Debate in Urban Minority Class

I had a debate in my Urban Minority class that I felt related to this class and wanted to share it.

The topic of discussion was of the wrongful search and seizure law that police officers commence against minorities. Several female minority students agreed that this law has been missed used and abused but 1 African American male student felt that the law was a good thing. He stated that it helps because police officers are taking the chance to find something wrong and if they didn't find anything then at least their just making sure of everyone's safety. That is were we disagreed with him, because we felt that police officers assume that majority of the minorities are doing something that they shouldn't be doing. That the police officers are invading out privacy.

The debate then led furthered into a discussion about wrongful arrest due to discrimination and assumption as well as police officers taking advantage of their weapon usage. The male agreed that these too are promoting safety which of course us female students did not. I asked the man to put himself in the shoes of minority men who were accused of looking like another minority who committed a crime and was wrongfully charged and arrested. The male then stated how that has happened to him 3 times and he has 3 lawsuits and makes a lot of money off of it. I asked him is that why he felt it was right for the authorities to discriminate and he said yes. He's felt that as long as he was making money off of racism then it was okay, which we all (those who disagreed with him) felt was ignorant. Why would someone want to be discriminated against?
I brought up the recent situation were a young African American boy was chased down, shot and killed in his own home by white police officers because they assumed he had a gun, which he did not. How I felt that police officers should not have guns because it promotes violence in our neighborhoods. That the reason why many minorities carry their own weapons is because situations like that young boy who was killed, where police officers misuse their weapons and as people who once were hunters and gatherers do what they can to survive. That if police officers did not carry harmful weapons, their would be a less percentage of us carry the same type. They male of course disagreed.

The professor let us debate about this topic for close to an hour because it was a such a good topic to discuss although we didn't get to finish. But I was and eye opener for both sides of the parties and I felt it related very well to our classroom conversations.