<p>Columns:</a> Letter to the Editor: Virginia Law Weekly</p>
<p>it is my hope that posting it here that other people may pass this on and add pressure on the administration to find these police officers and discipline them most severely.</p>
<p>[love UVA btw don't let this affect decisions.]</p>
<p>Good God. I find it ridiculous that in this day and age we still have people acting like that.</p>
<p>My girlfriend attends UVa and is black. We’ve talked the issue before, and she has never had a memorable experience involving racism here.</p>
<p>I think the officers were probably just actively investigating a lead. Charlottesville is not the nicest place. A decent chunk of the population is poor and black. There IS crime! Last fall, there were numerous robberies at gunpoint around the University, all made by black males. If a crime was reported, and someone nearby fits the description, I want police officers to investigate it to the best of their ability. </p>
<p>I strongly support intelligent racial profiling in security and police work. If a crime was committed by a young black male, it’s stupid to question an older Asian man as a suspect. Should TSA equally scrutinize a 6 year old white child and a 23 year old Middle Eastern man? That would be a terrible use of resources. Unfortunately, black males as a group commit crimes at a higher rate than the rest of the population. This case seems as if it may have started as active profiling, but deteriorated into unprofessionalism.</p>
<p>The situation was not handled in the best way, but in terms of suspect choice and active questioning, I’d rather be safe than sorry. I would much prefer that one person feel slightly embarrassed than to have someone else potentially killed by a criminal. I do find the later part of the encounter off-putting however. On the other hand, this is not something I have seen or heard about before from UVa police, and I think calling it a hate crime is a sensationalist exaggeration.</p>
<p>Do black males actually commit crimes at a higher rate or are they simply accused of committing crimes at a higher rate?</p>
<p>JanofLeiden: Criminal behavior seems to be correlated with poverty, and unfortunately African Americans are still living in poverty at higher rates than white Americans (35% vs 13%). Given the economic differences, I would not be surprised if the crime rates were different between the two groups, though I don’t know what they actually are.</p>
<p>This is nothing new, happens all the time across college campuses. So I am not suprised. </p>
<p>And majority of students won’t understand or explain it away as the posters above, or until it happens to them. </p>
<p>When my Middle Eastern friends began complaining about being harassed after 9/11, or one of my Hispanic classmates–I said to myself ‘Great! now someone else fits the description’</p>
<p>This is not a recurring issue at UVa! If similar things happened with any regularity at the University, it would be a different situation. The UPD and administrators should put out a message along the lines of we disagree with the way in which the stop was handled, and are investigating it. Beyond that, what can they do? Its not a serious problem this was one single incident. At a University with thousands of employees, some will inevitably fail to perform their jobs. I agree that those few should be disciplined.</p>
<p>From a common sense(non-idealist) perspective, UVa’s police force does an excellent job. </p>
<p>As for crimes committed by whites vs. blacks: Yes - in Charlottesville blacks do actually commit crimes at a higher rate. I have a friend who is a C’ville cop (“real” cop, not UPD). The vast majority of the crimes he responds to involve black suspects. Charlottesville is only 22% black. Even if you want to claim some kind of racial bias against blacks, the numbers are too far off to suggest that blacks and non-blacks commit crimes at the same rate.</p>
<p>why is racial profiling even debatable when it comes to catching criminals? they discriminate for height, weight, hair color, etc. why not race/skin color? skin color represents who you are and racial profiling is absolutly justifiable</p>
<p>Don’t go to school in the South!</p>
<p>Yakyu - good to hear from you! What a wonderfully insightful comment. You must be really smart.</p>
<p>Don’t go to school in the North!</p>
<p>Seriously, though, there’s more to this story than what we’re hearing. I’d like to see the officer’s account before I make a judgement.</p>
<p>That side of the street must’ve been whites only.</p>
<p>First of all if the story told in that letter is a correct account, that is a very unfortunate thing for Mr. Perkins and he should not have been humiliated in such a manner.</p>
<p>However, OP, this is in no way a “hate crime”. Discrimination and racial profiling, probably. Hate crime? No way.</p>
<p>No hate crime here, thank God (if I could commit a hate crime against the term “hate crime” I would). They were looking for the suspect of a crime and happened to come across someone who fit the description. It should have ended there after he presented them with his identification and they shouldn’t have subjected him to that kind of humiliation. </p>
<p>i fully support racial profiling at all levels though, there’s no point in enforcing political correctness at the expense of public safety, especially since usually that’s coded language for giving minorities a pass. They saw someone who fit the description of someone who committed a crime and they pulled him over - just because he’s black doesn’t make it racist. He has a reason to be upset but in all honesty I think the officers were just being jerks, not racists.</p>
<p>Racist cops abusing their power. Why am I not surprised. **** the police.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go as far as calling this a hate crime, either. </p>
<p>But an officer just being a ‘jerk’ would be a jerk to everyone he comes in contact with, not just to minorities. </p>
<p>I jog 4-5 days a week on campus, and until campus police began to recgonize me, I would ‘fit a profile’ at least once a week during my freshman year, and it didn’t matter what time of day it was.</p>
<p>I understand the prejudice going around.
I’m not racist, but I agree, a lot of African American males commit crime and the children of these people grow up to be like their parents. It’s a neverending cycle. I live in a small city where on one half of the street, it’s mainly indians and asiand and the other half, it’s mainly blacks. All of my friends live on the black side, we’re all asian, we were playing basketball outside.
A cop car pulls up and looks at us, and just converses with us taht he was looking for a black guy smoking weed because there was a complaint or something.
If we were black, we would’ve been searched for sure.
Most descriptions of black peopel match black people. They’re usually “black”, “short hair” and “tall”</p>
<p>There’s nothing we can do about this.</p>
<p>Wow Chineseman…‘black, short hair and tall’ yep…that describes most black people I know…are you serious? I am not going to even touch the the whole ‘parents/never-ending cycle remark’, dont have the energy. </p>
<p>No one saw what he was wearing? …just a black guy smoking weed, just follow your nose and you’ll find that guy. </p>
<p>If the cops are doing their jobs and investigating a crime its one thing, I have no problem with that. But fitting a profile, when no crime has even been commited, or being harrassed for being on the wrong side of the street is another matter.</p>
<p>Its a shame that Lincoln didn’t let the south secede from the union.</p>
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<p>Yeah, as “Jersey Shore” shows, the North is the epitome of culture and class. </p>
<p>You’ll prob be just another carpetbagger once you hit the job market, anyways.</p>