Driving While Black; the Crimeless Crime

Driving while black refers to the blatant and unethical act commonly known as racial profiling. Certain individuals in the field of law enforcement feel as though it is acceptable to randomly stop and detain drivers whom have not committed an offense simply because of the color of their skin. These actions are gradually becoming more prevalent throughout the United States with the highest concentration of occurrences located in areas in which there are high percentages of individuals whom are not Caucasian. As if the incidents of discrimination and prejudice within the country were not high enough, now the legal system must attempt to deal with the lack of ethical conduct by law enforcement officers regarding racial profiling. It is indeed a precarious and difficult situation yet something must be done in order to protect the innocent individuals whose lives are touched by these inexplicable and deplorable acts on a daily basis.

The facts and figures relating to the issue of racial profiling are stunning. There is no question that officers are merely harassing individuals whom match the characteristics of individuals they believe to be “trouble-makers” or criminals. Even though statistics are readily available to provide information regarding the background of individuals stopped by law enforcement officials, there is no guarantee that officers are actually reporting correctly. Officers who will stop and detain individuals on the basis of the color of their skin surely do not have the appropriate ethical and moral standards to correctly report this information. They are more concerned with keeping their jobs and concealing the fact that they are performing these activities.

In New York City, during the first 9 months of 2009,

“…more than 450,000 people were stopped by the cops, an increase of 13 percent over the same period in 2008. An overwhelming 84 percent of the stops in the first three-quarters of 2009 were of black or Hispanic New Yorkers. It is...