Both of these teens are the same age and live in different areas of the same city. Both of these teenagers attend high school. Teenager A comes from a wealthy background and is usually described as approachable. His neighborhood is extremely safe and he lives in a gated community and he attends a prestigious school where police would have to think twice before even thinking about stopping him. He never worries about anything when he leaves his house to go out at night. Teenager B is from a poor family and lives in an area that is monitored heavily by police officers due to the high crime rates, especially at night. When he goes out at night, he is more worried about police stoppings than gang violence. With both of these descriptions, what did Teenager A look like? How about Teenager B? Don’t worry about how you pictured them. It’s all right. I won’t judge you for thinking what everyone else probably thought. But the reality is that both of these teenagers are exactly the same but just happen to be perceived differently by others. Stemming from this example comes an issue that seems prevalent to the police officers known as racial profiling. Racial profiling has to do with seeking out potential criminals to prevent crimes. But that’s not necessarily always true. It seems that the police officers use racial profiling by targeting a select group of minorities because they seem dangerous on the …show more content…
Growing up, I was known as the golden boy child. A kid who grew up with other people who looked just like him having friends of so many cultural backgrounds. I knew about crime but I never partook in it because I knew who I was and who I was wasn’t a criminal. I know that and everyone else knew that. It wasn’t until I turned 17 that I then realized that the police didn’t know that. My first encounter on the “other side” was on a Select Service Bus. On these buses, you pay with a ticket that you get at a kiosk at the bus stop. Some people see the ticket part as optional but being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I gladly paid for the ticket. After 3 stops, there was a routine check for tickets by MTA officers. I was ready to present my ticket when all of a sudden I was told to step off the bus for questioning. Me? Me? Why me and not the non-minority woman who happened to be pregnant who didn’t purchase a ticket. They didn’t even check her for her ticket. I was pulled off and was asked a bunch of questions. I was let go after I proved that I had in fact purchased my