before stopping after the officer flashed his lights at him. The officer told Gammage out of the car and saw him grab something was reportedly a weapon, but was his cell phone. The officer knocked the phone out of Gammage’s hand and they scuffled. The other officers beat Gammage with a flashlight, a collapsible baton and a blackjack as one put his foot on Gammage’s neck. Johnny Gammage died , handcuffed , ankles bound , facedown on the pavement shortly after the incident began. Again this man was unarmed. This issue has also been addressed by President Clinton. On June 9, 1999, he ordered federal law enforcement officials to collect data on the the race and gender of the people they stop to question or arrest. President Clinton called racial profiling by police a , morally indefensible deeply corrosive practice.”(Clinton associated press 1) He also said that , “ people of color continue to have less confidence and less trust , and believe they are targeted for action.”(Clinton associated press 1) Clinton recounted that he once asked a group of black journalists if they had ever been stopped by the police and they all raised there hands. Racial Profiling is a problem that needs to be addressed by the government and the people of America. I believe that there are certain steps that should be taken in order to move toward a better nation. I feel that law enforcement should stop stopping people on hunches and use evidence to base a stop on. The are stopping people because of there skin color and that is not right. For example in 1997 on a California highway out of 34,000 cars stopped only two percent were found with drugs. The Traffic Stops Statistics Act needs to be passed because it will require that all law enforcement collect data on there traffic stops, including race of the driver. This will give concrete proof that the percentage of people being stopped are minorities and they are not the majority carryi...
