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Mario Aparicio
Ms. Gardner
Honors English 10 - Fourth Period
10 May 2016
What Can Racial Profiling Do?
On April 7, 2001, in the early morning hours, Timothy Thomas, a 19 year-old AfricanAmerican, was shot to death by police officer John Roach. Thomas had 14 outstanding
misdemeanor warrants, mostly traffic violations, including failure to wear a seat belt (Bell).
According to what the city councilman had said, he was running away and had landed in a
driveway where Roach saw him and shot Thomas dead. Our country realizes that individuals are
constantly being targeted based on their personal characteristics. Many horrific tragedies like
these lead us to thinking whether or not to avoid racial profiling; whether or not to be scared of
the consequences that could happen; whether or not to support. Racial profiling should be
destroyed because it affects our people, and our communities which can also lead to raciallymotivated violence everywhere.
Many argue that on issues of safety, recognizing race, religion, and ethnicity can play an
important role in the rates of criminality. As a matter of fact, specific events or actions from
certain races and religions led to people being more concerned of their safety in the United
States. Whether or not they should paranoid about the types of people coming into our country.
In "Is Racial or Religious Profiling Ever Justified?," Nomani, Asra Q. and Hassan Abbas
mention,
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Since Al-Oaeda leader Osama bin Laden issued a "declaration of war" against the
U.S. in 1996, we've experienced several attacks and near misses, including the
9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. ; "shoe bomber" Richard Reid;
and the Christmas 2009 underwear bomber en route to Detroit. (Nomani)
Because of these tragic events, people think that if racial profiling continues, there is a good
chance that there won't be another terrifying event where many people die. Looking at it from a
different point of view, not only does it create complete chaos, but it causes the people to always
be paranoid depending on whos around them. Many argue that racial profiling can prevent
danger in the United States and the rest of the world; however, racial profiling can demolish our
people, our society, and our freedom.
Although many still argue that racial profiling is the key tool to prevent the occurrence of
dangerous events, it's the people that suffer the great impact. Now in days, what encourages
many officers to stop someone is the color of their skin, therefore, increasing the chances of
someone getting imprisoned or even killed for doing something that is or may illegal. The
Vehicle Stop Reports prove the opposite white drivers are more likely to possess drugs and
other illicit items than blacks and Hispanics who are searched by police (Mittman). Here, the
research proves that many races are automatically searched from the result of stereotyping. In
addition to this, Aswany reports that once, at John F. Kennedy International Airport, he was held
for two hours because he was middle-eastern (Aswany). In conclusion, if our country allows
colored people to be treated this way, does racial profiling still have an effective purpose to it?
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Furthermore, research shows that racial profiling affects several distinct communities in
the United States. In "Policing; Report Shows Racial Profiling Continues, With No Changes,
Jeffrey Mittman states,
Attorney General Chris Koster's office released the 15th straight year of "Vehicle
Stop Reports" (VSR) from police departments across Missouri on Monday. For
the 15th year in a row, the results show the over policing of people of color and
suggest a devastating and indefensible use of racial profiling throughout the state.
(Mittman)
A great variety of people, especially African-Americans, are mostly searched and sometimes
arrested in Missouri. For this reason, many people feel that they don't have any freedom or
rights. Every single community feels that they are constantly searched for because of the
diversity or the dominance of races in the population. As a result, this can lead to the people of
different races rioting and violently attacking.
Ultimately, racial profiling should be destroyed because it causes terrifying protests and
violence because of it all of over the United States and nationwide. In "Ferguson Unrest: From
Shooting to Nationwide Protests, BBC notes,
Protests in Ferguson followed Michael Brown's death and a grand jury declining
to charge the officer with murder. Several days after the justice department report
was released in March, two police officers were shot and injured. Later in August,
a man was critically injured in a gunfire exchange with police during a rally
marking the one-year anniversary of Brown's death. (BBC)
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Because of this, we see the effect of racial profiling and how it transfers over to the whole
community of many races. These protests caused by racial actions can scar the country and the
rest of the world emotionally.
In conclusion, racial profiling should be illegal because it destroys our people, our
diversified communities, and our freedom. Racial profiling takes away our freedom as well as
our rights. Many think that the skin color or the way people look can determine what kind of
person he/she is. Because of this, these people are suffering from the overload of suspicion.
Many think that what causes all the crime and destruction in the United States is the diversity of
people but they are just wrong. We are all the same beautiful humans and we should treat and be
treated equally to create a better world and country for ourselves.

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Works Cited

Aswany, Alaa Al. "Traveling While Arab." International New York Times. 17 Oct. 2014: 9. SIRS
Issues Researcher. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
BBC. "Ferguson Unrest: From Shooting to Nationwide Protests." BBC News. N.p., 10 Aug.
20155. Web. 06 May 2016.
Bell, W. Kamau. "Racial Profiling: Definition." American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU
Foundation, 2016. Web. 06 May 2016.
Mittman, Jeffrey. "Policing; Report Shows Racial Profiling Continues, With No Changes..." St.
Louis Post-Dispatch. 02 Jun. 2015: A.13. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 26 Apr.
2016.
Nomani, Asra Q., and Hassan Abbas. "Is Racial or Religious Profiling Ever Justified?." New
York Times Upfront. 18 Apr. 2011: 22. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 26 Apr.
2016.