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Race And Policing In America

1120 Words5 Pages

Running head: Race and Policing 1

Race and Policing 6

Colby Heywood
University of Massachusetts - Lowell
Gender, Race and Crime
11/18/2016

Our country has been suffering a spike of fatal shootings of men of color by their own neighborhood police officers in the past recent years. However, the data of cases where racial inequality has been evident in policing duties has not been made readily available to the public. In fact, the federal database does not provide for any such records. Despite this fact, the case of policing and its impact on racial inequality has fetched innumerable research and investigations by the academics and media …show more content…

When compared statistically, the ratio of a black unarmed civilian being killed by the police is 3.49 times higher than that of a white (Makarechi, 2016). In Weitzer and Tuch?s research book, ?Race and Policing in America: Conflict and Reform,? they explain that such a relationship on policing and racial inequality is not explainable at the local level, but the data for racial biases is indeed shocking in the case of police shootings. It?s even more common at local crime scenes. The relationship of neighborhoods with their police can be dependent on the socioeconomic status of the community in which they reside. However, police misconduct has been responsible for raising crime rates in community crime policing in spite of their socioeconomic statuses (Weitzer & Tuch, …show more content…

The data expressed within the article shows that the biases are much higher than what has been anticipated within the book. The book reveals that even the police force agree and acknowledge the existence of racial biases at a very high rate. Each of these readings bring to light the discrimination present, even within the wing of the judicial system, which is supposed to be helping in eradication of inequalities by penalizing such cases. However, the research reveals the depth to the belief of existence over racial injustices. Acknowledgment of such existence, shapes the expectations and attitudes towards our law enforcement officials. Only strict penalizations for reported acts of racism by officers can help in curbing this overwhelming case of disparity. Attitudes will take time to

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