Police Pt. 3

Racial profiling is another important factor when learning about injustices within the police system, particularly relating to police brutality. Racial profiling is when law enforcement targets specific people based on their ethnic, religious, or cultural groups (usually minorities). Racial profiling occurs because law enforcement individuals might associate a type of crime with an ethnic group, thus leading to them targeting that ethnicity. This happens most frequently with traffic stops and evidence may or may not confirm police suspicions when targeting a certain race.

By this, I mean there is usually something police can find wrong with a driver or vehicle when pulling them over. The only choice to make is who to stop, and this is based of racial profiling. 

Other statistics prove an unjust racial bias for law enforcement. Police are most likely to arrest black people for drug violations, for example, and they make up about 25% of drug related arrests. Black people are only about 13% of the US population, however, clearly indicating a racial bias when making these arrests. 

The African American population is, in general, the most frequent victim of racial profiling, and the statistics are striking. 41% of Black Americans claim to have been stopped by law enforcement because of their race. 21% of Black Americans claim to be victims of police violence (from the same source as the last sentence). 

Black people are 5x more likely than white people to be injured by the police and are 3x more likely to be shot and killed by police when unarmed. 

The biggest problem with racial profiling is that it exacerbates the stereotypes and generalizations it bases itself off of. The more law enforcement arrests minority populations, the more they will be associated with crime. So understanding and addressing the problem of racial profiling requires denying stereotypes and statistics that might paint an ethnic group as more likely to commit crimes. It may be statistically true, but it is an injustice to use that piece of identity as the sole factor for suspecting someone of a crime. And I'm glad that's an idea that has become more popular in recent years. And it's always important to remember that Jesus spent his life with and looking out for the marginalized in society. I can't overstate that enough!

(+Sorry for the lateness of this weeks post. Until next time)