Corp/Business Law: Ethical Shortfalls in Law Enforcement

This essay examines ethical shortfalls within law enforcement that contribute to public mistrust, focusing on racial profiling and racial bias as key issues. The paper references specific cases, such as the Smith College incident and the shooting of Michael Brown, to illustrate these problems. It argues that these instances violate the Fourth Amendment rights of many individuals and highlights the importance of unbiased law enforcement. The essay suggests applying principles of just intelligence, including avoiding discrimination, ensuring ethical actions, and using force as a last resort, to prevent such incidents and rebuild public trust. The provided bibliography contains the references used in the assignment.

university
Mistrust of Law Enforcement
Ethical Shortfalls
Student Credentials
3/30/2020

Corp/Business Law 1
Ethical shortfalls that have led to public mistrust of law enforcement
In US, incidents of racial profiling and Racial Bias are so common that out of every 3
black men one or two of those people have been wrongfully questioned or stopped, hence
breaching the fourth amendment rights of most of the black people often. The law
enforcement officers are supposed to work without any bias in their minds or without any
partiality, while in situations where any wrong doing takes place, law enforcement officers
tend to doubt the black man present at the time of incidence (NAP, 2020). Instances such as
the case of Smith College where campus police was called upon a black person just because
he seemed out of place is a classic example of Racial Profiling (Headley, Williams, &
LePere-Schloop, 2018). Another example is the, case of Michael Brown, who was fatally
shot by a White Ferguson cop (Williams, 2019). Michael Brown’s case is an example of
Racial Bias amongst law enforcement system. All these incidents have led to mistrust
amongst people concerning the law enforcement system.
These instances could have been easily avoided if principles of Bellaby’s just
intelligence would have been used. These principles include, avoiding discrimination for
starters, that could have assisted the officers with clear thinking; ethicality of the situation or
the action could have been measured through the kind of cause people were or are being
arrested for, here the cause needs to be just; taking action especially in the case of Michael
Brown, only if it was a last resort; or even taking action with right intention, right authority as
well as proportionally (Bellaby, 2014).

Corp/Business Law 2
Bibliography
Bellaby, R. (2014). Harm, just war and a Ladder of Escalation. Routledge.
Headley, A. M., Williams, B. N., & LePere-Schloop, M. (2018). Smith College incident is
latest case of racial ‘profiling by proxy’. Retrieved April 4, 2020, from The
Conversation: https://theconversation.com/smith-college-incident-is-latest-case-of-
racial-profiling-by-proxy-101156
NAP. (2020). Racial Bias and Disparities in Proactive Policing. Retrieved March 30, 2020,
from National Academics of Sciences, Engineering Medicine:
https://www.nap.edu/read/24928/chapter/9#270
Williams, T. (2019, August 15). Five Years After Michael Brown’s Death, His Father Wants
a New Investigation. Retrieved April 04, 2020, from NY Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/us/ferguson-michael-brown.html