Kenneth Jost’s article takes a practical, historical, and cultural approach towards understanding the debate regarding racial profiling and excessive police force. The primary function of a police force is to maintain the safety of the community for which it works. There is a responsibility to protect the average citizen, the criminal, and the police officer himself. This becomes an issue of balance. How does the police officer protect the citizen without bringing harm to himself or to the criminal? In what situations is it permissible to use force? The potential criminal, the innocent bystander, and the policeman, who himself is a member of a community with a family that wants to be protected, all have equal rights. This article has made me realize that not only are the split-second decisions that have to be made to protect everyone difficult, but even long-term policy decision-making issues are not so straightforward to rule on and enforce.

This article brings up several different issues which tend to blend into one. There are the legalities and local debates regarding racial profiling, and there are the issues of how to handle, without too much force, criminals without unnecessarily hurting or killing them. These are two separate issues, each of which this article reviews. The concept of racial profiling is a policy that needs to be addressed by the courts, and it has been. The rulings of the court prohibiting the targeting of possible criminal suspects based on their race, have already occurred. The rulings can be questioned, reviewed in court, or argued in court, but until there is a change in ruling, this policy, based on much thought, statistics, and rights of each citizen in the US, needs to be followed. There are those who argue that the philosophy underlying racial profiling is to protect the citizen, and that by selecting minority groups to profile, police officers are merely profiling based on criminal statistics. However, the courts have ruled this practice to be prejudicial; why should an entire race or minority group be targeted for inspection, even though they may have a somewhat higher criminal percentage rate? Every person needs to be judged on his own, as an individual, not as a member of a race. The courts have so ruled, however, the ruling is not always followed. There have been local police chiefs who have chosen to ignore court rulings that prohibit racial profiling. The government has just begun to ensure that there is enforcement of these issues through the recording policemen at work. This in itself may seem a violation of individual rights; nevertheless, it ensures that policy is followed. Police chiefs who have ignored court rulings and taken the law into their own hands have recently been indicted themselves.

The second aspect of the problem that needs to be addressed is that of excessive police force. This is a difficult policy to enforce, as there are many human factors involved. Much of the recent rage against the police has been triggered by the police forces’ tendency to use excessive violence, sometimes ending in the death of the alleged criminal. The deaths of some criminals who have recently been targeted include a higher number of minority citizens, leading to the creation of the movement “Black Lives Matter.” The key to understanding how to react to the potentially violent criminal, without excessive violence, is education. Policemen have to face their own fears when threatened with a weapon, but also have to be made to realize that many criminals who appear to be threatening may be living in a moment of panic and fear. It is up to the police and government to set up programs to teach young policemen and policewomen how to de-escalate rather than fuel tense, dangerous situations. There are special tactics that can be used with the mentally ill to calm them down. In contrast, the tactics used to capture a terrorist on a shooting rage are quite different. The policemen on the street need to learn that there are many reasons for criminal behavior, and depending on the etiology, they can play a major role in ensuring the calming of the players and reduction of the tenseness of the situation. Thus, government by way of the court systems should ensure equal treatment for all people, and should also work through the educational system to teach policemen to act as members of the community and learn to calm rather than escalate tense situations. Such an approach can play a significant role in reducing the unfair practice of preselecting criminals and reducing the harm to police and to the criminal when both are in a dangerous situation.