Black Lives Matter Case Study

The change in policies orient the Richmond Police force into a manner in which they are able to interact with individuals without being overtly and overly aggressive. Richmond officers are oriented to defuse high-tension situations and be reminded that the person they are dealing with are indeed human, a person like anyone else. One of the reasons why Richmond Police officers deal with situations with the least amount of force, is because of the new training regime that was that instated in 2008, according to Mercury News (2014), by Chief Magnus. Chief Magnus instated a very rigorous and diverse training segment based on solely dealing with the use of force at the training facilities and the streets of Richmond. Every utility a Richmond Officer

Chief Magnus’ position on racial bias, which plagues many police departments, caused outrage, for Chief Magnus decided to join in on the recent movement of “Black Lives Matter”, by hold up a protestor’s sign that says, “Black Lives Matter”. Chief Magnus’ statement, by holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign during a demonstration, shocked the community and the nation, but brought the communities’ ideals of justice in line with his own ideals. Though there were some people that frowned up on the actions of Chief Magnus, there were many people that agreed with his decision to join the protest, as well as many people were promoting Chief Magnus’ courage to speak out. The communities outrage of the officer involved shooting that happened almost on the other side of the country, stems from the ideal that police officers have systemically been racially bias against the African American community; the racial bias and excessive force proponent in dealing with African Americans is a crime to the community. In an interview with Chief Magnus, by SF Gate (2014), Chief Magnus said, “It was intended to be a humane statement,” but at the same time, he’s also with the police officers by saying, “I can understand how it is hard for a lot of

According to Richmond Confidential (2015), the U.S Attorney General was coming to Richmond to “…highlight the city as a national example of how to repair trust between citizens and the police”. The statistics and feedback from the community prove that the way Richmond is dealing with crime, proves that the method of dealing with crime in Richmond is what the community wants. Despite the justice that some people in the community members feel, as well as the statistics that show that crime has gone down significantly over the last few years, there is still problems with dealing with crime and police officer’s actions. Richmond has a great bond between law enforcement and the community, but there are still some who disagree with the justice served by Richmond’s criminal justice system. While in parts of the country, we can see the massive separation of law enforcement and the communities, to the point where the community doesn’t trust the officers, protests the policies, and have started mass movements. For example, Ferguson is different from Richmond, but we can see that a major distinction between the justices served in Ferguson and Richmond, for in Ferguson community ties are severed and, at this point, the relationship between the