WHITES: THE CRIMES THEY DON'T COMMIT
BY STUDENT
BY STUDENT
As a Latino in the United States I can attest to the
dichotomies that presently exist in law enforcement and the policies that
define crime. Put simply the halves are those who are White and those who are
not. These racialized policies tend to follow the contours of geographical
borders like communities, cities, or even whole states. The ideologies at the
base of these policies are simplistic and stereotypical in nature.
The racialization of crimes are influenced by many things
and a key one is the “Broken Window Policy,” which gave law enforcement the
freedom to assume and stereotype something based on physical appearance. Todays “Stop and Frisk” is a descendant of
that policy. Stop and Frisk allows officers to frisk individuals who show signs
of suspicion. Sadly, the statistics show that most of the individuals frisked
have been Black and Latino men. According to the New York Civil Liberties
Union, “[Between] 2002 and 2012, black and Latino residents made up close to 90
percent of people stopped, and about 88 percent of stops – more than 3.8
million – were innocent New Yorkers.” This is evidence that race, besides those
that are considered white, are criminalized.
These beliefs arise after the end of slavery and into the realm of policy making (such as Jim Crow) and it argues for the Nature side of the “Nurture versus Nature” debate. The nature side of the debate argues that blacks are inherently inferior to Whites because they don’t have the mental capacity to excel beyond their present conditions. The nurture side argues that the historical and present oppressive conditions have held blacks and Latinos from developing. This kind of thinking is so integrated into U.S culture and policy that we can see even President Thomas Jefferson say in his only book Notes on the State of Virginia, in reference to black people, that, “In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation then reflection…”
To finally establish the purpose behind my title, whites have had the privilege of not being seen as criminal as a tribute to their historical dominance. The white policy makers, ignorant of their privilege, make laws, like in New York’s “Stop and Frisk,” that further criminalizes Latinos and Blacks and perpetuates the belief that they are inherently criminal and subordinate. To further explain the injustice in our present and past legal system, whites don’t commit less crime as a result of their superiority but a result of luck; lucky to be born privileged.
As a fellow Latino, its really unfortunate to see how Latinos and African Americans are treated when it comes to law making. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of those in power are white does not help either. The "broken window policy" and "Stop and Frisk" is clearly stereotypical and bias as well as one that was made my white supremacy. It seems like they purposely try to criminalize and separate Latinos and African Americans while at the same time stating how America is "the land of the free". The rationalization of crime definitely needs some sort of adjustments whether its from another white or a person from another race, doesnt matter from who it is as long as they are changed to enhance equality between all races.
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ReplyDeleteVery interesting article, I like how you really digest the causes for racial criminalization. I agree with the comment above because I too am a Latino and it saddens me to see fellow Latinos going to jail for minor crimes. In a way they sell the American dream to us at our home countries as a pull factor and then when we get here we find nothing but mediocre jobs and very harsh living conditions, conditions which can sometimes shape the outcome of a person's life. I think the "sensation not reflection" statement does not make sense because a lot of times we are put into these terrible environments but still expected to survive at the same level as someone who was born with more resources naturally just because of skin pigmentation. As someone who grew up in the impoverished neighborhood of East New York but made it out to college I see how challenging it is to stay off the streets and in school but you can still do it, it's just not fair to see how demographics can affect the quality of your life and also influence some of your choices. Basically your area can limit you, but it shouldn't and although we are faced with more challenges we can still make it out. So to bring it back to criminalization, I think that although we are faced with more challenges than our white peers, it's important for us not to add onto pre-existing stereotypes and stay away from jail and keep our fellow Latinos out of jails as well.
ReplyDeleteAs a young black woman I find that this article is both informative, sad, and interesting. It saddened/ angered me to learn that 90 percent of the people that are stopped are of African American/Latino descent. The stop and frisk law in my eyes gave police officers the right to criminalize specific racial groups without a problem. I think you ended the blog with a powerful last sentence. White privilege is a real thing and it sucks to think that this is something that has started from so long ago and still happens today.
