Minority Lives Matter

Although racial profiling is not a new concept, there has been an increase in how it affects the criminal justice system and the minorities who live in the US. In 2016, 250 black people were killed by police, according to data collected by The Guardian, which also found that black males between the ages of 15 and 34 are nine times more likely to be killed by police than any other demographic (Workneh, L. 2017). Its research also found that the group of black males within this age range make up just 2 percent of the U.S. population yet accounted for 15 percent of all deaths from police encounters in 2015 (Workneh, L. 2017).
Racial profiling continues to harm our nation despite the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment under the law. Likewise, excessive force by police persists despite the Constitution's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures (Natarajan, R. 2015). The rise in racial profiling and police brutality on minorities has caused much distress in the US over the past two years. The criminal justice system is designed to have equal rights for men women and race. The current policies which allow stop and frisk violate the human rights of African American and Hispanic women and men as it allows for racial profiling which has often led to the death of a minority. In 2015 it was stated that during September of 2014 a report from the NAACP titled "Born Suspect" found 20 out of the 50 states does not have laws that prohibit racial profiling by law enforcement (Natarajan, R. 2015). Only 17 states require data collection on all police stops and searches, and only 15 require analysis and publication of other racial profiling data (Natarajan, R. 2015).These issues have not only violated the human rights of minorities but have also changed the role of the criminal justice system which has not punished the officers appropriately or given equal rights to the individuals. On August 12, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled the controversial police tactic unconstitutional (Arnsdorf, I. 2016). These issues have led to other tragedies as people have begun to seek justice in their manners. On July 7, 2016, a few days after the police killing of two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, African-American, Army veteran Micah Xavier Johnson, age 25 trained his semiautomatic rifle on the police patrolling at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas (Smith, S. 2017).