Bye bye Éclipse!

« Retour au Far-West » : à en croire Le Journal de Montréal, la disparition de l’escouade ÉCLIPSE du Service de police de la ville de Montréal serait synonyme de catastrophe. Le ton donné à l’article était parfois digne d’une campagne de peur. (1) « Le crime organisé québécois a déjà reçu son cadeau de Noël », lit-on également. Les mots de certains journalistes ne semblent pas assez forts pour souligner les conséquences désastreuses qui guetteraient la collectivité montréalaise avec la suppression de l’escouade ÉCLIPSE, dont l’obscur acronyme signifie officiellement Équipe corporative de lutte, d'intervention et de prévention des situations émergentes. « L’escouade Éclipse est menacée », titre un article paru dans La Presse.(2) Comme si ÉCLIPSE était une espèce animale en voie d’extinction. Malgré son extrême laideur (méthodes musclées, profilage racial, etc.), l’escouade controversée accomplirait un travail utile pour le bien commun en harcelant d’autres formes de vie encore plus repoussantes. Pourtant, il suffit de regarder un tant soi peu de près les chiffres officiels d’ÉCLIPSE pour s’interroger sur le réel bilan de son travail. En 2012, ÉCLIPSE a enquêté sur 3500 personnes et en a arrêté près de 500, a rapporté le journaliste Daniel Renaud de La Presse. En d’autres mots, les policiers d’ÉCLIPSE avaient déniché un motif d’arrestation pour seulement une interpellation sur sept. C’est donc dire que 3000 personnes se sont faits écoeurés par les flics d’ÉCLIPSE sans motif légal justifiant une arrestation. Quand ÉCLIPSE fait une partie de pêche, force est de constater que ses filets ratissent larges. Et la pêche de 2012 est loin d’avoir été particulièrement miraculeuse : une douzaine d’armes à feu, une dizaine d’armes blanches et sept gilets pare-balles, rapporte La Presse. Si c’est tout ce qu’ÉCLIPSE a pu saisir en procédant à 500 arrestations dans les milieux soi-disant criminalisés, alors ce n’est pas vraiment ce qu’on peut appeler la mère à boire.

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Karen S. Glover investigates the social science practices of racial profiling inquiry, examining their key influence in shaping public understandings of race, law, and law enforcement. Commonly manifesting in the traffic stop, the association with racial minority status and criminality challenges the fundamental principle of equal justice under the law as described in the U.S. Constitution. Communities of color have long voiced resistance to racialized law and law enforcement, yet the body of knowledge about racial profiling rarely engages these voices. Applying a critical race framework, Glover provides in-depth interview data and analysis that demonstrate the broad social and legal realms of citizenship that are inherent to the racial profiling phenomenon. To demonstrate the often subtle workings of race and the law in the post-Civil Rights era, the book includes examination of the 1996 U.S. Supreme Court's Whren decision-a judicial pronouncement that allows pretextual action by law enforcement and thus widens law enforcement powers in decisions concerning when and against whom law is applied.

In a fast-paced true story that reads like a novel, The Black Dragon: Racial Profiling Exposed is a "passionate and much-needed account of the struggle to put an end to police profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike," according to Professor Frank Askin, Distinguished Professor of Law and Director Constitutional Litigation Clinic, Rutgers Law School/Newark. "From the case of the long-haired travelers in the '70s through legal efforts to halt racial profiling in the '90s and beyond, Joseph Collum has made a major contribution to the protection and advancement of civil rights in New Jersey and the country as a whole."

The Color of Guilt and Innocence: Racial Profiling and Police Practices in America is the only book of its kind to receive national acclaim by scholars, special interest groups, and law enforcement organizations as the most comprehensive book ever written on the subject of racial profiling by police. The book is unique in that it objectively explores this controversial subject from the perspective of victims, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement officers.

Many racial minority communities claim profiling occurs frequently in their neighborhoods. Police authorities, for the most part, deny that they engage in racially biased police tactics. A handful of books have been published on the topic, but they tend to offer only anecdotal reports offering little reliable insight. Few use a qualitative methodological lens to provide the context of how minority citizens experience racial profiling. Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I’m ———! places minority citizens who believe they have been racially profiled by police authorities at the center of the data. Using primary empirical studies and extensive, in-depth interviews, the book draws on nearly two years of field research into how minorities experience racial profiling by police authorities. The author interviewed more than 100 racial and ethnic minority citizens. Citing 87 of these cases, the book examines each individual case and employs a rigorous qualitative phenomenological method to develop dominant themes and determine their associated meaning. Through an exploration of these themes, we can learn: What racial profiling is, its historical context, and how formal legal codes and public policy generally define it The best methods of data collection and the advantages of collecting racial profiling data How certain challenges can prevent data collection from properly identifying racial profiling or bias-based policing practices Data analysis and methods of determining the validity of the data The impact of pretextual stops and the effect of Whren v. United States A compelling account of how minority citizens experience racial profiling and how they ascribe and give meaning to these experiences, the book provides a candid discussion of what the findings of the research mean for the police, racial minority citizens, and future racial profiling research.

Unique in both its scope and focus, Racial Profiling in America is a “must read” to anyone interested in this contemporary issue. Offering a comprehensive view of the topic, the author addresses the origins, components, dilemmas, and challenges surrounding racial profiling. Utilizing current research and statistics, the book offers a balanced presentation that moves beyond one point of view to address the complexities involved with this particular issue. Filled with academic discussion and personal anecdotes, the book appeals to a diverse audience and provides a broad overview of racial profiling in America today.