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William Hagood

Date

GP Research Paper

Being Black In America

Did you know that Vice News and a group from the Seton Hall Law School said in a 2016

report that 70 percent of all police traffic stops in Bloomfield New Jersey were against black and

Latino drivers even though 60 percent of the residents were white. According to Bloomfield's

police director, Samuel A DeMaio, violations were 576 against Hispanics, 574 against blacks and

573 against whites from a recent period. Racial profiling is very relevant today, it increases

arrests of innocent people. In the past and even today, innocent people have lost their lives due to

racial profiling. Racial profiling can also be considered harassment if the suspect is innocent. For

example, in May 2013 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Rufus Scales was pulled over but as he

reached over to restrain his brother from opening his door, he was tased, yanked out of the driver

seat and dragged across the asphalt leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Even though some

people believe racial profiling should not be prohibited as long as the suspect fits the

description, racial profiling should not be used because racial profiling is used to find

suspects based on superficial characteristics such as race, ethnicity or national origin,

racial profiling leads to unlawful [bigotry] arrests, and racial profiling violates civil rights.

Racial profiling is a very important topic in the present day because it is used as a

disadvantage towards people that does not know how to handle it. Racial profiling is liable to

happen to people that has never been in the scenario. Government officials (Police Officers) are
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not the only ones that use racial profiling; our fellow citizens of America uses racial profiling

also. I stay in a neighborhood where the population contains residents mostly from the latino and

white origin. There were numerous times where I was walking out of the neighborhood gym

facility after working out with my friend who is also an African American male and white

women and men lock their car doors when I stay literally right across from the facility. There are

also times where I tend to walk to my friends house who stays nearby, most times I have on a

hoodie and as I walk. I will see a white man or a white woman watching me and they will

immediately proceed to move from the sidewalk and began to walk on the road.

This has been going on in states around the country, especially after the Trayvon Martin

incident. That incident occurred February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. A 17 year old African

American male by the name of Trayvon Martin was at home with his step-brother anticipating

the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, he then decided it was a good time to go to 7-11 to get himself a

Watermelon Arizona and a pack of Original Skittles for his step-brother. On the way home, he

was spotted by a volunteer neighborhood watch person by the name of George Zimmerman who

reported Martin to the police as suspicious. Moments later, Zimmerman started to pursuit

Trayvon Martin in his vehicle then finally got out of his vehicle still in pursuit of Martin which

soon started an altercation between both Martin and Zimmerman in which resulted in

Zimmerman shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. This shows the fact that since Trayvon Martin

was an african american male with a black hoodie on walking through a residential community

trying to get home that Zimmerman automatically assumed that Trayvon was up to no good, that

is racial profiling.

Racial profiling should not be used because racial profiling is used to find suspects based

on superficial characteristics such as race, ethnicity or national origin. It is safe to say that in this
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era, that racial profiling is used as a sign of fear from a race towards another race. Not only

citizens not knowing how to handle the racial profiling scenario, but Government Officials

(Police Officers) obviously do not know how to stay calm when they feel threatened also.Last

year, a police officer visited Ram Academy to meet and speak with the male students. During this

meeting, he explained how police officers are trained to pull out a taser when they are dealing

with an unarmed man or woman. Which brings me to this, September 13, 2013, an unarmed

african american college football player by the name of Jonathan Ferrell got into a car wreck so

bad that he had to climb out of his back window to escape the vehicle. Ferrell stumbled upon a

house and started banging on the door for help. The person inside assumed that he came with

intentions to harm them and pressed the panic button. Police shows up, a officer yelled stop get

on the ground, Ferrell ran towards both officers, Officer Kerrick proceeds in firing multiple

shots, shooting and killing unarmed Jonathan Ferrell. Therefore, the fact that Ferrell was a 6 foot

1, 200 pound african american man forced the resident of the house and Officer Kerrick to use

the racial profiling strategy because, they basically feared him and felt like he was a major threat

based on his characteristics, race, ethnicity and his national origin.

Racial profiling leads to unlawful [bigotry] arrests. Arrests due to racial profiling are

often inaccurate and miscalculated. It is said that there are 7 people in the world that looks just

like you so it is not right to say that characteristics are universal. Which brings me to this, on

March 22, 2014 4 african american males Tyrone Booker Jr, Shaquazz Allen, Jerron Bush and

Craig Dean were falsely arrested for robbing a woman at gunpoint downtown in Louisville

Kentucky. Bush and Dean each served five days and served time on house arrest, but Booker

and Allen were locked up for 70 days. The arrest was made after the woman and her boyfriend

described the perpetrators as black, ages 16-20, and wearing black hoodies. After that the officers
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confronted the first four african americans they found two blocks away sitting on Bushs porch

because two of them were wearing black hoodies. Just because somebody fits a description does

not mean they are automatically the perp, you cant just go off of small and minor details. If that

was the case, if a victim got robbed by a black man with dreads, you misewell stop all black guys

with dreads including myself. This is another scenario where both the victim and the officer used

the racial profiling card because the 4 young black men that was accused and did time was

completely innocent and in result, those four young men received 1.5 million in settlement.
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Works Cited

"Driving While Black." VICE News. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

Lee, Trymaine. "Trayvon Martin's Family Calls For Arrest Of Man Who Police Say Confessed

To Shooting (UPDATE)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Mar. 2012.

Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

Michael S. Schmidt and Matt Apuzzo. "South Carolina Officer Is Charged With Murder of

Walter Scott." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 24 Mar.

2017.

N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

Parascandola, Rocco, and Graham Rayman. "Cop Stands by Decision to Fatally Shoot Ramarley

Graham." NY Daily News. N.p., 20 Jan. 2017. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

Severson, Kim. "Asking for Help, Then Killed by an Officers Barrage." The New York Times.

The New York Times, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2017.

Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew W. Lehren. "The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While

Black." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2017