When society thinks of criminals, African American
or Hispanic males come into mind, because that is often what is portrayed by
the media. Racism and crime can be seen throughout different instances and
unfortunately, in many ways. For example: it can be seen when police officers
pull minorities over with different treatment than with Caucasians, when judges
give harsher sentencing to Hispanics or African Americans versus whites, and the
outstanding number of incarcerated minorities
One
way race and crime interact with each other is through racial profiling. Racial
profiling can be seen in traffic stops when law enforcement targets minorities
and pull them over based on their skin color. Minorities are often stopped and
searched more than whites even though whites are more likely to be carrying
drugs on them, but get let go because of their skin color. Even when law
enforcement tries not to be biased, they unconsciously are and any means of
discrimination is denied.
Another
way race and crime interact with each other is through sentencing in the
courts. Minorities receive more mandatory sentencing compared to whites. Also,
with death penalties, more minorities are given death penalties for murdering a
white person, than a white person getting the death penalty for killing a
person of color. This can be seen with the incident of a group of white men
purposefully harassing African American men in Jackson. Their harassment
eventually led to a black man getting killed by running him over with their
truck. Only one white man has been given life in prison and the other four are
still awaiting sentencing. These white men intentionally harassed black men and
still did not get the death penalty. But if it were switched around and black
men were harassing white men, the black men would surely either get harsher
punishment or the death penalty.
Lastly,
although these three points aren’t the only way race and crime interact with
one another, race and crime can be visualized interacting with each other through
the outstanding number of incarcerated minorities. Many Caucasians don’t see
the significantly large amount of incarcerated minorities as a way of racism. One
big reason why there are so many incarcerated minorities is because of the
crack/cocaine disparity which is a way in which the criminal justice system
targets minorities. Racial profiling and discrimination by the police is
another reason why there are so many incarcerated minorities. Another reason is
corrupt police practices such as “flaking”. Police have quotas that they need
to meet, and often, feel pressured to meet them. They often feel so pressured that
a former New York Police Department detective admitted that it was common to
pull fake drug charges against innocent people to meet the arrest quotas.
Corrupt police practices can also be seen through racist police taking matters
into their own hands. One example is the Oscar Grant III case in which Grant
had been shot and killed by a police officer for no legit reason.
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