Term Paper on "Public Safety vs. Civil Rights"

Term Paper 5 pages (1511 words) Sources: 2 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Criminal Justice

Drawing the Line:

Security vs. Civil Rights

Physical safety and peace of mind go hand in hand. In a world of terrorism and crime, Americans have little reason to feel secure in their homes, schools, and businesses. Everyday it seems, the media reports a fresh assault on some unsuspecting individual; another man, woman, or child is gunned down, or falls victim to the horrific acts of persons whose identity is often only suspected.

At home, at school, and at work, people simply are no longer safe. Violence and its antidote - security - have become facts of daily life.

Increasingly, police crowd the streets, and private security forces invade the malls and offices of America. Schools and businesses post guards and display or conceal cameras in a desperate attempt to stave off the unthinkable. Identification cards and security badges have become a way of life for many as the law-abiding attempt to exclude those who would do them harm. Nonetheless, today's security culture can create problems for otherwise innocent citizens. Many find their civil rights infringed by measures intended to protect them from the threats posed by terrorism and criminal behavior. Security cameras and ID badges can represent unwarranted intrusions into ordinary activities, while the presence of security personnel can create the sense of a police state. These aspects of the security state are particularly threatening to members of racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups. They can also seem offensive to women, or the young. Clearly, the parameters of the security apparatus must be carefully set, the boundaries between freedom and safety delineated in ways that do not blur the lines between public and civil rights.

The media contributes to a great extent to public perceptions that the problems of crime and terrorism are lowing, in large measure, to the activities, or proclivities of certain ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Statistics on violent crime frequently point to a preponderance of African-American or Hispanic perpetrators. Terrorism, in the public mind, is typically associated with the actions of foreign - and increasingly home-grown - Muslim extremists.

Institutionalized prejudice has been blamed for the perception - police are more likely to blame or arrest African-Americans for crimes such as murder, rape, and assault, while juries and judges are more likely to convict African-American or Hispanic defendants - especially if they are young and "threatening." Still, other studies have shown that perceptions of inherent minority criminality run deeper:

Surveys ask samples of the general population about their experience of victimization by crime and, among other things, ask them about the race of the people who committed the crimes. Those studies do indeed show that victims of violent crime, including black victims, describe the perpetrators as black in proportions that far outweigh the black proportion of the population as a whole.

(Brown et al., 2003, p. 148)

Such attitudes encourage police, and other security personnel, to look on African-Americans with suspicion, again, particularly if they are young and male. Within the emerging security state, this equal to a greater probability that young Black men will be stopped and searched - even without good cause. Young African-American males, and other members of similarly suspect groups, will be probed into more closely, their records checked or seized. More and more, both private businesses and government agencies are requesting criminal background checks and credit reports on persons whose only crime is that they fit "the profile." Intelligence agencies capture e-mails and telephone calls in an ever-widening search for suspicious catchwords and phrases. The recent story of the fight over immunity for telecommunications companies that provided FBI agents with free access to private communications is but a case in point.

These intrusions into private space represent a true ethical dilemma. On the one hand, proponents claim that these activities are essential in preventing horrific terrorist acts. Yet, as stated above, they are increasingly used against even ordinary citizens with no suspected ties to terrorism. By targeting the innocent along with the possibly guilty they create an atmosphere of prejudice and hatred. The catastrophe of September 11, 2001, together with later events abroad, has made almost every one look differently at the man with the turban, or the woman with the headscarf. Do these propensities not make us all just a little bit less safe? Ordinary citizens and the security agents who protect them begin to see dangers around every corner, and in every house, office, and school. Every day it seems, new measures must be put in place to combat an amorphous and, in real terms, not very frequent occurrence. The perceived great increase in rates of violent crime in this generation as opposed to previous ones has already transformed the American landscape. Where once students and adults entered freely into the nation's public schools and institutions of higher learning, these places are now commonly sealed off to all but those with "legitimate" business on campus. Businesspeople regularly go through security checks as they enter office buildings, and how many millions now live behind perimeter fences and face security booths as they drive into "fortified" housing complexes? As the public has come to demand a greater security presence, police forces have been complemented by far larger private security forces. New technologies broaden the scope of surveillance and tracked behaviors blurring the lines between the rights of individuals and groups and the supposed needs of the general population. A concept of "Law and Order Policing" has developed that dictates that security personnel must be visible in nearly every sphere of human activity, monitoring groups and individuals thought capable of sowing violence or disturbing the peace:

Video surveillance systems, computerized crime databases, and geographic information systems.... Mounting violations of individuals' civil rights and allegations of police harassment have led to legal challenges to this new orthodoxy. Police profiling -- a central feature of the order-maintenance approach -- has been repeatedly challenged in the courts as unconstitutional and rebuffed as racist by elected officials and community leaders in cities throughout the United States. (Theodore, Martin & Hollon, 2006)

The constant checking and interference may prevent some crimes, but at the price of a society that is decidedly less free. The hard won freedoms of minority groups, such as African-Americans, are under continual assault by the forces of "law and order." Every time a Black man is kept from obtaining gainful employment because of a petty offense that is turned up by a criminal background search, or even worse, shows a faulty credit history, the rights of this individual and countless other like him are curtailed. Basic assumptions of human dignity are being assailed in the name of public safety, among them the assumption that one is innocent until proven guilty. A poor credit background does not mean that one will become an armed robbery, anymore than one's gift of a few dollars to a mosque with "radical ties" mean that one is knowingly abetting a massive terrorist attack.

The conflict between the demands of public safety and the importance of civil rights must shape future security policy. The preservation of individual and group civil right is essential to the maintenance of free society wherein individuals may pursue their own happiness as they see fit. By stereotyping criminals and terrorists according to ethnic, religious, racial, age, or gender group, security professionals only curtail the freedoms they purport to protect. Every time an African-American man is "profiled" while driving down the highway or a Muslim woman is stopped at the airport, while others are simply let pass, a basic freedom is infringed upon. American society was built on the notion that liberty was something that was to be enjoyed equally by all. The true potentials of men, women, and children, cannot be realized if one's choices are continually circumscribed by accidents of… READ MORE

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