Call the Police: Racial Profiling and the Law

At the end of his press conference last night, President Barack Obama discussed the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The president said the cops “acted stupidly” in their decision to arrest the nation’s preeminent African American studies scholar when he was questioned about a possible break-in at his own home. Law enforcement officers receive sensitivity training in dealing with racial profiling. So why do these incidents continue to happen? Joining The Takeaway to discuss the issue is Phillip Atiba Goff, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Executive Director of Research for the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity, and Rick Weger, a lieutenant in charge of training at the San Jose Police Department.