Trayvon Martin “A Casualty of Racial Profiling”

In lieu of yesterday’s verdict, I thought it was a good time to discuss Racial Profiling. Ultimately Trayvon Martin was seen as a suspicious person in the neighborhood because he was an African American wearing a hoodie.   What can our society do about racial profiling?

In 2011 The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights published a report on racial profiling. In this report the problems of racial profiling are discussed and recommendations are made at the end to improve the policies in place.  The U.S. Supreme Court said that racial profiling violates the constitutional requirement that all persons be accorded equal protection of the law.  The U.S. Department of Justice stated in 2003

     “Racial profiling" at its core concerns the invidious use of race or ethnicity as a criterion in conducting stops, searches and other law enforcement investigative procedures. It is premised on the erroneous assumption that any particular individual of one race or ethnicity is more likely to engage in misconduct than any particular individual of another race or ethnicity.

Racial profiling in law enforcement is not merely wrong, but also ineffective. Race-based assumptions in law enforcement perpetuate negative racial stereotypes that are harmful to our rich and diverse democracy, and materially impair our efforts to maintain a fair and just society.”

Just as minority motorist or airline travelers have been subject to racial profiling, this case is proof that pedestrians fall into this scenario as well.  Community based organizations have policy strategies that often provide street-level law enforcement authorities (and now it would appear neighborhood watch groups) with wide discretion to patrol their communities.  This opens up the scenario for minorities to be perceived as a threat to the public even if they have done nothing wrong. Sound familiar?

When Attorney General Eric Holder was confirmed back in 2009 he said ending racial profiling would be a priority for the Obama administration.  Don’t we have the right to demand an end to racial profiling before more innocent people lose their lives?  Studies have shown that racial profiling is not an effective crime fighting strategy.  It is devastating families and communities and making us all less not more safe.

Dr. Dee Carter