Police Brutality In The Civil Rights Movement

Assurance in equal justice remains as an overwhelming political principle of American culture. Yet withstanding unbelief exists among numerous racial and ethnic minorities. Their doubt comes as no surprise, given a past filled with differential treatment in the arrangement of criminal equity, an issue particularly clear in police misconduct. Researchers have investigated police responses to racial and ethnic minorities for quite some time, offering sufficient confirmation of minority burden on account of police. These examinations raise doubt about different police techniques of coercive control, maybe none more so than police brutality. Its use exemplifies the pressures between police and minorities that exist in America today.

There are numerous issues that deal with the American criminal justice system, but the two I found most prominant that occur on a daily basis is the abuse from police officers and clear racism shown by the American criminal justice system. To begin, racism as we know is a prejudice directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In the criminal justice system African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a higher more aggressive way, than say someone who is caucasian and committed the same exact crime. Racism is more often than not, the motive for official misconduct. There are examples of racism from every known region in the United States, spanning across centuries from slavery to

America has long been considered “the land of the free”, illustrated in many historic documents from around the time our country was born. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 immediately showed that freedom, as we declared ourselves independent of Britain’s rule. A little over a decade later, in 1787, the Constitution was created, after the failed attempt of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution initiated the setup of America’s government during the Constitutional Convention, in which George Washington was selected as the first president of the United States. Another four years later, in 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted as part of the Constitution, giving Americans their basic freedoms that are very much debated about today. In the Bill of Rights, Americans

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

In the 1980s, the United States was characterized by racial politics and police violence. Most of the union jobs were outsourced to overseas, 45% of African Americans were left unemployed in South Central Los Angeles. Presidents Reagan and Bush had undone all the hard work that had been improved in the late 1960s and the 1970s. In the 1980s there was a decline in economic and social gains. Between 1986 and 1992, almost 1.2 million African Americans were affected by poverty, by falling below the poverty line (Lusane 404). Racial discrimination and police brutality had been a reality for African Americans, but those in suburban areas did not accept what was happening.

In the Criminal Justice System of the United States, there has been a disparity affecting African-American communities and minority groups. Minorities perceive themselves as the main targets of police use of force, racial profiling, and a bias culture within law enforcement. The central argument, is that such actions have an impact on the relationship between police officers and the African American community, causing problems in our society. But does history explain why law enforcement has developed a negative relationship with African-Americans? In our democratic era, police officers are considered a walking symbol of safety and protection. The police officer 's authority role, is to “fight crimes, maintain order and provide social services”

Images and video of Eric Garner’s murder by police generated outrage and protests across the nation. Many wept for the loss of this innocent, but for Black America, it was just another offense in a long series of transgressions against the black body. To them, the pain was familiar—they had known it by many names: slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration. Police brutality was nothing new. This situation was different, however. Garner was the last straw—the one that broke the camel’s back. Horror, disgust, and rage swept through the nation’s major cities. This image galvanized communities around the country, who declared in one voice: “No more. Enough is enough.”

The suicide of Sandra Bland, shook her family and the people that knew her best. The taking of her own life simply did not make any sense. In the past Bland had went through some rough patches, but she had so many things going for herself at that point in her life. She had moved to a new city found a new job and rekindled her relationship with her mother. Suicide was not in the cards for Sandra. Her death led those that knew her well to think it was staged and something must have happened to her in the jail but it was covered up. This case caused a public out roar on social media and on various news sites.

The 1960s brought a completely different aspect to police violence in that police brutality was the most prevalent among African American communities that were trying to achieve social and political equality through peaceful or radical means. As social tensions rose, African Americans across the country tried to change the dogmatic thought of African American inferiority through either peaceful or radical social movements. Martin Luther King Jr, a prime example of peaceful integration of African Americans into American society, led nonviolent resistant movements that allowed some movements to be successful, and others to be catastrophic in terms of brutal police intervention. For example, The Birmingham Civil Rights Protest of 1963 clearly

So far in the year of 2015, 66 unarmed African Americans have been killed by police authorities. Ever since the death Michael Brown in August 2014, the world has become much more aware of police brutality. According to wisegeek.org, police brutality is “a form of police misconduct in which officers engage in an excessive use of force.” Police brutality against African Americans is an issue that has been causing a lot of controversy in the past year. This issue needs much more awareness than ever before, since there have been many startling cases during and after the Ferguson protest. While there are many solutions to ending police brutality, most of them are difficult to accomplish individually. However, as a community, there are a couple solutions

“In countries with a properly functioning legal system, the mob continues to exist, but it is rarely called upon to mete out capital punishment. The right to take human life belongs to the state. Not so in societies where weak courts and poor law enforcement are combined with intractable structural injustices. “In our present day society we as Americans have the cognitive dissonance that what the courts say are final, but also hold to the fact that the majority’s opinion rules. In recent news we have seen massive riots following the killings of African American men by caucasian police officers. These all follow after one of the most prominent not guilty verdicts of the 21st century on the Rodney King beating. With these riots we see the words of Teju Cole begin to take life.

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 number of shootings involving law enforcement officers and unarmed African American men has increased in the United States in recent months to the point where there is social unrest in one particular community: the African-American community. Groups such as Black Lives Matter have been created in the recent past to create tranquility between the police and the people of the Unites States. If media accounts of these incidents are accurate and these recent trends are taken together, the country is on the tipping point of a deadly unprecedented racial divide.

Police brutality is not a new problem in the United States. It has occurred throughout history and has affected all genders, ethnicities, and races. Recently, however, police brutality towards African Americans has become a controversial topic in the news media, and has prompted heated discussions and angry public outcry about race relations and civil rights throughout all sections of the country. Ever since the Michael Brown shooting in 2014, which was caught on camera and viewed widely on national television and on social media, the police have been under scrutiny by both the news media and the general population to stop their use of physical force and unnecessary violence when apprehending and confronting criminals.

In this article, Staples discusses the treatment of African Americans by U.S. police, emphasizing the history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment. Staples focuses mainly on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. who got arrested in his home located in Cambridge, Massachusetts which relvealed the sharp racial divide over what police could do to innocent black people. Robert goes on to explain that the racial underpinnings cause the majoritity of the public to favor law enforcement as a slutionto crime. Robert claims the political support for U.S. legal discrimination leads the people against minorities in criminal penalties over small crimes which usually are nonviolent offenses. I will use this academic article to support my conclusion