Racial profiling by the New Jersey State Police

Racial profiling by the New Jersey State Police

Introduction

Certain types of individuals, considered being more likely to perpetrate crimes are subject to the scrutiny of the police officers. For example, a person who lives in a poor neighborhood and has possession of several expensive items, that person may be profiles as someone involved in crime, such as theft. Law enforcement officers find it necessary to identify possible criminal activity before it takes place. Profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity or origins of an individual is unfair to the community at large. According to Statistics Black Americans get arrested more than the white Americans for crimes, have more men in prison than in College and African Americans are ten times more likely to have one parent in prison than white children.

The most traditional form of racial profiling is when the police stop, questions and searches group of people belonging to a specific race, ethnicity or religious background. In a report issued in April 1999, ninety-one thousand pages of internal records revealed that the state of New Jersey was systematically searching cars driven by Hispanics, who constitute only thirteen percent of the eighty percent motorists stopped by the police. This huge pile of evidence shows the official racism involved through the police department of both Democratic and Republican parties. Although, state police officially prohibited racial profiling there was the publication in a memo that read racial profiling exists as part of the culture? (Mazelis.F., 2000). New officers testified that they racial profiling is shown by their coaches. One such defender of racial profiling is Carl Williams, who was the former director of New Jersey State Police. According to him it was okay to stop minority categories because they were more likely to commit crime. This method has also proven successful to identify plane hijackers, serial killers and rapists.

Discussion

In the year 1998, racial profiling became a serious issue. When two state troopers patrolling fired eleven shots upon a New Jersey Turnpike, the van that carried African Americans. The law enforcement agencies first claimed that they only stopped the van for speeding and fired shots on them when they reversed at their approach. The troopers also admitted they stopped the van only because it was carrying black and Latino men. The police force admitted that they were trained by their supervisors to stop individuals belonging to a particular race and ethnic background. Also, these people were more involved in drug trafficking than any other segment of the population in America. In this case, there were no drugs found in the van. The state troopers were subject to jail time, but they pleaded to reduced charges and avoided jail time (Chew, D. 2009). In 1998, the shooting of three men who belonged to the minority group by the New Jersey state troopers, sparked a national debate. Critics argued that the profiling was inherently racist as law enforcement agencies only stopped and searched African-Americans and other minorities more than ...