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The effects of police brutality in America
Research paper on police brutality in the united states
The effects of police brutality in America
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Does upholding the duties of being an American citizen in today’s diverse society simply mean paying your taxes, voting, obeying laws or serving on jury? Being an American is not just limited to these certain responsibilities, because being an American comes with a much more extensive baggage than what you expect. To be a leader and citizen of America today, means constantly aiming to attain change and better the conditions of everyone. It is a country that is prone to changes, advancements and regression.We have to always find ways to ensure that the American dream is a reality, not just an empty promise. Our obligatory duty is to understand American is a unique brand that not only emcompasses a specific or dominant culture or race, it is …show more content…
Similarly to what Abraham Lincoln said in his speech during the 1858, Illinois Republican Senate Race “ a house divided against itself cannot stand” (Lincoln). America is divided as of now, over the long matter of African-Americans. Police aggression has reached if not passed it’s peak, specifically towards Blacks. Police officers are using a derogatory approach, racial profiling, for apprehending people based on what they look like; skin color. Racial profiling has now led a lot of people to live in worry, categorizing members of certain communities to be suspects and criminals.Now the force that was created for the purpose of protecting the people, serving justice on a silver platter, and ensuring to maintain order in our society has crumbled furiously. This department has become the epitome of fear in our American Society. How can we ensure equal protection under the law, when a sector of the law is undermining and infringing on the rights of individuals? So we have to be advocates for change, or else the system will slowly dissolve and lose to uphold its legacy. We have to understand that as Americans of today’s society, we to be tolerant and open minded rather than being opinionated. Be able to detect a wrong act, without situating an individual into a stereotypical …show more content…
Nonetheless the American system is hindering that declaration. College has become so expensive, that many are opting out, or not even considering the thought. Many cannot afford the chance to go to college, because just a glance could scare the life out of you. Even though politicians are fighting to ensure that community colleges will become affordable for students, but it is in slow process. Americans have to assure that the youth nurtures the ideology that they can be what they want, but with a fight. The land of opportunities does not just grant them randomly, but to those that decide to take action. Also, to be leader means taking leadership roles, motivating not only the youth but everyone to be tolerant. When hit with adversity, it is our reaction that determines the outcome. Our reaction to the LGBT community, has to be the promotion of love and acceptance regardless of sexuality. We can only be the voice of tomorrow, if we speak up today. The youth has to be advised into becoming the leaders of tomorrow, by upholding the right of ‘ the pursuit of happiness’ for
The Baltimore City police have faced a myriad of problems in the last year. The riots following the Freddie Gray arrest were reported around the country and created a situation where the Governor was forced to call in the National Guard to protect the city. Community leaders report that African American’s are stopped, searched and arrested at a far greater number than Caucasian’s. The Baltimore city police are at an impasse with the community at this time, it is up to the city leaders and the police officials to come up with some real solutions to the issues that can no longer be ignored.
The justice system is in place in America to protect its citizens, however in the case of blacks and some other minorities there are some practices that promote unfairness or wrongful doing towards these groups. Racial profiling is amongst these practices. In cases such as drug trafficking and other criminal acts, minorities have been picked out as the main culprits based off of skin color. In the article “Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling” it recognizes racial profiling as a problem in America and states, “[In order to maintain national security] law-enforcement officers have detained members of minority groups in vehicles more than whites”…. “these officers assume that minorities commit more drug offenses, which is not the case” (Fauchon). In relationship to law enforcement there has also been many cases of police brutality leaving young blacks brutally injured, and even dead in recent years, cases such as Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddy Gray just to name a few. Many of these young men were unarmed, and the police involved had no good justification for such excess force. They were seen as threats primarily because of their skin color. Despite the fact this nation is trying to attain security, inversely they are weakening bonds between many of its
When our parents tell us to “address the police by sir or ma’am, sit up straight, and don’t move too quickly, we ask ourselves why? It is in that moment we realize it is because that the world does not love us and wants us dead. This epiphany hardens us and strips us of our innocence and ability to float through the world. We are weighed down by the weight of hatred towards blacks. Our only chance of being able to free our minds is to live without fear of judgement, and without fear of persecution. Because if we do, we will always be looking behind our backs, overanalysing everything that is said to us, second guessing the work that we do, and never truly be able to trust the
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
This semester, we talked about how important it is to keep a positive relationship present between the police officers and the community. This theme really starts to emerge in the book in the chapter called, Across the Racial Divide. “There are cities where “clearing corners” is an accepted administratively supported practice: Officers routinely roll up on groups of blacks in public and order everybody to leave” (Kennedy 2011:143). This contradicts the focused deterrence approach they were implementing in cities, and knowing who were committing crimes, and instead officers racially profiling citizens. Also, this correlates to investigatory traffic stops in Pulled Over. “People are especially likely to look beyond respectfulness when, as is true of African Americans, they are a stigmatized group that is commonly and repeatedly subjected to a process that disproportionately disadvantages members of the stigmatized group, and the members of this group have developed a share knowledge of these disparities and of the process that generates them” (Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markey 2014:117). This shows that when one race group is always being questioned, or stopped by the police, then there will never be a good relationship between the community and the police. Also, when you had the focused deterrence approach in the cities that implemented in, and police was decreasing crime so that families and business owners can live in a safe place, the relationship will be
In what can be called a viscous cycle starting with the war on drugs, a war that from the beginning has unfairly targeted minorities. A war that has helped contribute to the breakdown of the black family, and add to the constant socioeconomic struggle that perpetuates crime in many communities. These communities experience constant and unfair policing that puts so many youths into the system, that discredits, imprisons, and ultimately breaks them. Filled with discriminatory practices that have been overlooked for years under the disguise of gaining a “Victory.” A victory that may never actually come to
The question of being a good American citizen or not first arose during the creation of the declaration of independence. The ideas that went into that famous document are what should be practiced today, that was in 1776, it's currently 2014 but the values still remain the same. There are many practices of good citizenship that can be many things such as: paying taxes, volunteering for community service, not only voting but being an informed voter, serving your country, working hard and proud, exercising while not infringing upon our right (or anyone else’s), upholding to the values we hold dear, doing the best that we can in primary and secondary school and also following...
