Multicultural Law Enforcement Unit 4

Question 11

Myths and stereotypes about Latino/Hispanic Americans have affected this group greatly. Describe some of the Latino/Hispanic American stereotypes. What effect might these stereotypes have on Latino/Hispanic Americans? What are some ways to manage these stereotypes in law enforcement, and in what ways can you help a police officer who uses stereotypes about Latino-/Hispanic Americans to become aware of the effects of such stereotypes? Reference any sources of information used in your answer, including your textbook.

Some of the most common myths and stereotypes of Latino/Hispanic Americans are: that all of them are illegal aliens, although many of them have been residents of U.S. for generations; that Latino/Hispanics are poor workers and often shirk work for partying; that these ethnic group of people are not very interested in bettering their prospects through education and prefer manual work to earn their livelihood; that young members of this community are all either drug dealers or gang members and arrested more frequently on suspicion; and that Latino/Hispanics only speak Spanish and their communication abilities in English are so bad that they cannot be made to understand or contribute to a conversation.

Because of the stereotyping by law enforcement officers, Latino/Hispanics are reluctant to report crimes or look for any type of assistance from the police. In order to eliminate the stereotyping from the consciousness of the law enforcement officers, they have to be made aware that such stereotyping is not the correct approach to fighting crime and only leads to blocking the communication and reporting of crimes. Other methods could be the engaging of bilingual officers and opening outreach offices meant for such communities where they could be sure of unbiased and satisfactory hearing and actions regarding their problems, active participation of officers in community activities and establishing a bond with the community using such outreach activities (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011, pp. 200-221).

Question 12

The textbook gives an example of an incident where police officers ticketed many vehicles parked across the street from a mosque. The stores adjacent to the parking lots were closed, and although parking was technically for customers only, the Arab Americans did not anticipate there would be a problem utilizing the parking lot after hours. From a community relations point of view, negative feelings resulted from the mass ticketing and a collective perception that “They (meaning the police) don’t respect us; they don’t want to understand us.” What is your view regarding the way things were handled by the police? Give suggestions as to how this situation could have been prevented? Comment on what both the community and the police could have done to prevent the problem from occurring. Reference any sources of information used in your answer, including your textbook.

Misunderstandings between Arab Americans have become more common since the happenings of 9/11. The law enforcement officers have become more alert and suspicious of any uncommon activities concerning the Arab American in order to avoid another tragedy. However, this is also causing unnecessary and unpleasant experiences in the Arab American community and this ticketing was one such.

In order to avoid such incidents, the police and other law enforcement officers have to become knowledgeable about the customs and religious activities of the Arab Americans. For instances, they have to know the prayer timings at the mosques, the activities during the holy month of Ramadan, how to behave or enter the mosque and its environs for questioning or searching for suspects, what would be perfectly legal and usual for the Arab Americans to do, like parking near the mosque, and making more conscious efforts to understand and respect the religion and religious and cultural sentiments of the Arab Americans, instead of treating them all as would-be terrorists. Officers have to treat them courteously, refrain from interrupting their prayers, and avoid actions such as stepping on prayer mats, touching the Qur’an or walking into the mosque when the prayers are going on and moving in front of the praying people (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011, p. 250).

References