NJ state police and blacks on the NJ turnpike Essay

NJ state police and bootlegs on the NJ turnpike - Essay exampleThere are at least two operative definitions of the practice knows as racial pen The first is what is termed as hard profiling, which puts an individuals race as the only consideration in the minds mettle of the police officer in making a preliminary assessment of suspicious criminality. When a police officer views a black person or other minority, and the officer does not have anything else to substantiate criminality, he pulls the black person over for a pat down on the hope that he may either Find a weapon or drugs in hispossession. The second form is referred too as soft racial profiling, where the police officer uses race as one of the reasons, among others which have been previously detailed to him as stereotypical of drug dealers or couriers. The impertinently island of Jersey State Troopers for example, have news show that Jamaican drug posses have a fondness for Nissan Pathfinders as their vehicles of c hoice when transporting marijuana along the northeastward Corridor. The controversy surrounds racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike as practiced by New Jersey State Troopers was focused almost exclusively on main road stops. Where the police were halt a disproportionate share of black and other minority drivers for traffic violations, but the prevailing reason states that the stops were specifically carried out as a means of drug interdiction. Of course in some(prenominal) instances, the driver may have committed an infraction, but there might, and usually were others within the specific caboodle in which he was traveling, who also committed a similar violation. But it was their lucky day for the others, because a minority was in the vicinity. 2New Jersey State Police and Blacks on the New Jersey Turnpike We will take a look into a court case which led a Superior Court stress to conclude in 1996 that the New Jersey State Police had a policy of selective enforcement by t argeting blacks for investigation and arrest. Some of the finding were as follows The ruling followed one of the states longest evidentry hearings-six months of proof and 200 exhibits, many of them statistical surveys of drivers and traffic stops on the southern most 26-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike. assay Robert Francis found that troopers looking for drug suspects had pulled over an inordinate number of black drivers over a three year period simply because of their race. The survey determined that some 98 per penny of all the drivers along the stretch of the turnpike were going over the speed limit of 55 miles per hour, better-looking the police latitude to stop virtually anybody. The survey found that while 13.5 per cent of the drivers on the stretch of the highway were black, 46 per cent of those halted by the police over a 40- month period were black According to the public defender, Fred Last, who helped design the survey, said, They were pulling over b lacks out of proportion to the population of the turnpike (Last). Judge Francis agreed, saying, The statistical disparities are indeed stark, the judge added, utter failure of police commanders to monitor the arrests or investigate the many claims of institutional discrimination, manifests its indifference if not acceptance (Francis) One striking result of the survey, which the judge noted, was that the troopers using 3radar tended to stop black drivers at near their rate in the highway population, while the