Is our Justice System Targeting Minorities?

The justice system throughout history has shown that it targets minorities in a very unfair manner. This is shown in many different ways specifically, let us talk about New York Cities stop and frisk policy. This policy allowed police officers to stop New Yorkers, interrogate and search them simply due to "reasonable suspicion." This policy started because of the high crime rates in New York City, but this is deemed to be not a plausible way to stop the crime rates from going up. The stops mainly targeted the African American and Hispanic populations. In 2019, 13,4459 stops were recorded by the NYPD. Of these 13,459 stops, 66% were innocent, 59% were black, 29% were Hispanic, and 9% were white. The stop-and-frisk policy came into play in 1968. It was often called the Terry stops because of the court case Terry vs. Ohio. This court case said that the stops had to be "reasonable."

By 1999, Hispanic and African Americans accounted for 50% of New York City but made up 84% of the city's police stops. Now the question is, did this policy work? Were crimes reduced due to the stop-and-frisk policy? The answer is no; most of the stops were deemed to be innocent. Therefore, most individuals were released after the stop and frisk. In the research article, "Do Stop, Question, and Frisk Practices Deter Crime" the authors stated that the stop and frisk policy only reduced crime rates by 2%. In fact, research has continuously shown that the majority of the crime rate reduction is based on the increased police forces in high-crime neighborhoods. The stop-and-frisk policy only impacted the crime rates if they had probable cause. Many people like to argue that probable cause and reasonable suspicion are the same things, but this is not the case. Reasonable suspicion is subjective to the law enforcement officer's discretion, while the probable cause is when the law enforcement officer has information about the suspect before searching them. Overall, politicians continue to push for the stop-and-frisk policy, but research says it is not helping the crime rates. This is just one example of the racism that continues to occur in the police force and the justice system. 

I want to talk about specific laws and cases that are affecting minorities because often, we get lost in the numbers, and we forget that there are people behind this that are suffering. Saying this, I want to talk about the famous court case of Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. They paid colleges millions of dollars so their kids could attend top universities. This scandal involved big universities like the University of Southern California. This was a large college admissions scandal, but these actresses were sentenced to only 14 days in jail, 250 hours of community service, and a $30,000 fine. For some people, this is a lot of money, and they would spend a lifetime paying this fine, but considering that these women have millions in their net worth, this will probably not even cause a dent in their finance. Let's compare this to African American mothers who put fake addresses on their school forms to allow their kids to attend better public schools. Kelly Williams-Bolar is a mother who used her daughters' father's address to enroll her kids in a better public school district. This mother served 9 days in jail, three years of probation after her jail time, and community service. Reports show that this mother was also studying to be a teacher, but due to getting felony charges, she could not get her teaching credentials. While listening to these stories, many individuals might say that both these charges are not that different. Many people fail to understand that the crimes are different and therefore need to be charged as such. These famous celebrities used their money to pass tests and college, admission providers. They surpassed students who worked hard throughout high school and took a spot to attend those universities for that school year. This is a much more heinous crime than falsifying an address. This is just one story of many when the justice system has targeted minorities. This is modern-day slavery that has been built into our system, supporting the notion of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Resources

https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data

https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/nypds-infamous-stop-and-frisk-policy-found-unconstitutional/

https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/does-stop-and-frisk-reduce-crime

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9133.12172

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157223

https://study.com/academy/lesson/probable-cause-vs-reasonable-suspicion.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/13/759256335/actress-felicity-huffman-sentenced-to-14-days-in-college-admissions-scandal

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133306180/Mother-Jailed-For-School-Fraud-Flares-Controversy

https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2016/systemic-racism-is-real

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/new-york-nypd-stop-frisk-lawsuit-trial-charts/