Racially Biased Policing Turns Fatal
B.J. Johnson
English 102
December 2014

This past summer on August 9th, in Ferguson Missouri, Officer Darren Wilson heard a dispatcher report of a stealing in progress. Following protocol, Officer Wilson radioed in to offer help to the officers searching for the suspects in question. Wilson’s offer wasn’t needed due to the fact that the suspects had disappeared. Moments later Wilson drove past two young black males and ordered them to move off the street. After a second look, Wilson realized one of the young men matched the description of the stealing progress. Wilson radioed for backup and in little over minute and young man lay dead at the scene. He was unarmed. That young man was Michael Brown; the 18-year-old black boy who’s shooting this past summer sparked a major controversy and raised a lot of questions about Police Shootings in the U.S. and their undeniably pattern of racial issues. Currently young black males risk of being shot by police officers is 21 times more likely greater than young white males (Staples). Due to police tactics motivated by racial profiling, racially bias news and media that enhance minority stereotypes, United States law enforcement is targeting minorities that results in Police Shootings caused by racism. After Michael Brown’s tragic death, many realized that our country had seen similar circumstances like this before. A young, unarmed, black male shot dead, taking with him, the alternative perceptive of the incident in question. We are only left with shooters’ recollection of incident and possibly a few witnesses. It’s a story that we know all too well. Police shootings happen every day, but recent events begin to raise many questions; Of all these police shootings how many are black men? Who kills these young black men? Are all of the officers white? What is the cause of these shootings and their alarming trend? When looking deeper into this controversy we realized the unsettling fact that the use of deadly force by police officers unfairly targets blacks and minorities. But what causes police officers to do this? Many of today’s police protocols indirectly encourage racial profiling and racially biased policing. Tactics such a stop-and-frisk and traffic stops are often implemented do to race being the driving factor. From 2007-2010, 63% of Boston police civilian encounters target Blacks, even though the black community only makes up less than 25% of the city’s population. Police officers were more likely to initiate encounters in Black neighborhoods and to initiate encounters with Black people (Black). In Maryland we see a similar picture, 63% percent of motorist pulled over were African American even though the makeup on 18% of motorist in the area (Knowles). With stop-and-frisks in New York City we see a similar picture, since 2002 roughly 5 million stops were conducted. Over each year, Blacks made up of 50 percent or more of those targeted in New York City, even though early nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked were completely innocent (Smith). In traffic stops, another policing tactic we can see a similar pattern to stop-and-frisks. In 2005, the percentage of routine traffic stops is very similar between white and blacks. However, 9.5% of vehicles whose drivers were black were searched, almost three times as much as the 3.6% of vehicles driven by white people were searched. Traffic stops that resulted in arrest were 4.5% of vehicles with black drivers, almost twice as much as the 2.1% of vehicle whose drivers were white. In 1996, the ABC network aired a report called “Driving While Black”. The report showcased three young black men driving around the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in a Mercedes Benz. The young men were pulled over by 3 different officers for minor traffic infractions but still resulted in vehicle searches. This reported demonstrated with little doubt that they were pulled over solely because of their race (Racial Profiling). Of course, simple traffic stops and stop-and-frisks are not the direct cause of young black men being killed by men in uniform, but the evidence does show that black males are targeted more often than males and can be correlated with why more blacks males are killed at the hands of police officers than white males. It is simple numbers game, more of one thing, means more of an opportunity of another thing within that. If you have more police encounters with blacks than whites, you will have more unfortunate incidents with blacks. In addressing the issue of Racial Bias in law enforcement Attorney General Eric Holder stated, “The overrepresentation of young men of color in our criminal justice system is a problem that we must confront, not only as an issue of individual responsibility but as one of fundamental fairness and an issue of effective law enforcement” (Holder). If police tactics are being performed with racially bias tendencies there must a reason for this. The United States has long dealt with issue of race. From the country’s inception, through the civil war, integration all the way up to the events today. How the U.S. has dealt with race has had long history. Historically, biased policing was an element of the American law enforcement prior to the establishment of police agencies in the United States (Racial Profiling). Knowing this, it would come as no surprise that there is correlation with race and police tactics used today.
