicity and law Legal body of a country acts according to the administrative policies, designed to manage the legal system. There are several policies formulated with a view to provide legal justification to different communities of different race and ethnicity, as they follow different traits and culture as their fundamental rights. Certain communities have some kind of taboo; however the government has accepted some of those too. There are several reservation acts to give priority to minorities in certain fields like: education, sports, health etc. Hence, the law of a state is responsible to provide security to such rights of minorities. But the failure of the same, may give rise to an ethnic/racial violence, where the police requires putting strict sanction to resolve the issue; such legal sanctions are, sometimes, considered racial because of social misconceptions. Due to white people’s domination on blacks, over a long stretch of time in the history of the United States of America, the level of psychological tolerance among the blacks has become very much sensitive. Resultantly, there is always a cold war between the U.S. police and the minorities. Stopping someone on the basis of race/ethnicity in USA might be described as a symbolic effect of increasing involvement of minority members in crime and violence. There are no possibilities of involvement of a legal body, in a racially discriminated action, in a democratic country like USA which consist of the people from entire communities, regardless of any race, creed or religion. But the circumstances created over a long period of time have given shape to the very kind of legal action which seems to be discriminating. Purpose of stopping someone Stopping someone, may have different reasons behind it, which may include a search for a drug supplier, a murderer, a women trafficker or an illegal weapon supplier. Stopping someone for investigation is not a self motivated idea of a police personal to keep himself busy or discriminate the people on ethnic/ racial basis, but, it’s an execution of one of the investigative program, among many; which is regulated under the policy made by the legal body on the basis of concrete ideas of a research; if the research has come up with the sketch of a criminal, indicating, a tall African, an Indian or a Japanese, then obviously there is no reason to investigate a British or a White American; because, the search has become easier with the identification of the category of criminal. For motor vehicle searches also, there probability of a successful search is very similar across races. This suggests that police officers are not provoked by racial preferences but by the wish to maximize the probability of a successful search. Minority and anti-law activities The United States has fought a vicious struggle of poverty at home in the beginning of 19th centaury. Limited finance, disjointed local and national plans to fight inner-city scarcity and escalated police against African-American and immigrants from other countries at once, aided towards the birth of violence all over the United States, giving birth to several communal gangsters. For example: Bloods and Crips of Los Angeles. (Hayden. 2004) The gangs in the USA were formed, as a result of the poor socio-economic conditions and also due to the suppression of police on the black people. There were some parties formed in late 1960, for the welfare of the blacks; but the intention of the police to destroy the parties, led to the random arrest and torture upon blacks. Resultantly, less of African-American could get the proper education, increasing the black youth’s involvement in gang activities. There were job cuts for the African-American in most of the cities in the USA. The cheap laborers were being hired from Latin America to replace the African-Americans giving rise to the unemployment problem among them. More than 50% of African-American was unemployed in 1980s. Gangs were the better option for them to choose, in such situation. Along with above mentioned circumstances, the white supremacy was also one major cause to make the African-American more isolated. The increase in the social isolation of African-American resulted in higher rates of social violence across the USA. There were approximately 30,000 gangs with around 800,000 gang members active across the USA in 2007. Hispanics accounted for 47%, Blacks 34%, Whites 13%, and Asians 6 %.( Into the Abyss) The most famous and dangerous gangs belong to African-American community. These gangs started becoming social problem after the mass migration in 1910. Increment in such gang activities resulted in turning up of the uneducated and unemployed African-American members into the gang activities to find the protection from the then scenario, and perceptive environment. Great film maker, Martin Scorsese has successfully depicted the gang issues in his film ‘gangs of New York. As we can acknowledge from the given data, that the involvement of minorities in gang activities are higher; it relates directly to the social violence and anti-community tolerance. Therefore to resolve the same, the police require putting sanctions against such actions, in many different ways. That may include mass arrests, raids in certain area, direct investigation of regular offenders and stopping some one. Several law enforcement groups argue that the use of ethnic and racial profiling is both helpful and essential. The reason for the very kind of argument is made simply because, the concentration of crime is higher in large minority population; and ignoring the same for ethical honor would be totally unreasonable. Every one wants the law to be successful; but it requires rational and moral cooperation from the people from all the community, with out linking the steps of the police with race or ethnicity. To strengthen the police of a country, support from the government as well as the public is indispensable. ‘If success of law enforcement is defined as identifying and taking action against violators, then racial profiling would allow officers to be more effective’. ( Knowles.,Persico.2001). Race/ethnicity and New Jersey Court Due to the concentration of large number of minority population in the area, the New Jersey Court often faces several racial and ethnic cases. Since the minority pressure is high in the area, the court has to take every case as a critical one. An example of a case filed by an environmental pressure group regarding environmental racism: the case is against the government’s decision, to accumulate the solid waste from the factory in a wasteland near minority populated area in plaintiff, New Jersey. Several cases on human rights, racial and ethnic rights along with the cases on racial profiling have to be proceeded in New Jersey court. To