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Impact of the black power movement
Has black lives matter had an impact research essay
Impact of the black power movement
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All over the United States there are many innocent and unarmed black people being shot down by police which has led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The question is, Do these protests put police lives in danger?
Many people depend on the law enforcement to protect and that's exactly what they do, but when people hear how police are killing innocent and unarmed black people they think differently about police, especially the families of the man or women killed by officers. In the article ‘Minorities in the Suburbs Have the Least Trust in Local Police’ By Sarah Goodyear it states, “just 35 percent of urban minorities said the had “a lot” of confidence in the cops where they live… in U.S. cities -one out if four- said they had
What most people would think is that only black men and women are killed by police officers. Yet this year there has actually been more white individuals killed by police officers than any other race. This is only a problem, because when you read about police killings it is almost all about how police target people of color. With this idea it makes it so that people of color feel more like a victim in the country and are then scared of police officers, who are supposed to be there to help. The statistic of white people being killed by police officers is not covered by the media, because it is not as intriguing or as controversial as the other stories. It is very important that people know that police killings as a whole is an issue not just police killing minorities. Using social imagination and looking at this problem you can see why you would not want one group to feel victimized, which would lead to them striking back at the people that are there to help
In the videos all over the news and internet we have seen numerous cases of innocent lives of black people in the United States being taken. It was found that “nearly 1 in 3 black people killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed, though the actual number is likely higher due to underreporting” (“Police Killed More”). While about 33% of victims have been unarmed, for some reason these officers’ first instincts were to pull out their guns and shoot. These instincts are likely attributed to these officers’ past experience with violent black criminals; yet, what about their experiences with violent white criminals? Why don’t we hear about innocent, unarmed white lives being taken by the police force? It’s because it’s much less likely to happen. According to 2015 reports, unarmed blacks were killed five times faster than whites (“Police Killed More”). Also, based on a project by The Guardian, “black males between the ages of 15 and 34 are nine times more likely to be killed by police than any other demographic” (Craven). This evidence shows that safe to say that because there aren’t really any stereotypes on white people to be violent, the officers don’t initially think to pull out their guns and shoot. Stereotypes attached to young black males such as being violent thugs and criminals are the only logical explanation or excuse for
To illustrate, majority of blacks are stop by police more than any other racial groups. Police brutality is base on ethnicity. Officers seem to target black communities for many reasons. Racist cops might view blacks as less innocent compared to whites. Growing up as an African American you witness hearing your parents telling your male siblings to respect officers and to interact with them differently than they would do their families and friends. After the fatal shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The public wanted justice because the incident was not handled properly. The people wanted to express their concerns. After this incident I remember more allegation from black communities begin surfacing that the police use excessive force against them,
Today police officers are trained to kill. Steven Rosenfeld, a journalist in civil liberties for Alternet said, “The militarization of local police has been growing...They face few consequences for making mistakes, such as maiming or killing people” (Rosenfeld). This shows that the local police officers are trained with military tactics and receive no penalty for their wrong actions. Not only is there an increase in police brutality, it seems as if they are targeting specific nationalities. Tony Brown, a writer for Raw Story agrees by saying “young black males in recent years were at far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts”(Brown). Brown is blantly saying that the police seem to target one group to discriminate against. According to Brown it is 21 times greater chance for a black male to be killed over other
Police are supposed to maintain the law, but how can you differentiate a police officer from a criminal when they themselves are breaking the law and killing innocent people. Police are not just killing people randomly, they are targeting African Americans. African Americans die at the hands of police more than white which proves that U.S. policies are discriminatory. In “Chicago police shot and killed 70 people, most of them black, in five years period ending in 2014” (Peter Katel 2016). Additional African Americans death by police is not just criminal but also innocent and unarmed African Americans. According to the article, African Americans account for only 6 percent of the U.S. population. Africans Americans are a small group, therefore, Africans American death should be small, but statistics have proven otherwise. As noted in the article 40 percent – 37 percent of the 90 unarmed deaths by police are African Americas males. This statistics shows that the deaths of Africans Americans are less than whites but when you compare the population of Africans America against whites in the U.S. it proves that African Americans are dying faster than white. Additional that proves that police are killing African Americans more than
Today there are many controversial subjects discussed throughout the media. One of the most discussed is race and the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, I came across an article titled “The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’”, written by The Editorial Board. The article was published on September 3, 2015, to the New York Times. In the article, The Editorial Board writes about what they believe African Americans are facing as challenges in society today, including the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The Editorial Board is right that some African Americans have been treated unfairly, but all ethnicities have been. Life is a precious thing that comprises all ethnicities. This brings us to ask; why
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.