ReplyDeleteThis part of your blog really caught my attention “[Between] 2002 and 2012, black and Latino residents made up close to 90 percent of people stopped, and about 88 percent of stops – more than 3.8 million – were innocent New Yorkers.” the fact that more than 3.8 billion people stopped were innocent. Numbers like that really make you question if all of the struggles previous activist and educators, endured, was all worth it? Previous educators and activist have fought for our rights and have been crucified figuratively speaking because of their strong opinions on racial equality.. and at the time it may seem like a mild stone when they get their point across.. but what good is all those struggles if were still encountering such high numbers of racial discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI think that this blog post points out on some key points that affect us as Latino/as. Policy makers are constantly passing laws that make it hard for us to be seen as anything other than what they already believe. The "Stop and Frisk" policy allows for anyone to be stopped based on what they look like, and it's not right. The fact that Latinos make up 90% of the people stopped is just sad. Latinos and African Americans are the ones most stopped and it's because of antecedents that have paint us as the bad guys.
ReplyDeleteI think that this post shows that the policy makers purposely try to criminalize specific groups of people. If the policy is stopping 90% black and Latino individuals, and most of those individuals ended up being innocent of any crime, then the policy needs to either be taken away or fixed to stop an equal amount of all people. Stopping such a large amount of one or two races wont actually make anyone in the community safer, which should be the goal of the policy. The policy should be used to stop people that are actually criminals, which it is not doing.
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ReplyDeleteRehnuma: I thoroughly enjoyed this post, as it hit several key points. As a minority myself, it is unfair that there are policies like “Stop and Frisk” that mainly target people of color, such as blacks and Latinos. White privilege has historically hindered the progress of minorities, and it has carried onto this day and age. The racialization of crimes presents an oppressive nature that is hard to escape when enforced by federal agents.
ReplyDeleteThis truly saddens me to learn that white policies makers are purposely passing laws such as "stop and frisk" which mainly targets the people of color. Stop and frisk allows officers to frisk individuals who shows signs of suspicions. They claim that it is to provide a secure community. However, the result shows that almost 90% of the people stopped were Latinos or Blacks. so instead of actually stopping the crimes they are focusing more on criminalizing the minority groups. will the stereotype attached to our skin color ever going to leave us?
ReplyDeleteYour article is very informative. My final paper is related to criminalization and the stop and frisk policy is very disturbing. This pertains and is directed more to Latino and African American because of labeling. It is very uncomfortable thinking that as a Hispanic male that stop and frisk could happen to me. But it has! I was stopped with my cousin as we were driving home. They had seen a colored drink, at the time they didn’t know it was a slushed, and had us frisked and searched all over the car.
ReplyDeleteSince I am writing about the racialization of crime in my final paper, I completely understand and agree with your argument. I like how you elaborated on the broken window policy and stop and frisk. It is disappointing that in a society as advanced and complex as ours we are struggling with the this simple problem for many years. I have known friends of mine who have been mistreated by such injustices and I don't believe it is right to create such laws that only target a certain group that "looks suspicious" when most of the time they are innocent. We see it all the time on the news how white police officers treat minorities and they are right because these things are happening and it needs to be stopped.
ReplyDeleteSince I am writing about the racialization of crime in my final paper, I completely understand and agree with your argument. I like how you elaborated on the broken window policy and stop and frisk. It is disappointing that in a society as advanced and complex as ours we are struggling with the this simple problem for many years. I have known friends of mine who have been mistreated by such injustices and I don't believe it is right to create such laws that only target a certain group that "looks suspicious" when most of the time they are innocent. We see it all the time on the news how white police officers treat minorities and they are right because these things are happening and it needs to be stopped.
ReplyDeleteThe broken windows policy was created to make a change and to assure that police officers were better trained on how to handle difficult situations. I believe that it didn't make a change instead it made it worse because police officers continue to over use there power and not for the best. The stop and frisk has also caused a lot of controversy because it is made to search someone who is doing suspicious behavior but what exactly does that mean. Many times people are stopped for no reason and their rights are violated. I think there should be a better way to train cops to stop all the unfair judgements.
ReplyDeleteStop and frisk is an unfortunate and controversial issue throughout out city but I feel it is one that is important. I am biased towards this issue because my father is an NYPD detective so he has told me many stories of the negatives of stop and frisk, but more so the positives of taking people off the streets. Even though people see it as racial profiling, stop and frisk is mostly done in poverty stricken neighborhoods with higher crime rates. The majority of people who occupy these types of neighborhoods are unfortunately the minorities, african americans and latinos.
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