Racial profiling has become a major obstacle in the United States today, even though most Americans know very little about this vital issue. Every day, people are stopped, harassed, and even killed because they are a certain race. There are new laws that politicians are trying to pass that promote racial discrimination. Racial profiling is unethical and does not increase public safety. Incarceration rates are definitive proof of the existence of racial discrimination. “Incarceration rates in the United States have increased dramatically since 1980,” said Filip Spagnoli, “the racial distribution of prisoners in the United States is highly negative for Black Americans. Although they make up only 12% of the total US population, they represent more than 40% of prisoners.” Black Americans are one of the many races accused of many crimes of which they are innocent and are incarcerated for it. Addy Bareiss, a volunteer and five-year worker at the ACLU of Arizona, said, “A 2008 report by the ACLU of Louisiana found that people of color were arrested at higher rates than their representation in the population in every town, city and parish examined". “The detention of innocent people must end. When officers focus primarily on a certain group, they overlook criminals of other races who deserve to be in prison. It further stated that "Black and Hispanic residents were stopped, frisked, frisked, and arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers far more frequently than white residents, and that these disparities were not accounted for by the local crime rate or any other legitimate policing logic evident from extensive LAPD data” (Bareiss, Addy). Stereotypes play a significant role in racial profiling. When officers see a Black or Hispanic man...... at the center of the sheet ......su=1.0>."Jose Serrano." Current Controversies: Racism. Ed. Mary E. Williams: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, BrainyQuote. 2001 - 2010. Web. 5 December 2010. "The first 10 amendments to the." No. page Network. 2 Dec 2010. .Spagnoli, Filip. http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-on-freedom/statistics-on-prisoner-population-rates/