Police brutality remains a common yet controversial topic around the world. Police brutality is “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (thelawdictionary.org). It’s a topic that segregates communities and makes each other their enemy. Specifically, a white officer has been the enemy of the black community. Unfortunately, the tension between police and blacks grew over the past few decades. As a result, there is a drastic increase of violent outburst between both sides. For the last years, it was reported that 51.5 percent of black were killed by police officers (ibtimes.com). On the other hand, there have been 51,548 assaults against law enforcement and it resulted in 14,453 injuries in 2015 alone (nleomf.org). In the United States, recently, police brutality has been a popular subject all over the news and social media.
It 's been about a year and a half since 18 year old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson. This ordeal still holds a lot of controversy. I, myself believe that Wilson 's action were unjustifiable and way worse than just unfair. Regardless of whether or not Michael had stolen something, shooting to kill was unnessecary. It was also unacceptabe and disrespectful for his body to be taken away hours later and in a cop car. When I heard about what had happened I was enraged because it seemed that once again race had made the situation sticky. However, if we were to take away the fact that Michael was black and Wilson was white, it still would not have made Wilson 's actions any better. When you look at the statistics of the matter you can 't help but place blame on the justice system. 1 in 15 black men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in 106 white men. This to me is a gap that is to huge to call a coincidence. Racial profiling and subliminal messages on T.V. make criminal charges look more and more like a death sentence for young black
Racial profiling by law enforcement is an overwhelmingly useless and prevalent expression of hate and ignorance to this day. Internationally, a wide variation of races are unrightfully discriminated against by the enforcements who are supposedly there to protect them. Jim Crow policing is an issue that undoubtedly continues, no matter the amount of riots or unjustly arrested/ murdered civilians. Cases like Trayvon Martin, and Mike Brown, as well as Bob Herbert 's article Jim Crow Policing published in the New York Times, February 2nd 2010, explain first hand accounts and statistics to give examples of the fact that racial profiling from the police force consistently takes place.
Black Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to be unarmed when they are shot and killed by police officers, according to a study published in the Journal of Criminology and Public Policy. In addition, the study finds that racial bias is a contributing factor (Schumaker). How does racial bias influence police brutality? Defined, “Police brutality is the use of excessive physical or verbal assault during police procedures, such as apprehending or interrogating a suspect. Deadly force is not always excessive force. However, when deadly force exceeds the force that is necessary to create a safe environment, it is considered police brutality.” The United States has an abhorrent history embracing racial relations. Police brutality has historically been perpetrated against individuals in lower socioeconomic levels and the social marginalized. It has been permitted against citizens who have participated in strikes during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s by spraying them down with hoses and attacking them with police dogs. This behavior has been motivated by racial stereotypes. Many police officers believe blacks are more violent than other races, and this image has been reflected in media quite often. These stereotypes are rooted in the sordid history of enslavement, genocide, and segregation. Although, stereotypes are not entirely the problem that encourages police brutality. Rampant discrimination and disparate treatment of certain minorities in the judicial
Police officer misconduct has been a publicly controversial topic for many years. Many people are familiar with the infamous “Ramparts” division of the LAPD where they committed acts of beatings and extortion and the “Riders” of the Oakland Police Department in their brutality against suspects (Criminal Law, n.d.).These examples are just a few of the problems that have occurred and occurring within our criminal justice system. The examples previously described also provide a connection of one familiar form of police misconduct and that is brutality. Police brutality is just one of the many forms of police misconduct and the types that follow under misconduct include theft/fraud, bribery, sexual misconduct, use of excessive force, domestic
Police brutality on African-American’s is violent and harmful. In our society today many police are unfairly treating African American people.There is a lot of evidence and statistics here that can help me prove what I 'm saying is the truth. Police brutality on African Americans is a terrible social injustice that must end.
As police brutality against African Americans is increasing, it is very much reminding us of the civil rights movement. Black leaders risked their lives to ensure that all African Americans would live an equal life as white Americans. The racism and discrimination had been unapparent until recent events such as Donald Trump’s campaign being successful and the police brutality against African Americans. “Every 7 hours cops kill an American citizen”. Many times African Americans are targeted. In fact, Police killed 160 black people in 2016. Did black lives activists die for such a world, destroyed by discrimination and inequality?
