Police brutality and racial profiling against has became a huge problem in America. In 2016 more than 250 african americans were killed by police officers. Two thousand and fifteen an estimate of 306 blacks were killed. Mainly our african american men have been killed innocently by an officer because the color of his skin.
Addressing police brutality must be done with empathy for and awareness of the plight of the African-American community. Historically speaking, there has not been a period wherein the African-American community was not inhibited by institutionalized barriers. American enslavement provided the foundation for later oppressive provisions that are especially prevalent within inner-city, predominantly Black communities, which, incidentally, many of the prominent instances of police brutality have taken place. Political regimes like the “war on drugs,” “school to prison pipeline,” and mass incarceration criminalize and dehumanize the African-American community, and thus affect the collective mindset of the population. I believe that an imperative first step that has not been taken is acknowledging the effects these may have on the Black community.
However, research demonstrates that often times men of color are treated harshly which leads to negative perceptions of police officers. Police brutality is a crime that is has been surfacing in the news recently. Some people are just starting to realize that these injustices against the black community really occur, while others are well aware. The recent shootings, different run-ins with officers being filmed while doing such harmful actions against African American men is an example of police brutality and, that reminds us that as a society work needs to be done to improve police and community relations. A black male cannot even walk down the street on a cold night because he might be a suspect from something or he may be of danger to the people around.
In today’s society there’s many race arose “Black Lives Matter.” There is many cases where there has been “Police Brutality.” There has been more effect on the black community and I believe people focus too much on race and not enough on how to better the police enforcement. Police officers should be trained and displaced. We can’t label all police officers as bad ones and all black men as criminals.
In the article, “Feds fault San Francisco police for violence against minorities and recommend 272 reforms”, James Queally and Joe Mozingo addresses the abusive mentality police have with their authority. They imply the behavior of police in some cases isn’t appropriate for someone who is suppose to serve and protect. They include LAPD incidents where Investigation of police are said to use racial slurs through communication of text amongst themselves when referring to Blacks, Latinos and people of middle eastern descent. Ultimately what Queally and Mozingo are trying to get at is that law enforcement abuse their power and degrade their reputation, and should be civil and not be dishonorable by being racially
People have accused officers of shooting arbitrarily, or unjustifiably, and most frequently of exhibiting racism in such situations. These accusations have been supported by numerous empirical studies showing that police officers kill African-Americans at a disproportionately higher rate than whites (Tennenbaum,
An example of how cops automatically make people of color threats and result into murdering them/using physical violence is the act of “stop and frisk” and getting pulled over for license and registration. When the person resists or even when you oblige, it leads to violence because you’re suddenly seen as a threat for “reaching for a weapon” and end up getting killed or hurt. These stops were reasons to target people of color to get searched and questioned without any probable cause until it became illegal (only to stop and frisk). Getting pulled over is still an issue today and every day that passes a black person becomes a statistic due to the culture of violence police have with firearms or the type of weapons that they overuse like tasers and pepper spray or even the excessive physical abuse/ force. “In court, Mr. Schmidt depicted Mr. Spear as a nasty and recalcitrant inmate who had started the physical dispute with Mr. Coll.”
Police officers are more likely to stop and arrest African Americans, compared to other ethnic groups in America, and this has to do with stereotypes. Mainstream media portrays black men as violent, thugs or drug sellers which shapes the perceptions majority of Americans have towards African Americans (Hurwitz & Peffley, 2005). Therefore, these stereotypes become a method to dehumanize and make it acceptable for black people to be treated in a certain way in the criminal justice system. Also, there is a big gap when it comes to how to black people and white people view the criminal justice system because they experience it differently. Whites are significantly more likely to approve police aggression compared to their black counterparts, because they are not subjected to violence from Criminal Justice system (Hadden, Tolliver, Snowden, & Brown, 2016).
Between 1992 and 1993, Los Angeles county alone paid more than $30 million to citizens victimized by police brutality” (45). Explanation: This quote is important because it shows the devastating aftereffects of racial targeting and abuse by police officers. The money being spent isn 't really the problem here, but what is, is that African-Americans are usually the ones that the police never give the benefit of the doubt. If the police don 't spend more time investigating before quickly convicting an innocent person just based on their skin color nothing will
Holding Police Accountable for their Killings of Unarmed People of Color Fruitvale Bart Station is where I begin and end my day. The infamous platform in Oakland, California where bart police murdered Oscar Grant, a fully restrained unarmed African American who was celebrating New Year 's Day with his friends and girlfriend. Johannes Mehserle, the police officer involved in the shooting was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Thus, having to spend the minimum two years in prison but being he had time served he only would only spend seven months in jail with possible bail. Murder?
We should not blame the police officers or the African American community though; instead, blame the United States government for doing little to help the impoverished people. If the government would go into the inner cities and help the people get on their feet. There wouldn 't be young kids running the streets - they would have jobs, therefore less time and energy to get into trouble, and an education to help them get out of their impoverished neighborhoods. So, I vehemently agree with Linker, that the main reason for all the shootings are the socioeconomic climate of the inner cities. Yes, there are probably some racist cops but the notion that cops as a whole are targeting minorities is completely bogus.
This article was written by Cody Ross and published in the Social Forum journal, a peer reviewed journal. It is reliable as it has already been peer reviewed and cites many other sources throughout it. In the article, it says that there is a racial disparity in police violence against white people and black people. It attempts to support how black people are unfairly the victims of police brutality as compared to white people. It brings up statistics as to how unarmed black people are much more likely to be shot than unarmed white people are when it comes to dealing with the police.
Police Brutality and Racial Profiling Black people who were unarmed were killed more than whites by police last year. “Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people (BBC Podcast, 2015).” Although the extent of police racial bias and their previous abusive behavior is unknown (if any), there are other issues that are known. The purpose of this paper is to argue that race and ethnicity, social class, and bias are reasons that lead to police atrocity among African Americans.
Young black men who are shot by the police are very commonly justified, such as Michael Brown who was shot by police because he went for a cops gun inside a cops car. Slyville Smith was killed because he had a record of various arrests, and refused to put his illegally obtained pistol down when an officer asked him to. Where are the overzealous white cops who are out to take young black men into prisons for no reason? Where are the cops who kill solely because they're racist? Some may argue that cops who are pulling people over for “small” crimes like a broken tail light or slightly overspeeding is what causes more police brutality, but if a cop pulls a person over for a broken tail light, and they gets out of the car with a weapon, is the cop really racist in that scenario?
According to “The Washington Post”, Last year 963 African Americans were shot and killed by police. Ever since the 1960s Africans has been fighting for equality; in the Eric Garner case and Michael Brown, it demonstrated how White police officers abuse and misuse their power towards African Americans. Since the increase of police brutality communities has had marches, rallies, and even the Black Lives Matters movements as a response to show that Polices’ abuse of power is unacceptable. The Black Lives Matter movement was created after radical discrimination it is a political movement to inform and protect Black Lives. (Wesley Lowery.
