The recent surge of protests against police brutality has brought into question the police’s ability to make a fair judgment to all groups of people and disregard racism. From an outsider’s perspective, it appears that the police, and more recently, the government, have a tendency to punish people of color more than the average person. Do recent events support this claim, or is it just a result of mainstream news sources creating an image of widespread racism?
Before we continue, the difference between legal and illegal profiling needs to be understood. Legal criminal profiling is based on evidence that can be reliably used during a criminal investigation, such as concrete evidence, police training, and experience. In contrast, illegal profiling is based on personal biases in regards to race, gender, culture, religion, or any other personal attributes. Racial profiling has become a hot topic recently and is widely regarded as being unjust. Based on past events, it can be observed that racial profiling is not only prominent; it is also promoted.
The Origins of Policing
In the United States, northern and southern states have a different history of the creation of law enforcement. The first police department in the North was founded in 1854 in the city of Boston from the Boston Watch, a group of men intended to guard the city. Southern states, however, had their slave patrols that existed since the 18th century evolve into police departments after the Civil War. Following the war, southern police forces enforced Jim Crow laws, preventing people of color from having the same liberties as others.
It is quite evident that southern police departments have a history of racism. However, northern police departments aren’t entirely innocent either. African Americans that were integrated into society after slavery were often perceived as being outsiders that struggled to integrate into the northern population. As a result, they were often economically cast out and were subject to police brutality.
Disproportionate Sentencing Highlights Racism
One of the main avenues for disproportionate law enforcement for people of color is through drug laws. Oftentimes, although drug usage rates vary by less than 10 percent when comparing black Americans to white Americans, black Americans find themselves being arrested at a much more frequent rate than white Americans. In some counties, black people are arrested much more frequently than white people, at a rate of 10 to 1. However, on average, black people are arrested 3.73 times more for weed.
Inequality can also be seen in regards to the severity of sentencing for drug possession and distribution. In 2010, a truck driver named Bernard Noble was arrested for the possession of a minute amount of marijuana and was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison. Noble has had two nonviolent drug offenses in the past, so his sentence should be more severe than the standard $300 fine or 15 days of imprisonment for first offenders. According to Louisiana’s marijuana laws, however, Noble should have received a maximum of two years of imprisonment.
Noble would have already normally received a sentence of five years by his sentencing judge. However, Leon Cannizzaro, the district attorney for Orleans Parish, appealed the sentence and was able to reach a 13 year sentence for Noble, which is drastically disproportionate from what he should have received.
Searches
A study of 100 million traffic stops in the United States revealed racially disparate results. Black drivers are stopped more than white drivers, and black and Hispanic drivers are searched more than white drivers. However, at night, black drivers are less likely to be stopped. This could suggest a bias, as there is a lack of visibility at that time. Additionally, the study also found evidence that shows that the bar for being searched is lower for black and Hispanic drivers than for white drivers.
Hate Groups Infiltrating Police
In 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a heavily redacted intelligence report about white supremacy infiltrating law enforcement. The report includes an incident of white supremacists attempting to gain roles in law enforcement.
The report claims, “At least one white supremacist group has reportedly encouraged ghost skins to seek positions in law enforcement for the capability of alerting skinhead crews of pending investigative action against them.” The word “ghost skin” means a white supremacist who intentionally hides their beliefs so as to blend in with regular society.
Outside of the report, instances of racism in police stations have been reported all over the nation. Jon Burge, a former commander and detective with the Chicago Police Department, reportedly tortured over 200 innocent men between 1972 and 1991 to coerce confessions from them. The majority of the men tortured were black. Additionally, Burge named an electroshock device used in the torture after a racial slur. The methods of torture were expansive and brutal, spanning from suffocation to burning and electrical shock. Four of his victims previously on death row whose confessions were coerced have been pardoned.
In 1991, sheriff’s deputies in Los Angeles County were allegedly tied to the Lynwood Vikings, a white supremacist Neo-Nazi group. Dozens of Lynwood residents filed civil rights lawsuits against these deputies for their use of violence against black Americans and Latino Americans among other groups. Later, in 2001, two Texan officers were fired for being members of the Ku Klux Klan. Then, in 2014, two Floridian officers were also fired for being members of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, in 2020, Chicago Police Department Officer Robert Bakker has been accused of being tied to a far-right neo-fascist group, known as the Proud Boys.
What Happens Next?
After someone is arrested for a crime, they stand trial. Does racism appear in the justice system as well? Signs point to yes, as evidenced by the United States Sentencing Commission. The Commission conducted multiple studies controlling for many factors in sentencing. Black male offenders are sentenced an average of 19.1% longer than similar white male offenders. Furthermore, violence in an offender’s criminal history does not account for the disparity either. The percentage point difference between figures that do and do not account for violence is not significant enough to explain the difference.
Although it may appear that law enforcement systems are unbiased towards race, it is quite apparent that they facilitate racial profiling and discriminatory police action. An effective course of action to put an end to racial disparities is difficult to create. However, it is clear that steps can be taken to educate people about race in order to mitigate the effects of personal biases. When people come to an understanding of the difference between justice and racism, the world will have taken a massive step in the right direction.