#sayhername is a hashtag trending on twitter to raise awareness to resisting police brutality against black women. One recent example of a major use of this hashtag has to do with the alleged suicide of a woman named Sandra Bland. Bland was a 28 year old black women arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a traffic stop and was found dead in a jail cell three days later. Blands death caused suspicion when fans of her viral Facebook videos of her speaking out about the struggles of black people got a hold of her supposed "mugshot" which seemed to have shown an already dead body. This angered many people and caused Blands case to be investigated by the Texas rangers in coordination with the F.B.I Although people have gathered …show more content…
To start off during Blands arrest there was some type of scuffle that can be heard in a video of the incident. Through the audio of the video you can hear Bland indicate that she was on the ground by saying “you just slammed me, knocked my head into the ground” “ I got epilepsy” the officer Trooper Encinia responded with “good”. Even with saying this Encinia still went on to describe Bland as “combative and uncooperative”. Many argue that with the trooper even saying “good” to Blands bad condition sounded like a hatred for her. Rebecca Robertson, the legal and policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas even stated “he had to arrest her because she was resisting arrest, but her resistance is a response to the officer escalating the situation”. Agreeing in fact that a minor traffic violation should have never reached heights for Bland to be held up in a jail …show more content…
For example users from the popular websites tumblr and twitter took to the media to express their feelings and suspicions on what information has been released to the public, a tumblr user argues “Why there was a trashcan and a trashbag in her jail cell in the first place, when protocol is against having anything in the room that’s not fastened down”. Which in fact is correct and also raises suspicion on why the trash bag was replaced after Blands death, being known as tampering with evidence. Why is it that there was a video of a guard going into Blands cell and coming out with a trash bag that he discreetly threw in the trash while he directed others to Blands cell. A twitter user decides to bring attention to the case by speaking out about who was investigating the case by sending out a message to all followers “Texas police to investigate whether Texas police tampered with evidence during their own investigation of themselves” going back to the theory that the Texas police are all trying to cover up the truth of what really happened to this woman. A close friend of Bland stated “she was a tough girl and a strong girl” which is why they have such a high suspicion that Bland actually committed suicide. She was a strong civil rights activist with many followers and a promising future, it doesn't make sense as to why such a strong minded
the following image is arguing that police brutality is a much more of a common occurrence to the people of color, It claims that "racism still exists" in bold white text on a colored person being oppressed by a police official in the poster. the poster is in black and blue with white text, the colors of black and blue the the two opposite sides of the colored community and the brutal police officials. The title of this poster is "Don't want to get stopped by NYPD? STOP BEING BLACK", the title is offensive and very Illogical targeting the pathos in this poster, it then continues to use much more statistics to the right of the picture, proving the amount of racism in the police force. while that is pathos, its is very logos too, because of the
Police Brutality Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed. But, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not, police brutality should be addressed. The use of excessive force may or may not be large problem, but it should be looked into by both the police and the public. For those people who feel racism is not a factor in causing the use of excessive force, here is a startling fact. In Tampa Bay, Florida, five men died while in the custody of the
On the night of February 26, 2012 “George Zimmerman who was the coordinator for his Sanford neighborhood watch association is charged with second-degree murder in the death of a young boy. Trayvon Martin, an unarmed high school student from Miami, Florida. (Alvarez) The case began in a small city of Sanford as a routine homicide but soon evolved into a civil rights case, examining racial profiling. On the night of the attack Zimmerman was told not to get out of his car when he was following Trayvon. He described Trayvon as a “guy who looks up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something” Trayvon had his back to Zimmerman the whole time he was on the phone with the Dispatcher, from what the conversation was saying. When the dispatcher asked Zimmerman “is the guy white, black, or Hispanic? “Zimmerman says that he “looks” black, Zimmerman still has yet to see if Trayvon was black, white, or even Hispanic because Trayvon was walking the other direction. Later on in the conversation is when Zimmerman said “now he’s just staring at me”. That would have been the right time to mention the race of Trayvon. As the dispatcher was asking mo...
The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.
