Racial Profiling in the Era of Black De-Constitutionalism

Donald F Tibbs

Over the past fifteen years, racial profiling has been formally recognized as a policing problem. Some argue that it is the result of misguided legal interpretations by the Supreme Court of the United States, while others blame it on the social construction of Blackness as stereotypically criminal. A series of empirical studies, some prompted by class-action lawsuits, increasingly prove both theories: that police departments serving large minority communities routinely target individuals based on their race and ethnic identity. Further, the targeting is without boundaries, adding to the routinization of policing. Racial profiling routinely occurs in street stops, as much as it does in automobile stops, like in Philando’s case. The empirical data, no matter how disparaging, is beneficial. Not only has it increased legal consciousness and outspoken responses from neo-Civil Rights groups, but has also led to new social movements and famous public figures weighing in with their opinion. The increased public scrutiny has prompted policing agencies and their supporters to fashion a narrative that black Americans are fundamentally anti-police, anti-American, unappreciative, unpatriotic, and even terrorists. According to New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, cops across this country, when performing their duties, “feel under attack” and are worried about their lives. Regardless of the differing opinions, alas, we at least are talking. However, not all talk is good talk. For black and brown people, the argument that the police “feel under attack” fails legitimate rationales for the police-citizen paradigm. Simply, the manner in which the police conduct their routine activities not only does, but should, welcome critique. To be respected as legitimate, the police must treat the communities they serve as legitimate. Tyler and Fegan defined “legitimacy” in the context of police-citizen interactions as a feeling of obligation to obey the law and to defer to the decisions made by legal authorities. Black people care as much about how the police interact with them as they do about specific policing outcomes. Simply, black citizens are more likely to obey the law when they believe those who are enforcing it are acting with some constitutional legitimacy.

Racial Profiling in the Era of Black De-Constitutionalism

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Racial Profiling in the Era of Black De-Constitutionalism

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