There are several reasons for being opposed to such police practices. Second, they are based on faulty assumptions as to the correlation between race and criminal behavior. Drug traffickers and users, for example, are not predominantly minorities, although targeting them for stops and searches results in disproportionate rates of arrest and conviction. Third, race-based stops are simply unacceptable. Stopping or investigating members of a race or ethnic group cannot be justified by the belief that there is a greater probability of criminal behavior among its members than in the general population.
People of color live daily with the prospect of race-based police contacts.
They mistrust law enforcement and a justice system that tolerates discriminatory practices. Sadly, they prepare their children to expect and deal with biased treatment. This is not exclusively a police issue, and it is not confined to racial profiling. Disparities in treatment of minorities extend throughout the justice system. The disparities begin with investigative stops, but they continue and are magnified in rates of arrest, conviction, and incarceration.