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 ...
Undoubtedly race and ethnicity plays a key role in whether perceptions of law enforcement is positive or negative. Most of the research presented finds that police contact with white’s vs blacks shapes their attitudes. Although contact with police plays a role, it is not the only component. Perceptions of police not only come from contact with police officers but from hearsay and media portrayal. As stated by (Callanan & Rosenberger, 2011) “most citizens are probably not likely to establish their opinions of law enforcement solely based on an occasional encounter, but also from other sources of information about the police, which for most members of the public is chiefly derived from the media.” Also, minorities are more likely than whites to believe that minorities are treated worse by police, and minority communities receive inferior police services (Graziano, Schuck & Martin 2010).
Furthermore, many individuals believe that the police officers are misusing their power by taking extreme measures when situations arise. In shootings for example, we see that many police officers claim that their lives were in danger and the individual displayed threatening behavior that required them to fire. Many people contend this as they think that the police officers did not have sufficient discretion in firing their weapon and used their deep rooted, or even subtle, racism in handling the situation. In other words, had the individual been White the situation would have ended differently, and not with a dead African American person. The fact that in each of these cases of police brutality the individual ends up dead and unable to tell their side of the story is extremely alarming to
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without
Black Lives Matter is a movement amongst black communities, demanding changes within our criminal justice system, police brutality, racial profiling and a number of other instances. This movement was created to shine a light on racism in America, to recognize the importance of black lives, to expose systematic racism and to protest for a long needed change within our country. The creation of Black Lives Matter was to give black people confidence and strength to fight against injustice and for once and for all stand our ground. Black Lives Matter wants to improve the black community, to tell our black brothers and sisters that they could be so much more than what systematic racism tries to limit us to do. We want to improve not only our lives but influence the criminal justice system to push for better-trained police officers and ensure protection for all people of color.
(Marino, G. 2015) The feeling is that police officers are being targeted, merely for being a cop. BLM say’s there is no proof that they are involved in those police shootings. Most Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful, but, in Baltimore, anger over the death of Freddie Gray escalated into violence. Police cars were destroyed, and several police were injured. The Baltimore mayor called for peaceful protests. Critics argued that the BLM protests result in violence against and disrespect of police officers. Supporters of the police have used the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag to argue that police officers are unfairly targeted and demonized. (Black Lives Matter 2016)
Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement, originating in the African American community. It campaigns against violence toward black people and has become a uniting call for an innovative chapter in the black freedom fight. The clearance of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013 and the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 stimulated this movement. Black Lives Matter isn’t just about the loss of Black lives; but mainly about the lack of consequences when African American lives are taken by Caucasian officers. The question is; do black lives truly matter to those that claim to protect it? The answer is no they do not because the movement’s alleged “peaceful” protests continuously
Certain races within the community may have a certain confidence in their police officers to protect them and the community they live in. Based on the survey reported, 83% of white people say they have a great/fair amount of confidence in the police officers. 52% of black people said the same thing. I am surprised of the amount of black people though. I would have expected their confidence in police officers to be lower, but I guess it 's safe to say based on the stats not all cops are bad. An recommendation to create trust between law enforcement and citizens is law enforcement engaging more in positive social activities with citizens. Let the citizens know just because they are a cop and have certain requirements, they are human too and have activities they like to do as well. Law enforcement actually promoting trust with citizens with nonenforcement can make a difference with bias towards law enforcement from