Police Brutality Affect Today's Society

KahLeh King

Mrs B. Purdie

Honors English III

17 November 2015

Criminal Justice: How does Police Brutality Affect Today’s Society?

Police brutality is a major conflict in today’s society. Innocent people get killed each day because police feel threatened by the slightest move. Police brutality does not only affect African Americans, it affects the world in a whole. It is a very important situation because there is an innocent human being shot down, beat, or choked each day. They are not losing their lives because they threatened the cop or because they tried to kill the cop, there being killed because they were walking down the street at night. This is not a simple problem that has rose just this year, this is a situation that has been happening

for years and is causing other issues that had calmed down to arise again. Police brutality affects our society by boosting the problem of racism in the world today.
Police brutality is an issue that mainly exist in the black communities, but there are other races that have experienced brutality such as Hispanics.

In the past 2 years, there have been 490 people killed by the hands of an officer. Out of those 490 people killed, 138 of them were black. When innocent people are killed people look to the justice system to give us peace, but look over the case or they simply just cover the case up.

Having the feeling that the police are killing innocent people and the justice system is letting it happen will cause many people to hate all law enforcement. If the parents hate the justice system and law enforcement then, of course, they are going to teach their kids the same thing. The youth is being manipulated and destroyed by the racism, protesting, and rioting going on in society.

In most states, people are trying to teach the youth that they can get involved in the issues that are going on in the world, but it is a proper way to do it. BYP is an organization that consists of 18 to 35-year-olds. Their mission is to pursue justice and freedom for all black people. They do fundraisers, host events, but mainly participate in peaceful protest. Young teens are uniting to participate in the “No Justice, No Peace” protest, and the “Enough is Enough”

protest.
The most dangerous way to express their emotions about police brutality and racism is to riot. Once people peacefully protest and get no results, most take matters into their own hands. They feel like if hold signs and chanting words can't get their point across, they might as well step up the game. They destroy their own town in the hopes of finally getting peace and justice, but only end up destroying themselves.
Rioting is not an issue that just arose, it is a terrible issue that died off for a few years. After the day Los Angeles riots in 1992 most people thought that the many years of racial riots had come to an end, but little did they know. In 2001, a 19-year-old African American boy that goes by the name of Timothy Thomas was killed by a caucasian officer, which caused the Cincinnati riots. Once again the world had a 7-year break from the riots and chaos in society until 2014.
August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

The protest broke out all over in Missouri. Blacks, whites, and Hispanics joined to participate in the “Hands Up, Don't Shoot” protest. On November 24 the grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren. As night approached, chaos broke out all over Ferguson. Angry citizens began burning buildings, looting, and even harming officers. On the anniversary of Michael Brown's death, family, friends, and caring citizens gathered to have a peaceful celebration of the young man's life. With all the anger and emotion built up inside the people, they began to riot again. Rioting in their eyes is a way of coming together and taking charge. The racial tension in Ferguson has put the predominantly black community against all whites

cops.
Many people feel like obeying an officer's orders, will prevent them from being abused, but most cops simply do not care. In the eyes of a cop your age, race, innocence, health does not matter. They get a badge and a gun and all of a sudden they feel more superior. Take it all away, they are just as plain as the rest. In the words of Richard Pryor, “Two cops grab your legs, one grabs your head they go snap! ‘oh shit, he broke his neck. Are you allowed to break necks? does it say so in the manual? Let us check. Yep, page 8, you can break a niggers neck freely.”