Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Essay 3 Final Version – Julie Martin

The Definition of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is generally defined as the use of a person's race to categorize him or her. The negative implications of racial profiling can block a person from financial opportunity, educational opportunity, and due process before the law. This third area, due process before the law, is the most controversial. As it relates to the law, perhaps the most notorious aspect of racial profiling involves its use in police work.

One of the most publicized and polarizing incidents of law enforcements agents leveraging the technique of racial profiling occurred on the New Jersey Turnpike on the night of April 23, 1998, when two New Jersey State Troopers stopped and eventually shot three men. In this particular incident, NJ State Troopers John Hogan and James Kenna stopped a van on the Turnpike for speeding. The occupants of the van - Keshon Moore, Daniel Reyes, Leroy Jarmaine Grant and Rayshawn Brown - were traveling to North Carolina. Testimony as to the sequence of events after the stop differs depending on which side of the story the witness is representing. The end result was that three of the four van occupants suffered gunshot wounds. Of the four, three were black men, one was Hispanic. No weapons or contraband were found in the van (Kifner).

This incident proved to be the pivotal example of racial profiling in the public discourse. On one side, the view was put forth that this was a clear example of a programmatic practice employed by the NJ State Police that had been in use for decades. In fact, based on information presented by PBS on their website, institutionalized forms of racial identification have existed in the United States since colonial times (Cheng). The other side, in defense of the actions and responsibilities of the law enforcement community, argued that the troopers were reacting to the perceived threat of the vehicle being used as a potentially lethal weapon. The van driver did acknowledge that van was rolling after initially stopping due to an inadvertent shift into reverse gear.

In chapter 6 of What Matters in America entitled, "Can Racial Profiling Be Justified?," several articles present an analysis of the use of racial profiling by law enforcement agents. There are certainly situations where a person's racial characteristics are a vital identifying element that can be used to prevent a crime or apprehend a criminal. But the majority would agree that the use of race alone, especially with no specific crime being suspected, is unlawful. What is most dangerous, and was identified during the investigation of the April 1998 incident, is the institutionalization of the practice by a powerful public agency in this case the New Jersey State Police.

In an article written for Reason magazine, Gene Callahan and William Anderson envision an even larger institutional force behind this abuse of civil rights. Callahan and Anderson see three sources behind this type of policing, all driven by the so-called War on Drugs. In the article they claim "The sources include the difficulty in policing victimless crimes in general and the resulting need for intrusive police techniques; the greater relevancy of this difficulty given the intensification of the drug war since the 1980s; and the additional incentive that asset forfeiture laws give police forces to seize money and property from suspects" (William Anderson). In trying to define unlawful profiling, based upon a person's race, the question becomes where does an individual law enforcement officer's intuition and reaction to a specific situation end and where does a systematic abuse of civil rights begin? In his article "Blind Spot" Randall Kennedy extends the definition of racial profiling to include any judgments made by law enforcement that include a person's racial characteristics even if race is only a fractional part of the decision criteria (181-182). The law enforcement community, including public prosecutors, would probably disagree with such a broad interpretation.

Whatever the definition, profiling is easily identified after it has been experienced. Given human nature, there will always be individuals who are disrespectful of the rights of someone from another race. When this type of behavior is institutionalized or politically-driven, it is even more of a danger to all members of society.


 

Works Cited

Cheng, Jean (Producer & Writer). RACE- The Power of an Illusion - Race Timeline. 2003. 31 March 2008 <http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm>.


 

Goshgarian, Gary. What Matters in America. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007.


 

Kennedy, Randall. "Blind Spot." Goshgarian, Gary. What Matters in America. New York: Pearson Educational, Inc., 2007. 180-182.


 

Kifner, John. "Van Shooting Revives Charges of Racial 'Profiling' by New Jersy State Police." New York Times. New York, 1998 10th May <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7D61131F933A25756C0A96E958260> .


 

William Anderson, Gene Callahan. "The Roots of Racial Profiling." Reason Magazine. Los Angeles, August/September 2001 <http://www.reason.com/news/show/28138.html>.


 

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