African Americans and Latinos Research Paper

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Racial Discrimination Against African-Americans in the Legal System

The major corruption in the United States legal system is that it is a prejudiced establishment. It is a place where African-Americans are completely directed and penalized in a much more hostile way than whites. Those believing that the legal system is bigoted could be politically debated in some places. But then again, the evidence is awe-inspiring. There does not seem to be much discussion about the proof. With that said, this essay will argue that racial discrimination does exist with law enforcement and judicial system that whites do not get to experience.

Some believe that the system has been set up to go against those that are of color. Other believe that there is enough evidence to show that the bigoted legal system is functioning exactly per plan. Is the legal system performed to relegate and rule masses of Black-Americans? Evidence on race occurs in the legal system every day. This begins with the custom of drugs, law enforcement agency stops, legal representation, apprehensions, bail, jury range, trial, condemning, penitentiary, freedom, and parole.

The first argument as to 'that racial discrimination does exist with law enforcement and the legal system is because of the arrest. The arrests of Latinos and African-Americans have been occurring more often, particularly in heavily dense black places. There has been an outpouring in arrests in the U.S. lately. There has been more now than there has ever been particularly people in in the last four decades. The war on drugs is the biggest reason behind it. So far whites and blacks participate in possession and sales, drug offenses, at unevenly similar rates. All of this is stated by a report on race and drug enforcement in a report done in May 2009. It was printed by Human Rights Watch. Despite the fact, African-Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population. Also, they make up only 15% of regular drug users (Flanagan 500).

Another circumstance is that the police look as if they are stopping Latinos and blacks at rates that are much higher than whites. People of color in New York City, make up around half of the population. The New York Police Department (NYPD) managed to stop over half of blacks and Latinos. Only a small percentage of whites were searched and arrested. When Latinos and blacks get pulled over, 84% as stated by information provided by The New York Police Department were searched and arrested.

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The same has been reported as true by most other places like in Chicago. A study done in California, discovered that Latinos and African-Americans are three times more likely to be stopped more than whites.

Drugs have been issues of arrest for people of color. Drug arrests have risen steeply, since the early 1970s. They have been going up from 300,00 to over 1 million as stated by some statistics of the legal system. Further, African-Americans are under arrest for drug offenses at rates that go way beyond the ratio of whites. These facts, come from the June 2009 report that explains a difference in drug seizures (Flanagan 503). This document was released by Human Rights Watch.

Another fact to add is that once they are arrested, Latinos and African-Americans are more probable to stay in prison in anticipation of a trial than whites. The legal system, for instance, performed an assessment of differences in meting out lawbreaking arrests and discovered that in some areas of New York Latinos and African-Americans are 36% more probable to be imprisoned pending felony trials than whites going through crime trials.

Once they have been placed up under arrest, most of the individuals cannot afford to get a private lawyer. Instead, they get a public defender for their attorney. Experts believe that race has a lot to do with this as well. If a person could right now, go and look in any public courtroom, they would see that person of color that are waiting to get assigned with public defenders. Despite frequently daring exertions by public defenders, the legal system piles them up with so much work. They have more work and get paid less money. They get paid far less money than those that are part of the prosecution team. The American Bar Association (ABA), not a militant assembly, reviewed the U.S. public defender structure in 2009.

They found out that "Most of the time, offenders are forced to plead guilty, even if they have not committed any crime. A lot of occasions, they sign their life away because they are unaware of what is going on. They sign these papers as innocent people, deprived grasping their legal rights or what is occurring. The first privilege to a lawyer that America believes should apply to all the person's….....

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"African Americans And Latinos", 26 October 2016, Accessed.23 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/african-americans-latinos-2162500