RACIAL PROFILING -SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL KEEPING THE MINORITIES IN LINE- THE ROLE OF LAW ENFORCEMNET IN AMERICA

I. INTRODUCTION II. THE HISTORY OF POLICING AND THE MODERN TREND III. DOES RACE, RELIGION, OR ETHNICITY INCREASE A PERSON'S CHANCE OF BECOMING A VICTIM OF POLICE BRUTALITY? A. Race/Ethnicity as a Factor B. Commission report findings C. Excessive force D. Racial Profiling E. Pre-Textual Stops F. Religion as a Factor IV. DOES GENDER OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF BECOMING A VICTIM OF POLICE BRUTALITY? A. Law enforcement violence against women B. Violence against the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) V. (THE CONSEQUENCES OF REPORTING POLICE BRUTALITY) RETALIATION BY POLICE OFFICERS FOR REPORTING POLICE BRUTALITY VI. QUALIFIED IMMUNITY VII. SELF-DEFENSE AND JUSTIFICATION VIII. SOLUTIONS FOR COMBATING POLICE BRUTALITY IX. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION dynamics surrounding an encounter between a police officer and a black male are quite different from those that surround an encounter between an officer and the so-called average reasonable person. (1) This applies to black men of all economic strata, regardless of their ... education, ... job status or place in the community. (2) During the recent highly publicized traffic stop, caught on the officer's in-car camera, (3) a Dallas policeman, Robert Powell, refused to allow Texans (4) running back Ryan Moats and his family to reach the bedside of a dying family member. (5) The officer threatened Moats with arrest for running a traffic (6) Filled with grief, Moats' wife and aunt rushed into the hospital despite the fact the officer had his gun pulled. (7) Distressed, Moats and his father-in-law tried to explain the urgency of the matter, but the officer utilized immoral discretion and continued to detain them in the hospital emergency parking lot. (8) A nurse and hospital security guards also confirmed the player's story to Officer Powell. (9) You really want to go through this right now? Moats said. My mother-in-law is dying, right now. (10) Shut your mouth, Officer Powell said at one point. (11) You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light. (12) A storm of outrage gathered over the Dallas police department; (13) Powell was first placed on an administrative leave, but then later resigned. (14) Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle called a news conference and apologized for the behavior of Officer Powell and chastised him for lack of compassion, discretion and common sense. (15) Moats, in an interview with a Dallas radio station, said the officer's intransigence robbed him and his father-in-law of irreplaceable moments in a time of grief that morphed, after the officer pulled a weapon on Moats and his wife, into moments of confusion and terror. (16) broader notion of [good and fair] policing still survives in the American constitutional doctrine of police powers, in which the Supreme Court explicitly treats policing as encompassing the tasks of governance, (17) however, [p]olicing is inherently political because social control is a core and contested task of governance. (18) Although, the law stands at the center of modern American life, (19) for ... years, there has been, through the courts and the streets a dreary procession of citizens with [unjustified charges], broken heads, and bruised bodies against few of whom was violence needed to effect an arrest. (20) of them had done nothing to deserve an arrest. (21) In a majority of such cases, no complaint was made. (22) [However], [i]f the victim [did] complain, his charge is generally dismissed; the police are practically above the law. (23) Many victims, along with the police that brutalize them, mistakenly believe that [t]here is more law at the end of a policeman's nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court. …