Racial Profiling: Does law enforcement target minorities unjustly?
Students, faculty and staff crowded into a symposium in October to discuss the issue: "Racial Profiling: Does law enforcement target minorities unjustly?"
The
two-hour session in the Loker University Student Union was sponsored by the
university’s Black Men’s Group and by the Student Development Office.
Guest speakers were: deputies Brenda Gibson and Froilan Dinco, Los Angeles
County Sheriffs, Carson Station; attorney Michael Small, American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU); CSUDH Police Chief Michael A. Lordanich and Lt. Susan Sloan,
California State University police; and Michael Davis, senior deputy for county
Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.
The decision to address racial profiling stems from the importance of the issue and its concern to the campus community, said Michael Laurent, counseling psychologist, Student Development, who organized the program.
"You
know that a topic is very important when vice president candidates are discussing
it and presidential candidates are talking about it," Laurent told the
audience. But, he noted, not just candidates are discussing racial profiling:
The C-SPAN network also featured a program on the issue that garnered broad
attention and underscored the fact it is triggering outrage in society.
Small defined "racial profiling" as the practice by law enforcement to detain people for no other reason than their ethnicity. He said "black people and brown people" are the adult victims of profiling — "DWB," or "Driving While Black" or "Driving While Brown," — and that profiling happens to young people too —"LWB," or "Living While Black or Brown."
Is there proof profiling occurs? Yes, Small said: The ACLU established a DWB Hotline in the late 1990s and has received "thousands of complaints" from Hispanics and African Americans about racial harassment by police.
Gibson and Dinco said that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca maintains a "zero tolerance" policy of profiling, and both said they oppose such a practice. "I look for violators, plain and simple," Dinco said. But, both said they don’t doubt that some deputies practice profiling.
Gibson said she believes officers profile people out of fear produced by "a lack of communication" between the public and law enforcement. In short, prejudice exists because people in uniform and people on the street still harbor prejudice because they don’t know or understand one another.
That was proven, Dinco said, during a word association game at one cultural sensitivity workshop sponsored by the department: Alongside the word "Black," deputies wrote "gang, strong, and intimidation." Alongside "Asian-Pacific," they wrote "drugs, traffic violator." Alongside "Hispanic," they jotted "gangs." And, alongside "White," they wrote "businessman."
Students
in the audience complained about having been pulled over or detained by police
for no other reason other than their race,
a practice that the speakers unanimously said they strongly oppose.
"The Los
Angeles Police and Sheriff’s departments have a few
‘bad apples,’" Davis told the session. "You have a few
bad apples here at Dominguez Hills…. But, we should understand that the
majority of these officers in these departments are working very hard and
doing their best to protect us."
Small said racial profiling arose as an issue during the past decade because people who suspected it was happening began logging the incidents and complaining to their departments — a practice he and others support to try to stop the practice.
Moreover, Small said law enforcement should be required to file reports every time they detain someone — and that the report should note the reason for which they stopped them and their ethnicity.
In addition, the speakers supported increased cultural sensitivity training and role-playing for law enforcement. And, they encouraged the public not to hesitate to file complaints when they believe they’ve been victims of racial profiling.
"You are our eyes and ears out in the community," Gibson said. "We depend on you to help us."
–T.W.
