Racial Profiling — Want to Make it a Thing of the Past?
By Rabiyah S, Grade 7, Age 12
Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, briefly joined the race for President. Bloomberg is a big supporter of racial profiling. Do we really want leaders like him who support it?
According to the ACLU, racial profiling is when police and law enforcers interrogate and search people based on their race, ethnicity or religion. In my opinion, racial profiling is when someone accuses you of something because of your race or skin color. There are so many horrible stories told by minorities about how they have been victims of racial profiling.
Many minority groups, such as Latinos and African Americans disproportionately get stopped by police. According to The Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 (RIPA) in California, African Americans and Hispanics are stopped for supposedly having illegal drugs, but data shows that white people usually have illegal drugs more often than minorities. Based on anecdotal evidence, Muslims get stopped at airports because of their skin color, or because the women are wearing hijab. Muslims are stopped by the TSA for frisking and interrogation disproportionately. Anyone who supports racial profiling should not be our elected leader.
When Bloomberg was mayor, he passed a law allowing stop-and-frisk, a type of racial profiling. It allows police to stop and search anyone who they think is suspicious. When this law was passed, police were placed in minority neighborhoods. According to a 2020 Slate article, Leaked Audio Captures Bloomberg Defending Racial Profiling and Stop-and-Frisk Policing, Bloomberg says why he supports racial profiling. In the article, he is quoted saying, “Put those cops where the crime is, which means in minority neighborhoods.” While leaders like Bloomberg support racial Profiling, other leaders try try to prevent it.
California, Bill (AB) 953 enacted The Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 (RIPA) into law which tracks traffic stops. The bill mandates police officers to report their searches and detentions for vehicle and pedestrian stops. Police must also report their perception of the person, by race, ethnicity, lesbian, gay, disability, and gender. By doing so, the government of California can see which groups of people are targeted. This bill raises awareness about how frequently minorities are targeted and we need more like them. The police officers know they are being watched and are also becoming aware of what they are doing.
We should also train police officers to not be biased. According to the New York Times article, Confronting Implicit Bias in the New York Police Department, there is a program to prevent people from being killed because of their skin color. Ignorance is not bliss. When officers don’t realize they are biased, they make poor choices. This program, and RIPA, are the beginnings of making racial profiling a thing of the past.
