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. In order to move forward, the African-American community must heal. As an activist and aspiring social worker, I
Minorities in the community have been subjected to violence by law enforcement in the United States for some time. This violence is called police brutality and it is unacceptable. The job of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crime. They are a part of a dangerous and stressful career that can involve risky situations that must be controlled. Sometimes police are put in situations that excessive force is needed. Some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not needed, police brutality should be addressed by testing police for for racial bias, require more training, and use body cameras.
Historically police officers and the excessive use of force has been a key tool used to disrupt the black community and promote fear amongst anyone who dear to speak out for equality. The same police force that were sworn to protect and uphold the law were the same officers who savagely beat African American citizens with billy clubs and tormented the community with attack dogs just because of the difference in skin color. According to Almalcar Scott “It was the police , for example, who held the fire hoes that mowed down civil rights protestors in the 1960”. In recent times the fire hoes has been replaced with fire arms and the force used to torment the community are officer related shootings. With the advancement of smart phones society
Police brutality today is very controversial issue which is very easy to hide because of the authority they possess. Issues that tie with the Sandra bland story, Black lives matter movement, and racist police brutality all come back to racial equality. Racial equality is the belief that individuals regardless of their racial characteristics, should be treated fairly and equally, therefore meaning it is a mutual respect to all races; issues of police brutality date back to the 1930s in America (Racism no way , 2015 ).
In their article, “Body Cameras Worn by Police are No ‘Safeguard of Truth,’ Experts Say”, Vivian Yee and Kirk Johnson emphasize on how body cameras are not effective enough to prevent police brutality against American citizens. A grand jury found out that innocent African American Men's’ rights are not being considered when they are been brutally beaten by the police. As a result, the grand jury’s solution to this problem was to create a law that forces police officers to wear body cameras when they are in the act of arresting their victims. Yee and Johnson provide several examples from the article to support this claim that the body cameras worn by the police are not necessarily effective. The title “Body Cameras Worn By Police Officers are No ‘Safeguard of
In America today there has been a rising issue with the misconduct of law enforcement against African Americans. The reasons why police brutality has become an issue is because police officers are violating citizen’s rights, killing innocent lives, and abusing their power of authority. How many more lives are to be taken in order for people to realize the injustice of the law enforcement.
Body cameras would be worn on police officers at all times in order to record events such as the shooting death of unarmed teen, Michael Brown. Body cameras would also be a way to build trust between police officers and citizens because now both parties would have to be completely honest when resolving disputes. The public sees the use of body cameras as a step in the resolution of police brutality and because of this, demands for police to wear the cameras have increased across the country after the publicity of recent
At what point does enforcing a law with physical or verbal force turn to abuse or just simply go to far? This muddy subject means many different things to many different people. Is it the point when even after someone is captured the beating continues? Police brutality is considered to take place when someone in law enforcement is over enforcing a law or using excessive force? This can come in the form of verbal or physical abuse. Many officers have been tried due to the excessive force. Some of these officers have have ended up being convicted of the crime, where others just lost their job. There have been many been many well publicized high profile cases in the last 30 years, where some of the officers have been arrested due to their part
As an African American citizen, I am deeply impacted by the current events. It is another example of how African Americans are treated in a country we built. I believe officers still carry stereotypes society has created among the race. I also believe training is lacking within the Police Department. What surprised me the most, was how quick the investigation and invasion of Micah Xavier Johnson’s home was completed. Compared to how long it takes for an officer to go to trial. I think it is important as social workers to have a basic level of understanding of African history in the USA and how they are still impacted today. I also think it is important for us to advocate for change. An example is, facilitating a peaceful protest for better
America, home of the free, founded on ideals of equality and opportunity, or so we once thought. “Black Lives Matter”, has been a commonly heard phrase nation wide that represents police brutality against the African American community. Where and When did this popular hashtag start?
Police Brutality is defined as being the abuse of power by the unwarrant finliction of excesscive usse of force, by an indivual that is involved in law enforcement, while in the emidst of performing their official duties. The term "excessive use of force" means a force that is well beyond what would be considered as being necessary in order to handle a situation.The term can also be abblied to abuses that havee been perpretrated by corrections professilas in state, federal, millitary and muncipal prisons. The word brutality has several different meanings. However, in the context of police brutality, it means savage or cruelty. While the term is typicall used to describe physical harm that, it can be applied to phssycholical harm such as the utilzaiton of intimidation tactics that go beyond the scope of official police proceedure. As far as physcological force goes, officers can utilzie, batons, pepper spray, guns and nerve gas to physicall traumatize or intentionally hurt vitivluans.
Do police brutality comes from racism? Police brutality is a serious issue that needs to be solved immediately. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. This became a serious issue when African Americans lives are being killed by police officers. This topic is important to me because I have a 21 year old African American brother and I fear that his life will be taken away from my family because of a senseless racial crime. I wanted to write about this topic because I experience racial injustice. For example, at my high school I got called in to the resource officer office because they wanted to question me about a stolen cell phone that I had nothing to do with. It
The second most significant case of police brutality occurred during the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. There were three marches and the aim of the marches was to make evident the black American’s need for a constitutional right to vote. Amongst the marchers were prominent civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Thomas Fitzpatrick Jones. The first march took place on Sunday, March 7, 1965, and was stopped by state troopers who violently attacked the peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to stop the march for voting rights. The first march became known as Bloody Sunday because the police terrorized the peaceful protestors. Watson stated in his article that one of the protesters, Lewis, was clobbered across
America was founded upon the ideals of equality and freedom, so why have the citizens taken it upon themselves to sacrifice the very values that are the foundation of The United States? Racism is presumably nonexistent by many Americans who refuse to face the facts even though many movements, such as the black lives matter movement, have drawn attention to the racist acts that have occurred. Inconsistencies within the police department have given rise to long existing prejudices and given people a reason to believe racism has persisted in America. Racism still exists in America because of distant events in the past that have created stereotypes passed on through the generations and stereotypes upheld in the police system.
Attitudes toward the police differ race to race. Over the years, the black population has been viewing the police in a more negative way. The decline of approval is the outcome of repeatedly seeing one’s population being deprived of their rights. Dating back to the Rodney King beating in 1991, a study showed that the public’s view of the police was affected(Lasley). Disapproval was mostly shown among African Americans. For instance, a study formatted after three publicized brutality incidents in Los Angeles suggested that police brutality had a less staying power for whites than blacks.