Inequality In The Legal System Essay Research

Inequality In The Legal System Essay, Research Paper

In the United States, true equality has never existed. From the

Declaration of Independence to modern times, the US legal system has failed at

any attempt at equality. .…all men are created equal…. may be what the

Declaration says, but .some men are more equal than others. is how the legal

system interprets that phrase. The actual reality of the Declaration of

Independence is that all free, white, landowning men are created equal.

Therefore, inequality has always existed in the united States. legal system

and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system

is not as blatant as what it once was. Slavery continued in the United States

for nearly ninety years after the Declaration, and African Americans still

feel the sting of inequality today. If the US legal system is blind and just

as it is supposed to be, why, then, is a minority, such as the African

American race, the majority.

One of the most controversial issues today is the act of racial

profiling. The most common form is direct, meaning victims are directly

profiled, usually by the police. In this form, individual officers act on

racial stereotypes against racial minorities, especially African Americans.

Recent studies in New Jersey and Illinois have confirmed that minorities are

disproportionately targeted by police officers, although minorities are almost

helpless in reporting .color of law. attacks. It is their word against a

legal official and, in most cases, the minority victim does not receive

justification because the officers are cleared of charges. In 1957 President

Eisenhower mandated that the United States Department of Justice prosecute

civil rights violations, to include police misconduct, thus, allowing uniform

application of civil rights law across the nation. Officers cleared of

wrongdoing often do not understand the legal guidelines for police misconduct

and feel unjustly targeted by the Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau

of Investigation, which have jurisdiction in this matter. That feeling of

injustice is false, considering that out of nearly 10,000 color of law

complaints received each year by the Department of Justice, only about thirty

police officers are actually prosecuted (Schafer). Since 1957 approximately

74 percent of all civil rights investigations reported each year allege police

misconduct (Schafer). In the rare case that a police officer is actually

punished, penalties could range from probation all the way to the death

penalty depending on the severity of the crime. According to a June 1999

study done by the American Civil Liberties Union, many states have denied that

racial profiling occurs despite overwhelming evidence supporting it. The

public wants to believe that police officers are doing their jobs righteously

by protecting and serving; however, according to the study, most Americans can

recognize the difference between racism and assertive, effective policing

(Worden).

Millions of Americans watch television everyday for various reasons, but

the most common one is to get the latest news. People like to stay informed,

but what good is it when they are constantly being misinformed. The media

tend to .profile. just as much, if not more, than police, just in an indirect

way, thus, the second form of racial profiling. The media fails to cover

their own profiling, but are the first to criticize police racial profiling.

When they actually do acknowledge their own profiling, they tend to try to

cover it up more than give coverage. The number of African Americans involved

in an issue are usually over-represented by the media, therefore further

racializing the issue. This fact that African Americans seem to be so largely

involved in so many issues is viewed as nothing more than unfortunate reality,

so it is not viewed as racism. Certain issues constantly associated with

African Americans include drugs, crime, welfare and the affirmative action

policy.

Indirect profiling by the media focused mainly on tow topics: drugs and

crime. Public opinion polls indicated the overwhelming majority of Americans

had .relatively little firsthand experience with the extent of the problems

associated with drug use.. Also .the majority of Americans report getting

most of their information about the seriousness of the illicit drug problems

from the news media, mainly television. (.Media Blackface.). An article

written by Raja Mishra appearing in the Denver Post on March 19, 1998,

reported how .doctors said the public has been misled by media accounts of

certain issues. (Media Blackface.).

In March 1998 two studies on the United States drug policy were released

by the Physician Leadership on the National Drug Policy. The first study

concluded that drug treatment of drug addiction was not

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