Time to end racial profiling is long overdue

The time to hold law enforcement accountable for practices that involve targeting people because of race, ethnicity, or nationality is long past. Stereotypes based on race have held people of underrepresented communities down for centuries. One of the worst forms of discrimination is being subject to police brutality simply because the terms ‘suspicious’ and ‘person of color’ are used interchangeably by law enforcement. In order to begin to hold rogue police officers accountable, there must be systemic changes implemented. The End Racial Profiling Act of 2015 (ERPA) is one legislative solution to help relieve some of indignities suffered at the hands of police institutions. 

The End Racial Profiling Act calls for a clear definition of racial discriminatory practices including federal prohibition against racial profiling. The bill also mandates collection of data pertaining to racial profiling and provides funding for the retraining of officers. Essentially, ERPA 2015 will hold law enforcement agencies accountable and allow for injunctive relief for those who are victims of racial profiling practices by the police. The act will not fix the tensions between communities of color and law enforcement in the U.S., but it is a step in the right direction.   

{mosads}As a society, we want to believe that the days of racially motivated killings are history, but the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Mike Brown (and the list goes on) have shown us that we are far from the ideal of equality promised to Americans by the Constitution. A neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, shot Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old African American teenage, after an altercation that began because Trayvon looked ‘suspicious.’ Oscar Grant was in handcuffs and lying face down when he was shot by a police officer who served less than 5 years in prison. Eric Garner, who was first approached for selling untaxed cigarettes, died after being subdued by officers, while shouting “I can’t breathe.” Mike Brown, 18 years old and African American, was shot six times while allegedly running away from a police officer, which sparked several protests and rallies around the country. 

The high profiling killings of the aforementioned young black men initiated several movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #HandsUpDontShoot. Thanks in large part to the prevalence of social media and nationwide protests, there has been a rise in awareness about the unequal treatment of people of color by police in the United States. The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, for example, showed that police targeted blacks and Latinos about 85 percent of the time, with most searches ending without evidence. In 2013 alone, the police department in Ferguson, Missouri made more than 5,000 stops and 600 searches, with black citizens making up 86 percent of the stops and 92 percent of the searches. The statistics alone are alarming, but they become even more so when you discover that only 67 percent of Ferguson identifies as black. 

There have been countless statistics pointing towards the use of racial profiling practices and prominent figures speaking on the subject. Attorney General, Eric Holder, spoke out against racial profiling in 2014 at the annual National Action Network convention in New York. While speaking, he revealed how he fears that his son may become a victim of police brutality if profiling activities do not stop. These are fears many parents who have children of color seem to be having more and more, which leaves us with one question: “If law enforcement cannot be trusted, then who do people of color turn to in times of need?”   

A form of ERPA has been introduced in every congress since the Bush administration with talks often going nowhere, but we cannot keep standing idly by as unarmed people of color are shot down without repercussions. The time to take the first steps towards ending racially charged police activity is long overdue, so the pressure is on to pass ERPA 2015. The system as a whole is too big to tackle down with one bill, but small steps can lead to monumental changes.

Avila, Brahmbhatt and Salas are all students at the University of Southern California in the Master of Social Work program.