White Police Brutality

Police brutality is most often affected by race. But if you stay updated with the news, African Americans seem to be the targets. African Americans make up thirteen percent of the world’s population (“Police Killed At Least 223 Black Americans In The Year After Colin Kaepernick’s

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.

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.

There are many open wounds in the African-American community that have not healed what so ever. Disintegration of family structures in the African-American community has been a persistent problem for far too long. High out of wedlock birth rates, absent fathers, and the lack of a family support network for many young African-Americans have led to serious problems in America's urban areas. The persistence of serious social problems in inner-city areas has led to a tragic perpetuation of racial prejudice as well. African Americans still face a litany of problems in the 21st century today. Some of those problems consist of, unemployment, education, police brutality, single parent households, drugs, gang violence, and the high rate of incarceration

According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved. An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer

The issue of race within the police force dates back to the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, which considered the lack of minority officers one of the central problems in policing at that time. Almost 50 years later and

Although we hope our Police force will use their powers for good, but sometimes police misconduct can occur. Often, the police are under great pressure to act as quick as possible, espcially in a murder case and if the murder victime is white, a child, police officer, or prominent. For example, In the 1990’s the case of Rodney King, that not only shows a racist issue within the criminal justice system, but also the issue with abuse from police officers, but changed the country’s views on the LA police force. Twenty- Seven years ago,Rodney King was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police officers. King was intoxicated while driving and the police had caught him speeding, and initally he tried running away from the police, only to be followed by multiple police and a helicopter. The officers then proceeded to drag King out of his car and brutally beat him.This brutality was the first caught on tape by a bystander, the video had shown the officers tazing, kicking, and hitting Rodney with thier batons a little over 53 times. Witnesses had claimed that King was cooperative and never resisted the officers. The video had gone viral of the abuse and after the case being aquitted by an all white jury, the outcome of these actions resulted in what we know as the L.A riots. Another example of police brutality involving an African American, was a case that happened recently on August

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.

We hear and read about police brutality more than we should. Police brutality is a major problem in our country. Many times it is pushed aside or covered up. Sadly we find that a major reason for all this happens, has to do with racism as well. Due to that many people are hurt killed.

On August 9th 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri. On November 24th, the St. Louis grand jury decided there were no probable cause to indict Mr. Wilson. This decision sparked an outrage around the community where building where set on fire and lootings were prevalent around the city. With much of the evidence being he-say-she-say, it is hard for the public to actually know what happened. This led to an increased interest in body cameras. Body cameras should be required by federal law to protect officers, citizens, and prevent police brutality.

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 are trained mainly on how to handle a situation physically, rather than verbally. If they feel threatened, they will take action. “They learn that every encounter, with an individual is a potential threat.” (Stoughton, S) Because they are trained this way, a racist officer can take this opportunity to kill any African American, because they feel “threatened”, even if they are unarmed. Police officers must be trained in a way to prevent any unnecessary deaths on African Americans. Many officers use racial profiling to an excessive degree and use it as their defense for killing a defenseless African American. According to mic.com, white officers kill black suspects twice a week in the United States. It is the unfortunate truth that black people are more likely to be killed by the police than any other race. In order to properly train law enforcements, they must be taught to not discriminate against someone because of their skin color. Killing someone based off their race is a terrible way of

According to the article, “Why Police Kill Black Males”, Gilbert and Rashan state, “The criminalization of black males has a long history in the USA, which has resulted in an increase in policing behaviors by legal authorities” (Gilbert and Rashan). They also assert that black males in America have been stereotyped as violent criminals, felons, drug dealers and sexual predators (Gilbert and Rashan). Even more striking is the claim by Matthew Hughley in his article which appeared in Critical Sociology, that the criminal justice system has evolved the ideology that blacks have an inherent predisposition to commit crime (Hughey 857). Sadly, black males are perceived as threats even when they are unarmed. Hughey supports this assertion when he states, “Black Americans who are fatally shot by police are, in fact, less likely to be posing an imminent lethal threat to the officers at the moment they are killed than white Americans fatally shot by police” (Hughey 859). Because black males have more confrontations with law enforcement officials, the stereotype that blacks are naturally more predisposed to violence and crime becomes substantiated, which creates a never ending circle of prejudice and fear for police officers against black

The treatment many police officers have towards African Americans is unjustified. Police officers have certain protocols and rules to follow certain scenarios. This is to prevent casualties as much as possible and to protect bystanders. However, when do some of these actions go overboard? Recently, there have been many cases involving police brutality against African Americans in which some had costed their lives. Some actions taken by these officers are questionable to be justified or not. In July 2014, Marlene Pinnock, a 51 year old woman at that time, was arrested by a California Highway Patrol officer for walking next to a freeway. The officer straddles her to the ground and repeatedly struck Pinnock 's head with his fists (Williams 106).

Smith & Holmes (2003) confirmed research that stated that minorities are the targets of police brutality. Referring back to Figure 1, you can see that among the other ethnicities, African Americans over the age of 25 have been targeted the most starting from 1968 and now the targeting has been spread out to other ethnicities but a majority of the police brutality cases are involving African American males. From looking at Figure 1, one can see that the African American community has been affected the most with police killings since 1968 up unto now.