Racial Profiling Interferes With Criminal Investigations
Racial profiling has undermined some high-profile criminal investigations. Take the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995. In that case, officers initially investigated the bombings with Arab males in mind as suspects. As it turned out, white American men committed the crime. "Similarly, during the Washington D.C. area sniper investigation, the African-American man and boy ultimately accused of the crime reportedly were able to pass through multiple road blocks with the alleged murder weapon in their possession, in part, because police profilers theorized the crime had been committed by a white male acting alone," Amnesty points out.
Other cases in which racial profiling proved futile were the arrests of John Walker Lindh, who is white; Richard Reid, a British citizen of West Indian and European ancestry; Jose Padilla, a Latino; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian; on terrorism-related charges. None of these men fit the profile of "Arab terrorist" and indicate that the authorities should focus on one's behavior rather than on one's race or national origin in targeting terrorism suspects.
"Senior international security experts have suggested, for example, that such an approach would have increased the chances that suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid would have been stopped before he successfully boarded an airplane he intended to attack," Amnesty International asserts.
Alternatives to Racial Profiling
During his address to Santa Clara University Law School, Siggins described methods other than racial profiling law enforcement could use to pinpoint terrorists and other criminals. Authorities, he argued, should combine what they know about other terrorists in the U.S. with information obtained through investigations of these individuals to avoid casting too wide of a net. For example, authorities could ask:
"Have the subjects passed bad checks? Do they (have) multiple forms of identification with different names? Do they live in groups with no visible means of support? Does a subject use credit cards with different names on them?" Siggins suggests. "Ethnicity alone is not enough. If ethnic profiling of Middle Eastern men is enough to warrant disparate treatment, we accept that all or most Middle Eastern men have a proclivity for terrorism, just as during World War II, all resident Japanese had a proclivity for espionage."
In fact, in the case of World War II, 10 people were convicted of spying for Japan during the course of the conflict, according to Amnesty International. None of these individuals were of Japanese, or Asian, descent. Yet, the U.S. forced more than 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to evacuate from their homes and be relocated in internment camps. In this situation, the fallout from racial profiling proved tragic.
What to Do if Police Stop You
Law enforcement may have good cause to stop you. Perhaps your tags are expired, your taillight is out or you committed a traffic violation. If you suspect something else, such as racial profiling, is to blame for being stopped, visit the American Civil Liberties Union's Web site. The ACLU advises individuals stopped by police not to get combative with the authorities or threaten them. However, you don't have to "consent to any search of yourself, your car or your house" without a search warrant from police, with some exceptions. If police claim to have a search warrant, make sure to read it, the ACLU cautions. Write down everything you remember about your interaction with police as soon as possible. These notes will help if you report a violation of your rights to the police department's internal affairs division or civilian board.
