Racial Profiing Discussion the Events From 2001

Racial Profiing Discussion

The events from 2001 marked a crucial point in the history of the United States from the perspective of the casualties and human loss they produce but at the same time from the perspective of the changes these events marked in the American society. Nowadays, the security measures are increased to such an extend that there have been wide debates on the potential abuses that may take place in terms of human rights, privacy issues, as well as personal security.

One of the security measures enforced since September 2001 is the extended control measures and techniques used to prevent any terrorist attacks from taking place on American soil. At the same time though, despite the fact that increased security measures are justified, they also allow controversies over potential abuses. One of the arguments protesting against increased security measures as they are enforced today points out the role of racial profiling. According to the Department of Justice, racial profiling "rests on the erroneous assumption that any particular individual of one race or ethnicity is more likely to engage in misconduct than any particular individual of other races or ethnicities" (Dept. Of Justice, 2003). More precisely, there have been cases for instance that included two suspects to a crime. Depending on the nature of the crime, the black suspect (as in most rape cases) was labeled as primary suspect, whereas in serial killing crimes the white suspect was identified as primary lead (Cloud, 2001). These assumptions are suggested to be determined by a constant trail case which includes a larger number of rape offenders among African-Americans and a larger number of serial killers among the white population.

The definition in itself fails to provide the exact magnitude of the problem. In fact, racial profiling has become an ever more increasing problem largely since the 9/11 events. However, until that moment, racial profiling had been a common practice, especially in big cities around the United States with particular aim towards black people. More precisely, Time Magazine noted "Most often we use the latter term (racial profiling) to describe the police practice of stopping people for "driving while black," but there are myriad permutations. Actor Danny Glover held a press conference in 1999 because cabdrivers weren't stopping for him in New York City; some called this "hailing while black." (Cloud, 2001). This aspect comes to point out that in fact racial profiling, according to arguments against this practice, affects individuals firstly because of their skin color or religion. Nowadays the phenomenon is spread to such an extent as it includes religion, nationality or race as well.

Racial profiling is not uncommon and is no longer a phenomenon restricted to the United States. Cases of police abuses based on racial profiling have been reported in Canada as well as serious allegations of police brutality and racial profiling have been presented in the local and national media. One case presented in the Canadian media is that of Toronto Police Const. Michael Shaw who was condemned after stopping Ron Phipps on March 9, 2005. He stopped him mainly based on the fact that Phipps "was an African-Canadian in an affluent neighbourhood" adjudicator Kaye Joachim wrote in her decision on the matter. (Taylor, 2009)