obtain an absolute solution, out of racial and ethnic related issues, the court set a program called ‘National Consortium of Task Forces and Commissions on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts’. The objective of the program is to reach the core of the issue and find out the concrete evidences to avoid the racial and ethnic bias in the courts. To achieve the intended objective; the task force has set a functioning, so that their will be no more racial and ethnic injustice in the courts. It goes like this: ‘each state should consider several preliminary matters before establishing a task force or commission. Careful planning and a realistic assessment of the forces for and against a task force or commission proposal are critical first steps. The task force process is a long-term strategy for initiating needed reforms in the justice system. Many of the decisions made during the formative phases of the project will have a significant effect upon the research, reporting, and implementation phases. A well-planned initial strategy will provide the groundwork for success and will result in an effective and focused long-term project’. (Edna , Desiree, Leigh, Yolande, Lorraine, 1995) Race/ethnicity and U.S. Supreme Court The U.S. legal system embraced for over 70 years a system of state-sponsored racial separation in all the public sector. Blacks and other minorities were deprived of the voting right. After 1960, federal Civil Rights laws and Supreme Court decisions have sought to combat illegal unfairness based on race or ethnicity. By enacting Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments congress provided a great relief to the minorities. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and gave Congress the power to eliminate all ruins of instinctive Servitude. The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizens' protection from the actions of state and local officials based on equal Protection, due process, and the concept of Privileges and Immunities. The Fifteenth Amendment restricts the state governments rejecting the right to vote on the basis of color, race or ethnicity. In the 1960s, congress enacted a series of laws intending to end discrimination based on race and ethnicity: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.These laws were accepted by the Supreme Court. Civil Rights Act 2003 made Civil Rights Act of 1964 more effective and that is the most inclusive civil rights legislation in the history of USA. Though the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of positive action policy, however, the Supreme Court, held that higher education institutions may use race as one factor in evaluating applicants, but warned against the use of racial quotas or policies that give race, excessive importance in the selection process. So far, it is understood that the Supreme Court has taken vital steps in several occasions with a support of the congress to bring reforms in the system of minority discrimination. However, it required a gradual process of long stretch of time to accept the federal system and civil rights to the minorities. Besides the efforts from the government and legal bodies, an essence of discrimination still reflects in the country in several ways. The reason must be the race issue i.e. black and white. We talk about blacks and minorities; but forget majority and the whites. The problem of minority originated due to majority. Still there is white supremacy in the USA, because they show their majority due to their huge population and historical domination in the country; which makes the minority groups insecure and inferior. This is a problem, given birth by the attitude of “my-ness”, which has taken a big shape of racial discrimination. As, Sartre asserts: ‘it would be absurd to say that the world as it is known is known as mine. Yet this quality of “my-ness” in the world is a fugitive structure, always present, a structure which I live’. (Sartre, 1943) There is a proverb saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. What is the necessity of insecure and inferior people? And the answer would be: Defense! And implying the answer in action, would certainly give rise to social violence. Had not there been majority, there would not have been minority. Actually, the problem is not about the number of people, but the desire to secure their indigenous values permanently. The desire of supremacy in both majority and the minority has given birth to the racial discrimination. Conclusion Taking all the derivative outcomes of the arguments and discussions, it appears that, the modern day policing in the United States of America is effectively taking action against the offenders with proper planning initiated from the highly authentic policy makers of the legal system. It cannot be categorized as a racial or an ethnic discrimination when police are stopping someone with empirical facts and evidences. Stopping a black is not the mistake of the police it is the mistake of those blacks who are still following the system of violence as their tradition. The country has changed its shape of governing system with 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments in the constitution and by declaring civil rights to all minorities. Because of social violence and gang activities run by minority members since long; the police are bound to be suspicious towards them. We cannot consider present policing in the U.S. as a ‘racial profiling’ because it’s a search for a criminal or an offender; it does not hold any relevance to a particular race. A criminal does not have any race; their job is to commit crime. No one should support criminal, just because they belong to their community. The race/ethnicity is used by police only to identify the kind of person; that should not be considered as racial profiling. Hence, to maintain peace and security in a country like the USA, a country of diverse population, the use of race/ethnicity in law enforcements decision to stop someone is reasonable and liable because that gives an definite shape to the case, making it easier for the police to identify the offender. References Edna, W. H., Esq, D. B., Leigh, M. A., Yolande P. M., & Lorraine H. W.(1995). Establishing and operating a task force or commission on racial and ethnic bias in the courts. National Marilyn, McCoy Roberts National Center for State Courts Editor. Print. Hayden, T. (2004). Street Wars. Gangs and the Future of Violence. New York, The New Press. Print. Into the abyss, The racial and ethnic composition of gangs. (“n.d”) Ab, K. J., Persico, N., & Todd, P. ( 2001). Racial bias in motor vehicle searches: Theory and evidence. The Journal of Political Economy, 109,1086-318603. Sartre, J. P. Being and nothingness. (1943).gallimard , new York. Print. Read More