Terrorism, Hate Crimes, and Racial Profiling

The challenge of terrorism against the United States has led the U.S. government to create the Department of Homeland Security with the hope of leveraging federal, state, and local police agencies as well as intelligence and immigration agencies to cooperate in communicating findings and creating joint efforts to stop threats of terrorism or confront a terrorist attack.

The current threat of terrorism has made many senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress think about combining all of the police agencies in the United States into one national police organization. The centralization of power would stop the discombobulated nature of the three government levels of police and provide a clear, overall standard on how to police not only terrorist acts but also crime in general.

Answer the questions below in 3–4 pages. Give your opinion concerning the topics, and provide examples. Discuss your findings regarding any statistics about the victims that you list. Discuss your thoughts about what options might be taken regarding victims of racial profiling. Be sure to back up your opinions with facts from cited sources.

• Do you believe that labeling terrorism as a crime that can be committed domestically has changed policing? How? Why? Provide examples.
• Have the number of victims of racial profiling increased over the last decade?
• What laws and services are available for victims of racial profiling?
• What other actions might be taken on behalf of victims of racial profiling?
• Has the Department of Homeland Security helped fight terrorism, or has it simply duplicated the efforts and jurisdictions of other agencies? How has it helped?