Argumentative Essay: Black Person Killed By Cop

At least 303 lives of African Americans were lost due to police shootings in 2016. Why is this number so high and why is it growing? Many people believe the brutality of police and authorities has grown stronger in the past several years towards those of color, and that it is becoming incorrigible. Back in 2012, the life of Trayvon Martin was lost suddenly due to a watch captain of the neighborhood, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman had claimed to see a “suspicious person” and was directed to stay in his SUV, however those orders were not followed.

On February 26,2012, a seventeen year old by the name of Trayvon Martin was walking home from the store. As he was headed home a man spotted him from his window his name was George Zimmerman. Zimmerman called the cops and told them it was a suspicious guy walking through the neighborhood. Trayvon was wearing a hoodie he was slowly walking because of the rain and he was black. Zimmerman then told the police that Trayvon was looking around at all the houses and hes looking at him.

In February of 2012, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in an act of self-defense. Martin, who was in Sanford, Florida visiting his father, was coming home from a 7-Eleven carrying a can of iced tea and a bag of skittles. 28-year-old Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch coordinator in the housing community in which Martin’s father lived (Abuznaid 1143). Zimmerman noticed Martin, who was wearing a gray-hooded sweatshirt, walking through the community and grew suspicious. Zimmerman called the police but was told to wait and not engage.

Trayvon Martin was a young 17-year-old African American male visiting the downtown area of Sandford Florida. Trayvon Martin’s father (Tracy Martin) was a truck driver who was dating a women by name of Sandy Green who lived in the gated housing complex The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sandford where Trayvon’s life was cut short. Tracy would often times bring his sons up from Miami where they resided to stay at the housing complex in Sandford with him, his girlfriend and her son on the weekends. Trayvon Martin despite being a loving and supportive family member had recently been suspended from school due to having a bag with traces of marijuana in it. Tracy did not want his son to spend the next 10 days of his suspension hanging out with the wrong

Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy who was murdered while visiting relatives in money, Mississippi. In money, mississippi, he went into a store and was said to have whistled at a the store clerk (1). In source one, it said that he liked to play pranks and he was dared to ask the white cashier ,Carolyn Bryant, for a date. A few days later, Carolyn 's husband and brother in law went to Emmett’s uncle’s house, wear he was staying (1). In the middle of the night he was forced to carry a cotton gin fan to the Tallahatchie river, then he was beaten, got his eye gouged out, shot in the head, and thrown in the river, tied to the cotton gin fan.

It’s been 4 years since the killing of Trayvon Martin and the verdict still hasn’t ended the debate about his death. Many supporters believe that his murder was a cowardly act by one George Zimmerman who shot and killed Martin. It was the night of February 26 when Martin went to a nearby 7-eleven to buy himself a snack. Wearing the hood of his grey shirt over his head, he paid the store clerk and left. He was walking back to his father’s house, where he was staying after he had been suspended from school.

At the hospital, King was treated for lacerations on his face, a broken ankle along with a broken cheekbone. Moreover, in King's court case against the officers, he also claimed to have suffered from 11 skull fractures, brain damage, broken teeth and emotional trauma. http://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Report-of-the-Independent-Commission-on-the-LAPD-re-Rodney-King_Reduced.pdf The following day, the horrific video of the beating was aired on multiple news television shows which displayed the "truth about race and class in America".

Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Stacey Koon were the four officers who beat up Rodney King on March 3(Biography). Although not all of the officers were being accused of the same crime they all still faced many difficulties. The officers received many death threats because of how they treated King. Many people believed the officers did not deserve freedom and threatened their lives. Most of the officers were being accused of assault with a deadly weapon which would result in years of prison if convicted (Biography).The jury for the Rodney King trial threatened democracy and the fairness of the trial.

Had Trayvon Martin been any other race or skin color however, he might not have been shot at or even spared a second glance, but because of the darkness of his skin and the feelings of endangerment and threat that prejudice invokes within us, he was shot and killed. More importantly, it is critical that we recognize how Zimmerman assumed that Trayvon Martin was committing an unlawful act, demonstrating just the effects of prejudice and the blinding aspect of it that can cloud your judgement. This can be traced back to Staples’ argument, as it poses as a perfect instance of where black men in America are targeted and how they are drastically misrepresented and assumed to be the only perpetrators of violence or

From Ferguson to Tulsa to Baton Rouge, there have been countless cases of police brutality towards African-American men, women, and children. Murderers never receiving their justice, given paid time off and being cleared of charges. Families living in fear, left torn apart at the hands of people who took an oath to serve and protect. We see people of all races standing together in protest of something we know to be wrong, advocating for much needed social change.

Stories of the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin were seen and heard on nearly every news outlet and radio station beginning in February of 2012. On the night of February 26th, 2012 Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager was walking home from a 7/11 convenience store carrying a small bag containing an Arizona iced tea beverage and a bag of skittles. On his way home, Martin was gunned downed in the streets of a gated community in the state of Florida by 28-year-old white resident George Zimmerman. While Martin was unarmed and had no criminal intent in mind, Zimmerman claimed to fear for his safety. This led to Zimmerman shooting Martin several times, which Martin shortly after died from.

In February 2012, a 28-year-old man followed a 17-year-old youth and killed him on a residential street. The youth hadn’t done anything; he did not commit a crime, and he hadn’t provoked the older man. He was shot simply because he seemed “suspicious.” This was the story of Trayvon Martin’s death in Sanford, Florida at the hands of George Zimmerman (Cooper). Zimmerman, the killer, is a white man while Trayvon was an innocent black youth.

Cops around the United States have been accused of racially profiling black people. This topic has been brought up by everyone around the U.S. and is very controversial. Studies have shown that the majority of deaths by police officers have been people of opposite color in America. Police brutality in America is a growing epidemic that has shown no signs of slowing down. Innocent men, women, and even children have been killed by police officers for no reason.

Ronald Carlson wanted nothing more but justice for his sister who had been murdered. Ronald talks about how he would have killed the man with his own hands if he would have gotten the chance but his mind quickly changed after he seen his sister's murder being executed, he has a new view on the situation now. He talks about how watching the execution left him full of horror and emptiness. Ronald asks a question that should be addressed he said, “Our justice system should not be dictated by vengeance.” He asked, “As a society, shouldn’t we be more civilized than the murderers we condemn?”

A cause of corruption, discrimination and inequality, the cause of death of many innocent lives. Throughout the long history, racism has been a subject of much debate, most notably in The United states of America. There have been numerous actions that suggest that racial inequality might still be intact with America’s modern society, such as the extreme violence shown by the police that has been roaming all over social media recently. This has eventually led to the creation of the controversial “Black lives matter” group. “Black lives matter” is an organization is an international activist campaign that disapproves of violence towards the African -American community.