Trayvon Wasn’t the Only Victim of Racial Profiling
BET.com takes a look at others who have been profiled.
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Trayvon Martin Targeted - Walking while Black is not a crime, but it’s enough to get you killed if you’re 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. On February 26, the honor student was killed by community watch volunteer George Zimmerman on his way home from a local 7-Eleven store in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman told police the Black teen looked “suspicious, but critics of the shooting say Trayvon was racially profiled by Zimmerman and question how suspicious a teen holding only a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea can look. Trayvon was not the first African-American to fall victim to racial profiling, however. BET.com takes a look back at a problem that has plagued minority communities for years. –Danielle Wright\r(Photo: Landov)
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LAPD Accuses Cop of Racial Profiling - The Los Angeles Police Department found 15-year police veteran Patrick Smith guilty of racial profiling this week. Smith primarily pulled over Latino drivers based solely on their race. In addition, he misidentified the drivers as white in routine paperwork to conceal the fact he had a disproportionate number of stops involving Latino drivers.\r(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested - The arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. outside of his home in 2009 can be noted as another notable case of racial profiling in the 21st century. After unsuccessfully attempting to open his damaged front door, Gates proceeded to the back of his house and successfully opened his back door. Moments later an officer appeared on the professor’s porch claiming he was responding to a 911 call about a “breaking and entering” crime at his address. Despite showing both his Harvard University identification with his address and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license, Louis was handcuffed on his front porch and spent four hours in the local jail. \r\r(Photo: AP Photo/Demotix Images, B. Carter, File)
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Rodney King - Although Rodney King may have been intoxicated on March 3, 1991, when he was stopped for speeding in Los Angeles, the way a group of white police officers handled the situation was far from normal. King was tasered and struck repeatedly with batons suffering a fractured facial bone, broken ankle and numerous other bruises and lacerations. Critics have claimed he was the victim of racial profiling and had King not been Black, he would not have been beaten. \r\r(Photo: AP Photo/George Holliday/Courtesy of KTLA Los Angeles, File)
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Don Cheadle Told to Go to Back of Plane - Don Cheadle said he was a victim of racial profiling when trying to sit at his seat on a flight back to Los Angles from a concert. Upon boarding the flight, Cheadle tried to warn the attendant he and his partner, Bridgid Coulter, were seated in different seats. Instead of assisting him, the attendant threatened to throw him off the plane as he attempted to sit in his first-class seat. After realizing Cheadle had actually purchased a first-class ticket, the attendant apologized.\r\r(Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
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UWS Apple Store Sued After Alleged Racial Profiling Incident - In 2011, Brian Johnston and Nile Charles, both African-American, filed a civil lawsuit against Apple Inc. claiming a tall, 225-pound white male employee approached them in an intimidating fashion at a store in New York. The man told them they needed to shop or see a Mac specialist. Before the men could respond, reportedly the employee said, "You know the deal. And before you say I'm racially discriminating against you, let me stop you. I am discriminating against you. I don't want 'your kind' hanging out in the store." According to the civil suit filed by Johnston and Charles, the men were "shocked and humiliated" and used a cellphone to record the incident.\r\r(Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
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University of Akron Officials Target Black Males - Officials at the University of Akron issued a campus-wide email in 2011 instructing Black male students to “cooperate” with police officers, after a string of robberies suspected to have been done by African-American males who don’t attend the college. “Even if you are angered, refrain from using profanity as you could be charged with disorderly conduct,” the email read. \r(Photo: Wikicommons)
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Illegal Barbershop Searches - Barbers Kevin Gordon, Ronald Jones and Raymond Barnes sued Riverside County, California, in 2009 claiming authorities conducted racially targeted, illegal searches of Black barbershops. Two and a half years later, they won their civil case. Riverside County paid the group $99,000 which included attorneys’ fees.\r\r(Photo: Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT/Landov)
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High Number of NYPD Stop-and-Frisks Are Black and Latino - An overwhelming 87 percent of all people stopped and interrogated by the NYPD in 2011 were Black and Latino, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union analysis of NYPD arrest data. The controversial “stop-and-frisk policy” has long raised concerns of racial profiling and privacy rights.\r\r(Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)