Is racial profiling always unjust?
The recent arrest of a black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., by white police officer James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department, created a media frenzy and allowed the issues of racism and police injustice to grab the headlines. President Barack Obama, while admitting he didn’t have all the facts, stepped into the fracas by stating that the police acted “stupidly,” a statement he later had to amend. Media reactions immediately favored the professor by suggesting he was targeted because of his race and that the police officer exceeded his authority by arresting Gates at his residence. Profiling and the treatment of blacks by white police officers are problems that many black citizens in communities across the nation have complained about, with justification, for many years. Racial profiling of minorities has resulted in lawsuits and investigations. For example, the Interstate 95 case in the 1990s dealt with how Maryland state troopers using drug-courier profiles
