Racial Profiling: To What End? By John

¶ … Racial Profiling: To What End?" By John P. Crank attempts to reason upon the race debate concerning racial profiling. He attempts to focus on broad implications that police policy has on society. It seems to concentrate on whether or not policy is racist concerning inner-city populations with high crime rates. This perspective misses the mark entirely. High crime rates, in dense populations of minorities, mean reactive politics resulting in higher rates of incarceration. This is a societal problem of social/economic stagnation due to failings of every level government. The epidemic should not be boiled down to differing policies of law enforcement.

Studying the consequences of racial profiling as Henry and Tator suggest is to ignore the rampant crime epidemic in America's inner cities. Basically, we need to explore why the educational systems in high minority/low economic areas suffer from graduation rates as low as 40% and wholesale dropouts. We also need to investigate why welfare programs are, in spite of their good intentions, perpetuating social stagnation and promoting a culture of entitlement. These areas seem a more logical avenue of investigation rather than pursuing racist cops. Let's face it; police are put in an impossible situation when dealing with these horrific conditions.

Crank makes the argument African-Americans did not choose to live in poverty. The circumstances may not have been chosen, however, the reactions to them certainly can be an active choice. The problem is the choices aren't easy, and too many are left with out immediate parental support and direction. In other words, a vicious cycle is perpetuating the demise of humanity in poverty stricken areas. And so far, the American Government has failed to recognize the urgency of the epidemic. The answer thus far has been to simply incarcerate the problem. It is widely known America incarcerates more people for longer periods of time than does any other civilized nation. The epidemic of the poor conditions in Crank's example proves this strategy a failure.

To the point of Clarke's article, it seems the system is racist rather than law enforcement policy. Police are simply trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations of legislations, and political strategy. It is political strategy to provide welfare to people as a sympathetic, and moral outreach. This perpetuates higher birthrates out of wedlock as a consequence of providing more money for more children having to be taken care of. In turn, creating a welfare system that creates more of a problem than it solves. One could make the argument that the act of spending billions of dollars on entitlement welfare is racist. Throwing money, without solutions, perpetuates the demise of a specific race of people by keeping them beholden to the system.