Racial Profiling – Missouri
"When those sworn to protect and serve the nation discriminate based on race, religion, or ethnicity, it reinforces the idea that human rights and constitutional protections only apply to certain groups of people."
–
Robert Schultz, AIUSA
How Missouri Rates in Protection From Racial Profiling
Missouri's racial profiling laws are empowered by a pragmatic and effective definition. This definition acknowledges that racial profiling almost always (in addition to be being based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin) contains multiple other characteristics such as gender, age, or geographic location. Moreover, Missouri's racial profiling law ignores the very real problem of racial profiling against religious minorities, who have been increasingly targeted since September 11, 2001. Furthermore, this law fails to address racial profiling during pedestrian stops by police. Pedestrian stops are a very common form of racial profiling in urban environments such as St. Louis. Moreover, the law does not give the public the right to go into court and ask a judge to order the police to stop racially profiling local residents and motorists.Protection from racial profiling: Insufficient
Members of Congress supporting the End Racial Profiling Act of 2004:
Representatives Wm. Lacy Clay, Richard A. Gephardt, and Karen McCarthy