It was a 92 degree fahrenheit morning at 9:45 on August 14th, when Doug Greene placed a call to 911. He informed the police that he was concerned because Anna had been seen wearing a sweater the previous day despite the unusual heat and wasn’t answering her calls or her door. Both the police and the EMT arrived at the crime scene at 9:56 am where they found Anna Garcia lying on the floor. They entered the crime scene and declared Anna dead. The crime scene was then secured at 10:20 am for investigation. The crime scene was confined to a 10’ by 20’ entry hallway. At the crime scene, investigators marked areas where vomit, blood stains, blood spatter, footprints, a strand of hair, scattered pills, a syringe, and dirty cup were lying on the floor. They also discovered fingerprints that could be taken to a lab for analyzation. Anna was found lying face-down against the floor surrounded by blood and vomit near her mouth. The table in the crime scene
The media has taken the Hannah Graham case by storm - it has gotten local, national, and even international coverage. For the past month, I have seen a new article about the case almost everyday. I watched it slowly go from local newspapers in Charlottesville that had been posted by friends who go to UVA who were hoping people would know of her whereabouts, to articles in CNN talking about how Jesse Matthew (the suspect) is a serial rapist and murderer. The case presents itself as a very intriguing case - completely Law and Order SVU worthy with all the twists and turns. However, with all of this public interest in the case, some news outlets are sensationalizing information or even reporting false facts in order to seem as if they have the
Patty Hearst was a normal 19 year old girl, living in an apartment with her fiance and attending university in Berkeley, California, until one day her life, and the lives of everyone around her changed forever. On the evening of February 4, 1974, some members of the left-wing radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army barged into Hearst’s home armed with guns, and beat up her fiance before kidnapping Hearst and bringing her to their house where she was kept blindfolded in a closet for 59 days. While locked in the closet, Patty Hearst was verbally and sexually abused and she was denied the use of even a toilet or toothbrush if she didn’t tell them that she agreed with the group’s ideas and beliefs. It is believed that while being locked in the closet like this, Patty was being brainwashed by the SLA and that she may have even developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which a person who was kidnapped starts to empathise with their captor, and even starts defending them. This is how the Symbionese Liberation Army convinced Patty Hearst to join their group. They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members. The FBI eventually found and arrested Patty Hearst on September 18, 1975. T...
An incident in which a suicidal individual intentionally engages in life- threatening and criminal behavior with a lethal weapon or what appears to be a lethal weapon toward law enforcement officers or civilians to specifically provoke officers to shoot the suicidal individual in self-defense or to protect civilians is known as suicide by cops.
America as a people gloat when it comes to our freedoms we think we have it better than every other country out there but the protectors of our freedom are becoming fear and hated because of the injustices committed by certain officers. Some say life of an officer is hard because they do not know if they will ever see their family again after they drive out of their house in the morning, others might say every officer knows what they were signing up for so they should not be pitied. Police officers face dangers everyday but profiling and racially motivated brutality is not justifiable and officers should be severely punished for committing these crimes.
A father purchased a toy gun as a birthday gift for his young son. His son went outside to play and and encountered a police officer who shot him seven times. This incident occurred in Sonoma County in October 2013. A similar incident occurred in November 2014 when Cleveland police killed a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun. Use of excessive force by police is common in impoverished "black" or "brown" communities.
On the day of August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot by a white police officer that goes by the name of Darren Wilson. WIth a black vs white case, there is always bias either towards the white police officer or the black victim. In the daily media, there is an abundance of misinformation that is perpetuated by the Audience. Many news outlets have articles on the shooting of Michael Brown, some of those interviewed the officer who shot him, what had occurred moments before his death, and the aftermath of his death had. One source, Darren Wilson explains why he killed Michael Brown by Terrence McCoy published on November 25, 2014, has a Left center Bias where they often publish factual information, that may require further investigation and
After looking over all of the evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case it is
Police brutality and racial profiling dates back to the 1700’s in the United States(Rushing). Unfortunately, such treatment by police continues today when police are expected to hold the civic duty to protect and serve. Mistreatment by police is just the start in most cases, when citizens fight back it becomes “brutal”. Police brutality by definition means “The use of any force exceeding that reasonably to accomplish a lawful police purpose.” Police brutality can occur in many different ways with the most common being physical harm. Although that is a big problem, there are other cases of Police brutality that involve acts of false arrest, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, intimidation, etc. An act that can be seen as police brutality could be a criminal running from the cops and an officer shoots a victim with a taser. Many cases of physical harm are police using excessive force to contain and arrest any individual. Since many accounts of police brutality have been directed towards minorities, these cases turn into acts of racial profiling. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. Let 's say for example Trayvon Martin, a simple 17 year old black male walking home from a gas station was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch member. This being one of the many
Officers are trained and taught different polices that require them not to be biased towards any gender or race. Such officers include Sunil Dutta, if you don’t want to get shot, tasted pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.” (Dutta) uses policies to their advantage. Lack of African-American officers, mainly in communities with citizens of color, can lead to an inquiry that there is a bias in law enforcement agencies and their policies. With recent events in the news displaying the misconduct of officers in an African-American communities like, in July of 2014, where the death of Eric Garner because of “chokehold” by a police officer hit home for many African-Americans and made them question the legislative decisions on policies causing a distrust and lack of confidence within the police departments, shying away citizens from
Holmes, Malcolm D. "Minority threat and police brutality: Determinants of civil rights criminal complaints in US municipalities." Criminology 38.2 (2000): 343-368.