Essay On Police And Ethnicity

Ethnicity and the Police Part II: Police Practices and Police Community Relations

How people view police officers is a very impenetrable situation. It has been observe that very few people have a negative outlook on police officers. However, it has also been proven that the minority ethnic groups have a lot of tension with police considering all they have encountered in several criminal events.

When it comes to the public opinion of police officers, different ethnics groups have a different perspective on police. Being an African American, police are just people who abuse their authority and feel they are above the law. Most police officers do not have a citizen’s best interest and always play to be the victim. They lie on events that have

taken place and constantly use unnecessary excessive force. It is unbelievable on what has come about between race and police officers.
The trust and confidentiality with police is generally low with the minority ethnic groups.

According to Tom Tyler, surveys show that trust was an issue because the American public are missing confidence within the criminal justice systems. There is a large gap of trust and confidence established within the minorities and Whites. There is an enormous big gap between minorities because of the distrustful police (Tyler). In 2001, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), found that there was a great line of confidence between the whites and police of 63 percent. Compared to the confidence between African Americans and the police which was only 31 percent. With the criminal justice system as a whole, whites were confident in the system about 27 percent leaving African Americans confidence to only be 22 percent. The Hispanic percentage on the other hand, had fell between Whites and African Americans. Overall, the minority ethnic groups all seem to have less trust and confidence with the criminal justice system (Tyler). The low confidence and trust issues coincide with the questions between relationships of the different ethnic and social groups. They always includes questions of racial profiling, the use of excessive force and impact of the drug laws within the minority community

(Tyler).

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In July of 2015, a woman by the name of Sandra Bland, and African American was woman was pulled over by a state trooper, a white guy, for not using her blinker while switching lanes which then escalated to a much larger situation. Video surveillance on the dash camera showed that the police officer used constant excessive force and threatened Bland. According to the CNN news, Bland was arrested on July 10th for assaulting a police officer after being pulled over. The trooper asked Bland to put her cigarette out and as she refuses, he threatens her with a Taser and says he will “light her up”. The video showed that the trooper was putting his knee into Sandra’s back and she was yelling saying that she could not feel her arm and how he slammed her head into the ground. At this point, Sandra was already in handcuffs and could not possibly cause any harm to the trooper. According to the trooper, Sandra kicked him before he arrested her. In a belief he just wanted to make his excessive force seem justifiable and that he was the victim. Sandra Bland died in her cell three days after her arrest and there were many investigations taken place. There were questions that were raised that indicated if it was a suicide or a homicide.
After the Sandra Bland incident, so many people do not trust the police even more. For Sandra Bland to get pulled over for nothing at all or for something as simple as not using her blinker to switch lanes and then commit “suicide” is absurd. Why would someone put up such a fuss just to turn around and kill themselves? Something just does not add up. The state trooper humiliated Sandra Bland and definitely abused his authority as a police officer. He used unnecessary excessive force and acted out once another officer stepped into the picture. The trooper’s actions is considered police brutality and excessive force. He continued to beat, slam Sandra’s head, drag her and even put his knee in her back even after she was arrested.
When Sandra Bland died it was a shock to everyone. More questions seemed to be raised after viewing the surveillance from the camera. There were several glitches and showing cars keep driving by one way over and over that never came back the other way. That just goes to prove that police officers
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can be dishonest and do not show the entire truth. They can hide what really happen making it seem like they are the victim, when they are really the criminal.
Tom Tyler and Yuen Huo had created a study for the racial issue with the criminal justice system in California. According to their paradigm, most of the encounters with legal authority had varied from parking tickets to even asking for assistance in travesties. African Americans, Latinos and Whites were interviewed during this study. Tyler and Huo discovered that most of the cruel treatment had taken place between African Americans and Latinos. All three racial groups were still concerned about the fairness the criminal justice system has to offer and they all know what is considered to be a fair and stable treatment. There are important issues with all races and the legal system that need to be addressed immediately. In order “to serve a multi-ethnic population effectively, public institutions need to recognize and understand the needs and concerns of the diverse peoples living in the state” (Tyler, Huo).