Race Relations and Law Enforcement in the United States of America
community. It would also be possible for the police to be very active and engage in aggressive policing strategies if the people in the black community have a huge criminal propensity. One fact must be stated. Blacks tend to be more violent than other races. Moreover, how reasonable is the allegation of racial bias where the apprehending officers are blacks? It must mean that the association with aggression and violence emanates from the people and not from the police. The perception of black as violent and aggressive people appears to be the same with black police officers as it is with white police officers.
Conclusion
There appears to be statistics to support the accusation of racial bias in the law enforcement procedures involving black people. According to the Federal Household Survey, “most current illicit drug users are white. There were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72 percent of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15 percent), and 1.4 million Hispanics (10 percent) who were current illicit drug users in 1998. “And yet, blacks constitute 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations. African-Americans comprise almost 58% of those in state prisons for drug felonies; Hispanics account for 20.7%, (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Summary Report 1998, cited in Race Law Enforcement & Prison, 2008). The picture painted after reading the above statistics is that more white people commit crimes than blacks, but there are more black people caught for the crimes. It is either that the white criminals are too clever for the law enforcement officers or the law enforcement officers know who the criminals are among white people, but choose not to apprehend them. It is doubtful if the latter is the case.
In an interview conducted by the writer with Assistant Police in Dekalb, Kennis Harrell on 11/20/2008, the racial profiling assumption was flawed. The Assistant chief does not agree with claim of racial profiling. His argument was that in a predominantly black populated County like Dekalb, it is to be expected that most of the apprehended suspects would reflect the racial composition of the County. He would also not agree that blacks have a higher criminal propensity than whites. It comes down to the same argument that blacks would commit crimes in a black populated community. The same thing goes for the Latino populated areas. This argument when stretched further seems to dispel the racial content in the spate of deadly police shootings. It would appear that each case of deadly police shootings would have to be analyzed on a case by case basis. Consequently, the only theory that would apply generally to all cases would be the “danger perception” theory, (Best & Quigley, 2003). According to this theory, police officers react to the level of danger they imagine they are in. It then appears to be pure coincidence that more ethnic minorities are involved in deadly police shootings. It is definitely an issue deserving of further inquiry as the trend is disturbing. There is much truth in the suggestion made by Stewart (2007) that there should be further inquiry on what the impact of the presence of minorities in the various police departments would have on the minorities’ perception of the law enforcement agencies. Would the minorities in the police force see their kith and kin as more aggressive and more violent than others? The answer appears to be that perceptions would hardly change. The reason is that even in neighborhoods which are predominantly black both in population and in the composition of the police departments, racial profiling (so called) is not absent and feelings of unfairness and police brutality remain strong.
There is the need for African Americans to have a re-orientation; one that emphasizes industry as opposed cutting corners; one that symbolizes hard work and not seeking to reap where they have not sown; a comprehensive program for all round development as opposed to the get rich syndrome and a genuine effort at abandoning ghetto life.
References
Best, D. & Quigley, A. (2003) Shootings By the Police: What Predicts When a Firearms
Officer in England and Wales will pull the Trigger, Policing and Society, Vol. 13
No. 4
Brunson, R. K. (2007) “Police Don’t Like Black People”: African American Young
Men’s Accumulated Police Experiences, Journal of Criminology and Public
Policy, Vol. 6 No 1 PP 71-102
Harris, M. (1999), Theories of culture in postmodern times. Walnut Greek, CA: