 |
Speak Up! - View Question #10 |
|
| « LawForKids.org home page | « Go back to speak up question #10 |
Question: Is racial profiling a legal way for a cop to stop a person on the road?
Answer: Racial profiling is not a legal way for the
police to single out a person to make a traffic stop. The 4th Amendment to the
United States Constitution protects your rights to be free from unreasonable
searches.
What this means is that police must have a reasonable
suspicion that a crime is occurring before they can stop you and investigate
whether you have committed a crime. Reasonable suspicion is a common-sense judgment
on the part of the police officer that they feel a crime is being committed.
There must be something that the officer can point to, in his or her experience,
that would lead them to think criminal activity is going on.
The race of a person alone is never enough to
justify a traffic stop or an arrest.
|
|
| Comments |
| 1 thru 5 of 7 comments |
On 11/16/05
Sandy from MI said:
Steve, you might be right that 90% of the arrest by cop with manorities do end in drugs and weapons , but you have to remember that you must be watching the show "Cops" and that how the script was written. We are talking about the real world!
|
On 04/26/05
mathew carrisalez from TX said:
I go to Alamo Heights high school.i had takin my car to school cuz my parents were workin and i had to pick up my bro. I went off campus to get lunch; and when i came back i parked my car. when i got out of my car i had my backpack on and everything. i went to my 5th period class and i had my principle waiting there for me. she told me that there was a cop that saw me and thought i looked suspicious for sitting in my car and thought that i didn't go to that school. well i'm a hispanic goin to a white school. why did the cop get me out. how is that not a sign of racial profiling all i needtosay
|
On 01/19/04
S.C. from VA said:
I hope your comment that "African-Americans are not the enemies" doesn't mean that real enemies are Muslim-Americans. I am as patriotic as anyone else in this country.
|
On 12/12/02
Brad from CA said:
This is in response to Steve' comment: Where did you get that 90%statistic? Is there empirical evidence to support your claim? That's seems just a little bit too high to me!
|
On 07/05/02
Steve from AZ said:
Then how come 90% of the time when a cop pulls over a minority, he/she ends up having warrants, illegal guns, or drugs in the car?
|
| 1 thru 5 of 7 comments |
|
|
| Read more about the law and Driving |
|
| « LawForKids.org home page | « Go back to speak up question #10 |