Racial Profiling Essay Example For Students

Racial Profiling Essay The great era of civil rights started in the 1960s, with Martin Luther King, Jr.s stirring I have a Dream speech at the historic march on Washington in August of 1963. At the same time Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Connor used powerful fire hoses and vicious police attack dogs against nonviolent black civil rights activists. Although these years proved to be the highlight and downfall of civil rights in America, even with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act being passed, time has repeated these tumultuous events again in the present. Racial Profiling Essay has been one of many civil rights issues concerning the unnecessary stopping and arresting of people based on race, color, ethnicity and gender. In the case u.s. v. Weaver, the u.s. court of appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the officers actions in using race as a factor (among others) in his decision to stop a potential drug-smuggler. Other courts have agreed with the Eighth Circuit that the constitution does not prohibit using race as a factor when they decide who is a suspect, if this is done for purposes of law enforcement and crime prevention. Furthermore, there is no visible end to this injustice in the near future since state police leadership has encouraged this Racial Profiling Essay by giving trooper of the year awards to those who make big drug arrests and then failing to monitor whether troopers are disproportionately arresting minorities. To the credit of the police, it must be said that their actions, however questionable, were done with only the intentions to uphold the law, as was also found in the attorney generals report, that generally, the officers were not racist and the arrests were not racially motivated, nor were their any claims of racial harassment filed against these same officers. Taking into account all these facts, listing time and time again how those who are responsible for the upholding of the constitution look at citizens, it is impossible to conclude that the u.s. abides by the principle of equality. And if this fundamental criterion is not met, there can be no healthy democracy. Legal Issues .