The New York Police Department has a mission to "preserve peace, reduce fear, maintain order," and protect its civilians in their communities (NYPD, 2016). On the contrary, civilians do not see the police officers as individuals who are there to protect them because they do not trust the police officers or the justice system. In the past few decades, police officers have not been held accountable for their actions in a few incidents where a few unarmed young black males were killed by the police. Communities responded to this issue with the Black Lives Matter movement with protests nationwide to show support for the unarmed young black men who were killed by police. In response to the aggressive policing, methods of using body cameras and detailed incident reporting ...
A black boy born today in the U.S has a life expectancy five years shorter than that of a white boy. Black students are significantly less likely to attend schools offering advanced math and science courses than white students. There are three times as likely to be suspended and expelled, setting them up for educational failure. Black men in their 20s without a high school diploma are more likely to be incarcerated than employed. This list could go on, but the idea here is that African Americans are still struggling to be on equal footing with Caucasians. Because of the harsh treatment in the past and the injustice that is still occurring, many black people are still fearful of being stigmatized. The police force are there to protect everyone, but when police officers intentionally choose which groups they are going to protect, they become authority figures that we cannot
Police brutality and racism are an ongoing problem in our country. It goes back hundreds of years with no sign of it stopping. Police officers have been abusing their power since they have been around. Abuse against African American males by white police officers is getting out of hand. Most officers face no punishment at, and all there is a special code that they follow. Officers follow The “Blue Code of Silence”, which is a code that means they look out for one another. Even with video recording devices, the news, and social media, these events still go on. African Americans take most of the abuse and it looks like there is no end to this. This is a reflection on our society, and it makes us look ignorant to what is going on around us.
A police officer is a law enforcement official whose job is to protect and serve all people, not to ignore racial equality. Because the U.S consists of many different races and ethnic groups, the ongoing conflict between police officers and citizens of color is constantly rising. Although police officers today are no longer allowed to have racial bias, which can be described as, attitudes or stereotype used against individuals of color to define their actions and decisions, officers sometimes abuse their authority going around racial impact tools and policies. This results in citizens viewing it as discrimination and mass criminalization. By changing the way laws and regulations unfairly impact Black and Brown communities can improve the justice
When people think of police brutality they often think of race.A problem that needs to be solved is police brutality, which is misconduct that involves undue violence by police members(Encyclopedia). Police brutality has affected the African American community in many ways, by killing black men,women,and it has also pushed African Americans to stand for what they believe in.Many People fear the police because of the many violent crimes that they are committing. Racial tensions have been growing between African Americans and white law enforcers.They are not just affecting African Americans but they are affecting African Americans more than any other race.
In my opinion, the many different views of police culture can vary in many different situations. I say this because of the many different views this can be misleading at times. I think what's needed is reform of a police culture that has often infected relations between police and blacks, destabilized respect for cops and the law, and set the basis for the many deaths. The overall image of the police offers is an overview of the public’s perception of the police in reality. Without the public’s view of this police culture wouldn’t have the look it has now. Specific characteristics of the publics, association, or foundation remain interchangeable. Actions of the overall image are valuable because they
“Racial profiling — as well as profiling based on religion, ethnicity and national origin — continues to plague our nation despite the constitutional guarantee of equal treatment under the law. “ Police officers are accused of racial profiling so commonly because of how they react and take action towards certain races, as well as how they are so quick with assumption with their activity. Over a police officer's career, they will as some point respond to call where they will use their firearm or come in contact with a life threatening experience, it's part of the job. After coming in contact with that fear, they know how real those situations are and how dangerous they can be, which will in result treat all their calls like it will be their last one. Aggressive, forceful, and demanding is how they will react and how they respond, and the racial profiling is that kind of approach towards every other race, most commonly towards black people, even if they are innocent and and are telling the truth, a police officer will respond in a very serious manner and by simply telling the truth, listening and following their commands, and being cooperative, you can stay away from confrontation, which is very possible, and can increase the chances of something bad happening, when it could've been avoided. “When law enforcement officers target residents based on race, religion or
The movement BlackLivesMatter have outed hundreds unlawful officers and victims that never got the justice needed. The same characteristics (color and style) that emulates strong, noble people can backfire. Black people in this country who actively resist dehumanization makes a call to action and a response to anti-Black racism in our current society. (Cullors, 2015) The growth of the movement has moved country-wide, first starting in the south; the south had always had history of racism and anti-black impulses. This movement is continuing to carry up north and west, and is projected that any officer can be the next one to unlawfully kill another black individual. These immoral police officers are no different from the rest of the police force, their uniforms are no different color or style they do not have different titles, there is no distinction between the these two types of officers. African Americans are persuaded to be more cautious and angry towards police officers; anyone with a cop uniform can be considered a threat to their life. Innocent cops were murdered in retaliation to the unfair judicial systems that are not punishing these cops. Once a police-like uniform is worn it not only once symbolizes honor and power, but t too many communities