The Myth of Racial Profiling

City Journal ^ | Spring 2001 | Heather McDonald

[Rodney Kings Brain]

The Myth of Racial Profiling

The anti-"racial profiling" juggernaut must be stopped, before it obliterates the crime-fighting gains of the last decade, especially in inner cities. The anti-profiling crusade thrives on an ignorance of policing and a willful blindness to the demographics of crime. Yet politicians are swarming on board. In February, President George W. Bush joined the rush, declaring portentously: "Racial profiling is wrong, and we will end it in America." Too bad no one asked President Bush: "What exactly do you mean by 'racial profiling,' and what evidence do you have that it exists?" For the anti-profiling crusaders have created a headlong movement without defining their central term and without providing a shred of credible evidence that "racial profiling" is a widespread police practice.

[Logophile]

But since the advent of video cameras in patrol cars, installed in the wake of the racial profiling controversy, most charges of police racism, testified to under oath, have been disproved as lies.

That is interesting.

[Rodney Kings Brain]

I asked our local cops about this (I work for the City) and they told me that whenever they get a complaint of police brutality involving a traffic stop, etc. they pull the tapes (or now electronic files from a hard drive) to see what happened. In South Carolina most of the complaints are actually disproved this way. There are some folks who file complaints every time they are stopped in the hope charges will be dropped and the camera systems do seem to help the police defend themselves against this. Of course, videos of excessive police force do make it to the media and it should be investigated.

[Logophile]

There are some folks who file complaints every time they are stopped in the hope charges will be dropped and the camera systems do seem to help the police defend themselves against this.

Is it against the law to file a false complaint? If so, are these people ever prosecuted?

[ClaireSolt]

I watch Al sharpton and others complain about the criinal justice system imprisoning too many blacks. They want to address the problem every which way except teaching their chidren to obey the law and say 'yes sir' to cops.

[Rodney Kings Brain]

Yes it is against the law. Sometimes we press charges but more often or not, the person is confronted with the evidence and drop the complaint and it goes no further. Part of the reason is, even if someone files a complaint and evidence shows nothing happened, if they do not drop the matter it takes so many man hours, etc. to deal with it that it makes more sense to not prosecute if they drop the charges. Personally, I think everyone of them should be prosecuted if they make a false complaint against an officer.