Racial Profiling of Blacks by Police

“‘Racial Profiling’ refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” (ACLU). Racial Profiling is a common occurrence in our culture. Most people don’t even realize that they are racial profiling because frequently in our society, people use race as grounds for assuming someone committed an offense. A study conducted at Northeastern university found that, “… 74.7 percent of speeders were White, while 17.5 percent were Black. In contrast, according to MSP data, Blacks constituted 79.2 percent of the drivers searched…” (Ramirez, McDevitt,

Free Essays on Racial Profiling and Murder by Police

Racial Profiling and Murder by Police

There’s a mass without roofs

There’s a prison to fill

There’s a country’s soul

That reads “post no bills”

There’s a strike and a line of cops

Outside of the mill

There’s the right to obey

And there’s the right to kill

–Zack De La Rocha

This is America, home of the free. Here “law and order” is kept by a vigilant police force armed with semi-automatics and nightsticks. Here it is “law and order” to lynch blacks.

Two-hundred years since this country was founded on principles of equality before the law, the meaning of equality remains the same. Amadou Diallo was equal to all other poor urban blacks, and he got his punishment by the law. His killers were equal to all other guardians of the white elite, and they got…acquited.

The principle is well understood, invoking a strong Nazi-like patriotism in some. “It fills me with profound respect for being an American and for living in a country that has a trial by jury,” announced New York Mayor Giulani after the acquital of four police officers who fired 41 shots at Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo as he stood outside his home in the Bronx.

Giuliani, of course, clearly understands what it means to be “American.” Liberal apologists who seek to explain the meaning of the shooting and the acquital are the ones who are missing the mark.

Forty-one shots are not a mistake. The acquital was not just a flaw in the system. This is the system, and it is one rooted in white male dominance and the rule of force. The system is working perfectly fine as long as cops stay out of prison and are free to use deadly force at will.

“But the system is supposed to treat people equally,” some will say. Right-wingers eat this one up. They understand that equality, in any meaningful sense of the word, is not one of the tenents of American capitalism.

Indeed, it is inequality which maintains the system. The majority must never enjoy the same rights and priveleges that the wealthy few do. A police force, whose function is to protect property and those who own property, is needed to enforce minority rule.