“Experimental work with undergraduate participants reveals a clear pattern of bias, which is associated with stereotypes linking Blacks with the concept of danger “(Correll). However, it could be argued that the issue has made incredible progress over the last half of the century, today the nation’s commander and cheif is after all, a black man. So why are today’s police tactics executed with racially bias tendencies? First, we must look into basic policy and procedures practiced by law enforcement today. In an interview with Pierce County Deputy Sheriff Sheldon Lessard I asked about basic police policies and procedures involving stop-and-frisk and traffic stops and what warrants these procedures. “Any sort of infraction or breaking the law or probable cause. Often times a suspect’s behavior plays a major key factor in probable cause. Being uneasy or uncooperative can be a major influence on an officer’s reason to believe that something is off and should consider further actions”(Lessard). In most cases in order for someone to good at something, they may need to have instincts and trust their gut, so the same could be said for being a police officer. Most people guilty of crime do not put themselves on display ready to be arrested. So officer Lessard’s suggestion that an officer may go off of suspect’s behavior can be warranted. However, the depiction that police officers target minorities in police practices such as these could influence a potential suspect’s behavior, such as being uneasy or uncooperative. The fact the police officers have targeted black has created misconceptions of law enforcement in black communities. Many black parents warn their children to remain perfectly still and make no sudden movements if they ever encounter police. Basically, trying to eliminate any potential excuse for a police officer to shoot them (Race and Death). This creates the perception that police officers are not here to “protect and serve” them but are in fact out to get them. It’s perceptions like these that create a vicious cycle that encourages and contributes to racial profiling. The perceptions previously discussed are just another factor in a bigger problem with racial profiling. News and media play a major role in the United States perception of race. One interesting result of this how it influences the divide on race. After a series of surveys about America's perception of the issue of racism and racial disparities shows that today white people believe the problem of racial bias against blacks is not considered a national issue anymore(Fletcher 1). After the shootings of Michael Brown, the city of of Ferguson erupted with city protests covered by numerous news and other media outlets and the United States’s divide on race was brought into the spotlight. However, this was not the first time U.S. has faced racial divide on an issue that attracted national attention. Even recently in 2012, George Zimmerman went on the trial for the shooting of young Treyvon Martin. While this incident was not a police shooting, it did possess many similarities with the shooting of Michael Brown. Zimmerman an off duty security officer spotted Martin a 17 year old black male looking suspicious in the suburbs of Florida. Zimmerman shot Martin claiming self defense even though Martin was not armed. The incident made national headlines and inspired a controversial debate between supporters of Martin and Zimmerman. One of the major controversies was race and the news and other media outlets presentation of racial issues. One of these issues was Zimmerman, who is hispanic, being labeled as “white hispanic” by media. This label by the media, influenced the incident to be categorized as the classic white vs black controversy, with many media outlets suggesting that Zimmerman’s actions were a hate crime (Martinot). The country watched as the Zimmerman trial unfolded and when found innocent, many in the country were outraged placing even more emphasis on the country’s divide. Years earlier, Oscar Grant a twenty-two year old black male was shot by BART police officer in the early hours of New Years day 2009 at the Fruitvale BART train stations. The incident had numerous witnesses and cell phone video footage soon began to circulate with protests following. These are just small number of examples of incidents that have made mainstream media, but it is these incidents that have helped contribute to the different perceptions of how race is viewed in the U.S. When President Obama spoke about shooting of Treyvon Martin he stated “I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away”(Brady). It is undeniable that incidents such as these fuel the U.S.’s divide on this controversy and it is that divide encourages stereotypes and racial profiling that influence racially biased policing. While it is clear the shooting of young black males by police officer’s is an issue with the American public, another perspective to consider is United States’s law enforcement. Much of the American public feel that law enforcement is incompetent and not taking accountability for their actions. There are multipole reason for these feelings, for instance when it comes to the record keeping, many law enforcement agencies don’t keep very accurate stats on incidents that turn deadly and the data the supports significant racial disparity among fatal police shooting has had to be pursued through The Federal Bureau Of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting program records. (Lee). This lack of organization does not install confidence in the public’s view of its law enforcement agencies. If law enforcement agencies are unable accurately record and account for important information regarding their policies, how can the public trust that they carry out their policies responsibly? However, the public’s lack of confidence in law enforcement has been acknowledged and some changes have been implemented to help discourage police officers from practicing racial profiling tendencies. This past fall U.S. district judge Shira Shceindlin ruled that stop-and-frisk violated individual's Fourth Amendment right to privacy and the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. She did not, however, call for an end to the policy altogether, instead opting to appoint an independent federal monitor to oversee the program and the implementation of reforms that would bring it in line with the Constitution (Gay). This could be considered a huge step in the right direction. The decline of a policy that promoted the targeting of young black men as well as minorities has the potential to reduce racial bias practices that result with Police Shootings. Even some police officers have begun to speak up on what they think the issue is. Seattle Police Officer Steve Pomper believes that “Perspectives in Profiling”, a five-year-old, eight hour workshop that trains employees on racial disparities and profiling issues. It involves officers watching several video clips of potentially suspicious behavior. Pomper believes the program is a part of the city of Seattle’s inflicting its socialist policies directly on the Seattle Police Department (Holden). While Pomper's views tend to go off on a more politically driven rant, Pomper touches a different view that should be considered. Some of public’s outrage towards law enforcement may be going too far. Are the public, news and media jumping to conclusions that just because a young unarmed black person was shot, it was because he was targeted by the police? Is it still possible that some of these young men could have still presented a potential threat and the officer was just doing his duty? While Pomper raises some interesting questions, the argument can only go so far because of law enforcements actions. There must surely be alternative method of handling an unarmed suspects that doesn’t result in fatal shootings. After incidents like these, what steps are law enforcement agencies taking to take accountability for their actions. Today Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Michael Brown, still receives full pay and his freedom. Many police officers in Ferguson support Wilson by assuming a he used reasonable force. Many cops are wear “I am Darren Wilson” bracelets that mock the chants of black protesters who chant “I am Michael Brown”at city council meetings(Miah). It is very evident that Ferguson law enforcement supports their officer after this incident, which condones the policies that lead to death of young black males, with only the consequences of a skeptic public outraged.
The events of August 9th 2014 in Ferguson Missouri are not new to the U.S. The nation has longed dealt with the issue of racism and its influence in how law enforcements conducts itself is clearly evident. Police tactics are being performed with racially bias tendencies that lead to the Police Shootings of young black males. These tendencies are inspired the nation’s interpretation and divide on racial issues, the news and media that enhance and encourage minority stereotypes and finally, the lack of accountability of the law enforcement agencies for such incidents. It’s a vicious cycle of different agents that cause and advance one another and only after one of agents is removed can the cycle stop.

Works Cited
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