The magnitude of civil rightlaw suits against law enforcement officials who are accused of violating citizen’s due process rights has increased exponentially over the past decade. There are a multitude of reasons for the increase in law suits against law enforcement agencies and officials. The target by lawyers who represent the plaintiffs of the law suits identify the lack or inefficient of training and education as the reasons for the violations.
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| Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, United States Department of Justice, at The City Project Environmental Justice Roundtable, February 25, 2010 (Photo credit: The City Project) |
Law enforcement officials who prepare and develop policy and procedure obtain the necessary standards which provide training for the officers who will apply the rules and protocols. Lawyers who review these rules and protocols examine and evaluate the elements of the rules and protocols to determine if the information inputted into the policy is bullet proof i.e. lawful.
A policy which is bullet proof simply means that an intelligent and creative plaintiff’s attorney who can penetrate the legal standards which allow the plaintiff to find financial relief for the alleged civil rights violations. The penetration which occurs just does not occur from the plaintiff’s side of the argument but from the law enforcement agencies and officials attorneys who know how to shield/protect the policies from continually being penetrated and shredded by the legal arguments by the plaintiff’s.
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| LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 26: mother of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton speaks during a rally at West Los Angeles Church in Christ to mark the two-month anniversary of her son's death as his father Tracy Martin looks on April 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The rally by civil rights groups was expected to draw prominent civil rights leaders and celebrities to address racial profiling. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
The aggressive stop and frisk practices being instituted by law enforcement agencies across America has presented a significant amount of ‘bullets’ which have penetrated the very fabric of the United States Constitutions. Those who are for racial profiling, which most aggressive communities, law enforcement agencies, and officials seem to be is fundamentally of the belief that in racial profiling there may be some violations of the law i.e. abiding by the Constitution and its safeguards.
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| Constitution (Photo credit: kalavinka) |
The violations of the Constitution seem and possibly should outweigh the positive results that occur when with the proper training and education criminals are either stopped before committing a crime which may have major significance to the community as a whole.
The law suits which are being filed across America deals with some type of racial profiling. Racial profiling targets people of color who look different, act different, may fit previous criminal behavior and actions of individuals who in the past committed crimes which brought about conflict within the community. This aggressive act on those who fit the criminal profile has created major conflicts within the community causing mistrust amongst the citizens and law enforcement.
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| LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 26: Tracy Martin (R) father of slain teen Trayvon Martin, greets Rev. Jesse Jackson during a rally at West Los Angeles Church in Christ to mark the two-month anniversary of Martin's death on April 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The rally by civil rights groups was expected to draw prominent civil rights leaders and celebrities to address racial profiling. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
The conflict inside the community hampers policing efforts by other police officials who are trying to find a way to demonstrate methods and techniques which directly reduce crime in poverty stricken neighborhoods. Further, in the community losing credibility amongst the citizens who officials are sworn to protect and serve is causing conflicts between those who have grown afraid and concerned of their law enforcement officials.
Racial profiling has prevented a two way communication between the community and law enforcement from occurring. Many citizens shut their doors on law enforcement officials in fear of being harassed and potentially targeted by well-meaning officers who need their assistance to solve crimes.
So how do police train and educate their officials from committing violations of the law, if in deed this is what they are doing, without violating the civil rights of others? Training and educating law enforcement officials comes from teaching them how to do the right thing the first time. Instead of complaining that the focus is on how to cheat or circumvent the system, law enforcement educators are stressing the necessity of understanding the Constitution and how these aspects are vital to conquering crime in their community.
Statistics play a major role in the training and educational system. Statistics demonstrate that given the proper circumstances an individual or group of individuals can be legally detained to determine if committing a crime was the intent of their presence in a specific location in the community.
A store which has been robbed numerous times between the hours of 9 to 11 pm, by individuals who wear blue hoodies, black pants, hang in groups of two to four individuals, are between the ages of 18-25, white, athletic, and are dropped off near the business by a specific dark four door vehicle with tinted windows, may just have the resemblance of a serial robbery gang.
The word resemblance could fit what the community refers to as profiling. Good police work is taking the information obtained from previous crimes and law enforcement reports, compiling the statistics, similarities, method of operandi, and so forth may be profiling but this is how criminals are arrested.
It is when an individual is walking down the street wearing dark clothing, being of an ethnicity other
than white, acting suspicious by making furtive movements when he/she is observed by law enforcement officials. This is when profiling maybe significant enough according to the official to pay attention to this individual, stop and frisk this individual to determine why he/she is in a specific area.
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| Buffalo Law Enforcement Training (Photo credit: U.S. Coast Guard) |
The police have the right to observe, stop, frisk, and detain any individual who is behaving in a manner which is suspicious in nature, in an area where major crimes have occurred, matching the behavior and conduct of individuals who in matching the description of the alleged perpetrator may be a reasonable and logical conclusion that the individual may have the intent to commit a criminal act.
Law enforcements decision to take action or not take action will benefit from law enforcements training, education, and experience and potentially stop a crime from occurring. However, profiling is not an exact science, but an art which is based upon assumptions, hypothesis, intuition, creativity, innovation, logic, common sense, and many other educated and experience conjectures, which in the past has proven to be correct.
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| FBI Director Robert Mueller (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service) |
If the art of profiling is wrong, then a law suit as earlier discussed in this article maybe the result of the law enforcements behavior prior to, during, and after the detaining, releasing, or apprehension of the potential criminal.
The current FBI administration has a presumption that Arabs and Muslims may be terrorists, which places them in a position where they are potentially harassed, embarrassed, denied due process and so forth. The law enforcement community is encouraged by the Obama administration to aggressively expand the manner in which they deal with non-whites in potential international and domestic terrorist’s situation.
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s attitude has led to hate crimes and racial profiling of those who are living and visiting in America. The potential for another 9/11 situation occurring has and will continue to be on the minds of the law enforcement communities for decades to come.
s attitude has led to hate crimes and racial profiling of those who are living and visiting in America. The potential for another 9/11 situation occurring has and will continue to be on the minds of the law enforcement communities for decades to come.
Law enforcement agencies that fail to aggressively, intelligently, proactively, and competently approach individuals who may be terrorists would be seen as a nemesis in a community where lessons should have been learned over the past decade. President George W. Bush set guidelines for profiling which were put into effect after the 9/11 incidences which have been positively enhanced by law enforcement.
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| English: Naiz Khan, target of an FBI terror investigation -- Khan is a friend of Najibullah Zazi who was arrested by the FBI in September and charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. After Zazi's arrest Khan was targeted by the FBI and NYPD -- Khan alleges racial profiling -- and lost his job as a result. In this image he is speaking at a press conference in Flushing, Queens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In the meantime, lawyers for and against civil liberties need to evaluate just how law enforcement must be trained and educated, where the boundaries should be placed in determining what is reasonable and logical when it comes to profiling, and most importantly where and how the Constitution fits into the entire scheme of things.
There must be a balance in the pursuit of enforcing the laws in America, never stepping over the letter of the law under any circumstances. When the Fathers of this country wrote the Constitution terrorists were not on their minds. However, intrusion by any governmental agency or individual whose sole purpose was to violate one of the Constitutional Amendments were on their minds and this is why the ‘due process’ part of the Constitution was clearly written.
Civil rights, abuse of powers, illegal search and seizures, unlawful detention, and other elements of the Constitution were written to protect the citizens of America. The need to abide by each Amendment protects each of us from living in a society where the government controls the freedom we so desperately need and respect.
desperately need and respect.
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