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The Sixth Sense
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary having a six sense “is when you have a special ability to know something that cannot be learned by using the five senses”. Police are trained to react on their six sense or gut feeling through observation of someone’s behavior, gesture, posture, eye contact etc. Although a six sense should not identify people by color, the police seem to target black and hispanic men when they get this “gut” intuition. According to an NAACP report “twenty states have no laws prohibiting racial profiling by law enforcement” this makes it very hard to decipher who is being pulled over for a violation or who is being pulled over because of the color of their skin.

Michelle Alexander outlines how over the time being, rules and laws have been modified to fit certain situations. A while back, the police was not permitted to search citizens without a warrant and a real cause; whereas, now it has become very common for individuals, especially people of color, to be searched without warrants. The police labels these “safety searches” to be in favor of every citizen. Citizens are not checked for legitimate reasons but are merely checked because of looks and other ambiguous reasons. Many times, there is no cause for the search and so these actions are labeled as safety procedures. Alexander puts forth a great example of how colored men are a bigger target when it comes to being searched without a reason compared to others. Terrance Bostick, a young African American man, was searched without any valid or clear suspicion. After being searched, he was caught carrying cocaine but there was no actions that stood out to the police. He was searched without any solid evidence that showed he might have been carrying cocaine or any other drug. Police officers never told the individuals they searched that they had the right to remain silent because a lot of their targets were lower class colored men who were not too highly educated. The police had hit the jackpot but unfortunately it put in limelight that the Fourth Amendment right was violated. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures without warrants. After this was brought forth in the court, the favor was still not in Bosticks favor because he was indeed carrying drugs but it did lower the bus sweeps. The court claimed a reasonable individual would have clearly said no to the search; whereas, Bostick did not. A more recent event occurred in Miami Florida in 2012. 17-year old Trayvon Martin. While walking to a family member’s house from a local convenience store, he was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman. Trayvon was not armed and did not have anything on him besides the candy he had just purchased. Due to the circumstances, it is pretty clear that this was a crime as a result of racial profiling. In the police report there is evidence of physical assault and he sustained several bullet wounds which resulted in his death. However, Zimmerman was not found guilty of any crime of the sort. This caused an uproar in the African American community. These events are just few of many cases of racial profiling occurring every single day. The sixth sense should be used to protect community members rather than causing harm to innocent individuals.

Police are to protect and serve but when racial profiling occurs it takes the credibility officers are suppose to have. Using a six sense can be beneficial in helping to make decisions: however, it never play favorites by singling a person out because of the color of their skin. This idea of intuition should be backed up with a more evident and valid reason or facts rather than being something that is decided upon by the color of his or her skin.

    