Discrimination Towards Minorities within the United StatsJudicial Research Paper

Discrimination Towards Minorities within the United StatsJudicial System - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss the practice of discrimination towards minorities, discrimination which lead towards unlawful criminal procedures. It shall particularly discuss the civil liberties which are violated due to race and or class status. This paper is being carried out in order to establish a clear and comprehensive picture of the criminal justice system and its actual applications in the United States. Body Discrimination in the application of criminal justice is sometimes apparent in the legal practice, and in most instances, ethnic, racial, or economic considerations are the reasons why such discriminations exist. Various suggestions from different sources seem to point to the presence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. In the aftermath of the Rodney King case, an independent commission of the Los Angeles Police Department established that the LAPD used force excessively, and this unnecessary force was largely attributed to the officer’s racial prej udice (Banks, 2004). A review of police officers in the Los Angeles area revealed that about a quarter of them were racists towards the minorities, and that their racial bias has sometimes led to the inappropriate use of force in their arrests and apprehension of these criminals. In assessing radio communications among LAPD police officers, the content of their remarks reflected a significant number of racially discriminatory remarks and attitudes against minorities (Banks, 2004). Witnesses also claim that police officers often tolerated discriminatory actions against minorities; they also claim that these officers often verbally harassed these minorities for as long as they fit their usual suspects – the blacks and the Latin men (Banks, 2004). Police officers who also belonged to the minority ethnic groups were also discriminated against, and they were treated to biased comments and subjected to racial slurs. A report from New York established that there are double standards which are being applied – one for the whites and another one for the minorities and the poor (New York State Judicial Commission on Minorities, 1991). This report was able to establish the presence of biased treatment as well as injustice in the criminal justice system. The report also pointed out that various minorities were subjected to basement justice with their cases being relegated to facilities which were infested with rats and cockroaches (Banks, 2004). These minorities were also disrespected and not given the proper personnel to handle their complaints and court processes. In some instances, the cases involving minorities were often quickly dispensed, with atleast four or five minutes in court (Banks, 2004). This represents an assembly line in the dispensation of justice. Moreover, black defendants were often made to face their fate in the justice system before a purely white jury. This hardly represents the defendant’s peers. In order to establish whether or not racial discrimination is seen in the criminal justice system, various criminal theorists have carried out research assessing the major decision points in the criminal justice system in the US (Wilbanks, 1987). Most of these reports pointed out that even as racial discrimination exists in the criminal system, the system is not wholly defined by racial discrimination; in effect, discrimination is not extensive (Russell, 1998). However, there are