In the world today it feels as if we see issues with the police on the news almost every week. A few months back I was pulled over by a police officer for speeding while on my way home from school. It was a typical stop, he asked for license and registration, explained to me what laws I broke and what the consequences for those would be. In this 10 minute period of being pulled over to leaving, I could not find my registration for my car. After a minute of looking I called my dad and he told me where the registration was, I gave it to the officer and went on my way, feeling pretty dumb that I just handed him the wrong paper and couldn’t find my registration. During this time however, I had no fear that something could happen with officer in which I could end up hurt or in jail. However for many young African American men and women, daily encounters with the police such as mine can easily create a sense of fear in these people because, of the way the police treat young African Americans.
Back in March of 2018 National Geographic wrote an article titled For Black Motorists, a Never-Ending Fear of Being Stopped, the articles talks about how minorities are pulled over at alarmingly higher rates than white people, and the article also has people telling their stories of being racially profiled by the police. The issue with racial profiling and police brutality is systemic because is greatly and overwhelmingly effects minorities. Unfortunately racial profiling and racism by the police against minorities is nothing new. In this class we read March by John Lewis, in which he details all the racism and struggles that he endured from the police while working towards equality. In his novel he describes how he was beaten by the police and although police beatings on traffic stops are rare today minorities still have to face the looming doubt that something could go wrong on a basic traffic stop. People no matter what race they are should be in fear of their life during a routine traffic stop, but this is a terrible thing that minorities deal with daily. In order to write this wrong there needs to be more training in the police force, and police officers need to get rid of the racist stereotypes against minorities.
https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways