Police Brutality. For many, those two words conjure up images long past. We think of haunting photographs from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s — police clubbing black protesters with batons or knocking them down with fire hoses. We think of the grainy footage of Rodney King being beaten by police in 1992 — barely 15 years ago, but ancient history to most of us.

However, the ugly truth is that the issue of police brutality is all too current. Many of us saw the chilling YouTube video of UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejab being repeatedly tasered by campus police last November for the supposed “crime” of not showing his student I.D.

Also in November, news came out that Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man, had been killed by New York City police. Bell was out with friends in Queens, N.Y. celebrating his wedding that was to take place the next day. Police claim they overheard that someone in Bell’s group had a gun. As Bell and his two friends left the club and got into their car, undercover police officers fired a total of 50 shots at the vehicle. Bell was killed, and his two friends, Trent Benefield and Jose Guzman, were seriously injured. All three men were completely unarmed. “It was an execution,” said Bell’s fiancee Nicole Paultre to a New York radio station. “They barricaded him in and executed him.”

The shooting was a grisly reminder for many of the 1999 murder of Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant shot 41 times by police. Police claim they shot at him because it looked like he was taking out a gun. In reality, he was taking out his wallet to show the police his identification.

Bell’s death brought up other memories, as well. Memories of Nicholas Heyward, Jr., a 13-year-old boy killed by police while playing with a toy gun in the stairwell of his housing complex. Of Anthony Baez, suffocated by police after hitting a police car with a football during a game with his brothers. Of Anthony Rosario, whose death at the hands of the NYPD led his mother, Margarita, to found the group Parents Against Police Brutality.

Every time a police officer shoots an innocent person, we are told that it is a tragedy, and above all, an isolated incident. Sometimes we are told that the death was an accident. Other times, we are told the crime was committed by a “bad apple” — one trigger-happy cop who will be properly dealt with internally.

But how many “isolated incidents,” how many murders, must we endure until we begin to acknowledge a pattern?

Too often we quietly accept the bigotry cloaked in the politically correct phrasing of “racial profiling.” But targeting an ethnic group because you assume they are more likely to commit a crime is racism, pure and simple. It is this racism that leads to unacceptable racial disparities. One example: in 2002, there were just over 600,000 black men in college while almost 800,000 black men sat in prison.

Though only 13 percent of the U.S. population, African-Americans make up 49 percent of the prison population. Some claim this is because minorities are more likely to commit crimes. However, the statistics prove them wrong. 72 percent of illegal drug users are white, yet 58 percent of convicted drug felonies involved black men.

Racial profiling doesn’t just target black men. We see it every time a Latino is assumed to be an illegal immigrant, an Arab is assumed to be a terrorist or a black youth is assumed to be a gang member. It is unjust and deplorable in all of its forms.

Last Monday, three of the five cops involved in the Bell shooting were indicted on a variety of charges. The detective who fired 31 of the shots was charged with second-degree manslaughter, and another was charged with first-degree assault. The third detective was charged with reckless endangerment — a misdemeanor. Two of the officers involved, who fired four shots between them, were not charged at all.

Although some may see this as a small step towards accountability, there is no guarantee that these indictments will result in any penalty. In Diallo’s case, after moving the trial from New York City to Albany, the officers involved were acquitted of all charges. The consequence for gunning down an innocent man? Three were assigned to desk duty and one transferred to the fire department.

However, no indictment, trial or verdict will bring true justice to the Bell’s loved ones or the loved ones of all those killed in the name of law enforcement. Real justice will only come when these senseless murders — by those who supposedly protect us — are brought to a halt. The seething anger of New Yorkers over police brutality and racial profiling was seen in the rallies and marches following Bell’s murder. We must organize this anger into a movement capable of stopping future crimes and demanding justice for those that have already occurred.

“The police are out of control,” said City Councilman Charles Barron of the Bell case, “and the only way we’re going to stop it is ourselves, by any means necessary.”

Laura Taylor is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be contacted at lat34@cornell.edu. Kind of a Big Deal appears Tuesdays.