The killing of a young African American Michael Brown by white police officer Daren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014 shed a light on something that had long been ignored by the white population of the USA, the obvious inequality between black and white individuals in the criminal justice system. This racial bias is no longer based on explicit racism which was outlawed by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, instead it is influenced by implicit racial bias present in all aspects of the criminal justice system resulting in implicit assumptions that lead to quick and prejudice judgments based on negative stereotypes by the actors of the criminal justice system especially law enforcements which lead the uneven usage of “stop and
The murder of Oscar Grant was another case of racial profiling. Oscar Grant had been celebrating the New Years with some of his close friends and girlfriend. At 2:00 officers had responded to a report that a fight had broken out on the train. Grant was snatched off a train because police “felt” he was a part of the riot on the train, but he had nothing to do with it. In fact the train conductor said “Grant wasn’t one of the men that had been involved in the fight”. Police didn’t take the proper care of handling the situation. Grant was grab off the train and thrown to the ground like a used toy. Officer Johannes Mehserle put his knee in the back of Grant, during the video you see that officer using brute force. In which he grabs a gun and
Racially biased policing is a frightening social problem that I will be discussing on my research paper. First I would like to state that by having a better understanding of racially biased policing will allow the readers to have knowledge of this social problem at hand. Racially means the races of humankind; biased means an unjust treatment toward someone; and policing is an authority adult male or female, who can take away your freedom or life if given profitable cause. From this it is safe to determine that racially biased policing are authorities who prejudice against people who are poor and of color. I will discuss those purposes of racially biased policing throughout this research paper. Food
I was already aware of the issue about discrimination towards blacks and how it relates to police brutality, but before reading this article, I never knew what the main reasons for the discrimination was. In 8th grade, I was supposed to write about a current event, something that had just happened recently. I chose the shooting of Trayvon Martin. At the time, this was a recent incident and it disturbed me that some man would willingly shoot and kill a teenager for no probable reason other than he found Martin “suspicious.” As the case went on to trial, I later found out that Zimmerman, the gunman, was found not guilty. With racial discrimination against minorities leading to unfair trials, made me realize that this is a bigger issue than I previously
On August 9, 2014, eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting caused protests and has drawn the world’s attention because Michael Brown was an unarmed black man while Darren Wilson is a white police officer. People believe Michael Brown’s shooting involves a racial tension between blacks and whites since Brown was unarmed and surrendered. In Ferguson, the majority of people are African Americans, and the majority of police officers are white. On the night of the shooting incident, Brown was walking home and confronted by Wilson because Wilson thought Brown was suspicious. There was a struggle between Brown and Wilson. According to Brown’s friend, Wilson started the fight. Wilson was violent toward Brown and shot Brown several times even though Brown had already surrendered and put up his hands in the air. People who are on Brown’s side claim that a white police officer abused his power, and a sign of race discrimination among police officers.
Racial and ethnic profiling has become a major controversy in the United States. Lately there has been a lot in the news about police officers profiling African Americans and this has brought peoples attention through the news and social media. A few major current stories about police officers profiling African Americans is the Marlon Brown killing which happened in 2013. Marlon Brown was being pulled over for a seat belt violation and then got out of the vehicle and began running from the cops. Marlon Brown ended up slipping while he was running and the cop ran him over with his police cruiser, which caused Marlon to suffocate and die. (Two Cases Going Viral Question Police Force, Profiling). Police officer Harris was immediately fired
Police brutality has been a major problem for many years, especially for those of the minority community. Minorities have been endangered to forcefulness by police for too long. Police brutality has been more relevant in recent years due to certain cases that have proved to be of life-threatening violence, such as the beating of Rodney King. The episode that had happened to Rodney King is a terrible one, but one that perfectly reflects what law enforcement is capable of doing. In order to fully understand police brutality and its probable causes, we have to bring up the case of Rodney King.
On April 29, 2017 Jordan Edwards, unarmed, was leaving a house party that was getting “out of hand”. He was fatally shot and killed while in the car leaving with his brother and three other unarmed teenagers. Jordan was considered a great student and he was liked by many of his teachers and classmates. This is just one of the many times police officers have fatally shot someone that was unarmed and just happened to be black. Police racism is a very big problem in America. The killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Walter Scott are other examples of police racism and brutality as well.