The building of mutual trust between police agencies and the communities they serve are critical to maintaining public safety and effective policing. In past as well as recent history controversial uses of force among other types of incidents have damaged the relationships between police and their communities. The United States is a vast land of various races, ethnicities and religious backgrounds in which law enforcement must navigate daily. Many communication barriers still interfere in the building of relationships between various cultural groups and the law enforcement that serves them. While each group brings its own stack of beliefs and backgrounds, it is still important for law enforcement to become familiar with those they may encounter …show more content…
What many do not know is that there is a great amount of diversity among the Arab American groups and all should not be lumped under one umbrella. Understanding the differences among these groups is a vital piece of creating better communication between them and law enforcement. There are three basic Arab values that are key to bridging the communication gap between law enforcement as well as establishing respect. (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011, p. 231) The first of those values is their value of upholding honor. Arabs may react harsher when they feel they are being stripped of their dignity and may not report crimes to avoid this type of shame. The second value is one of loyalty to their family. Arabs put their family’s needs over their own needs and often this loyalty even overrides their own personal relationships. This can lead to lack of proper communication with law enforcement as they prefer to settle their disputes in private among themselves. The third value mentioned is one value that could be of vital importance is how Arabs view communication. They believe that communication is to be courteous and hospitable and that too much directness and candor can be deemed as impolite. This value is linked to upholding honor because they may not be totally honest or give direct responses if they feel it may cause a loss of face for themselves or for a family member. This belief can cause much animosity between law enforcement and Arabs as law enforcement will accept and expect nothing less than the truth. Educating officers that when encountering Arab Americans, they should attempt to communicate using indirect communication may bring better results than automatically insinuating that the person is not telling the
law enforcement agencies. The underrepresentation of Asian-American officers will affect how the Asian community view law enforcement in terms of building credibility and improving community relations (Dempsey & Frost, 2015). As previously stated, the cause of such underrepresentation is due to the fact that law enforcement agencies do not understand the cultural and historical distrust, which Asian immigrants have with law enforcement back in their native countries and here in the United States (Zhao et al., 2013). Underrepresentation of Asian police officers will create conflicts between police and Asian communities (White et al., 2010). The lack of diversity in police departments will also show Asian communities that a police organization does not reflect its community racial
... another post 9/11. Furthermore, through both Amaney Jamal excerpt Civil Liberties and the Otherization of Arab and Muslim Americans (chapter four), and Nadine Naber excerpt Arab Americans and U.S. Racial Formations (Introduction), we see just how this clash came about pre and post 9/11. That while the aftermath of 9/11 saw the rise in the racialization of Muslim and Arab Americans, we must not forget that these groups of people were not so much invisible due to the fact that America (i.e. “dominant mainstream” (Jamal 119)) has always viewed those they deem as “other” (i.e. minority) as inferior. Due to this framework, they have racialized any group of people that are not considered American as “other.” However (as stated) following an event like 9/11, the racialization of Muslims and Arabs Americans became perpetuated more so; and at an even more dangerous level.
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.
In America, police brutality affects and victimizes people of color mentally and socially. Social injustice has become a major issue, which involved the principle of white supremacy vs minorities. The current police brutality that has been occurring is culturally disconnecting ethnicities from one another. According to Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, “…the cultural disconnect is very real; you have the weight of generations of abuse on African Americans,” (Flatow, 2016). For example, over the past four years, there have been countless acts of police brutality. The three key deaths of Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling have become the face of police brutality in the year 2016. People knew that it was unequal treatment of black people by police in the United States and they made it known by creating #BlackLivesMatter.
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).
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments do not provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to
Life in prison can be a difficult experience to properly comprehend as an individual who has never been behind bars or somebody who has not been subjected under criminal law and incarcerated. Researcher Muzammil Quraishi, a British Muslim has undergone a year of research from July 2001 to July 2002 investigating Muslim prisoners in the United Kingdom. Muzammil goes through numerous challenged in his year worth of research investigating a sum of three anonymous prisons. Doing such Muzammil had gone through numerous obstacles, generic research validity, to the side effects of the field research. This paper will separate three columns of obstacles Muzammil had to go through, Technical issues, which would outline the challenges, he as a researched had to adapt to due to the setting he was investigating. The second is Political issues, which mostly stem from outside interferences; most notable would be the incident on September 11, 2001. Finally, the third is administration issues, which has the spotlight on regulations Muzammil had to abide by to get on with his research in a legitimate manner.
There are many different groups and societies throughout America. Some are looked at with high honors, while others may be scorned or treated badly. No matter what group someone is a part of, others may have different opinions about another group. After reading the “Untouchables”, by Jonathan Kozol, it is noticeable that not everyone gets along in the world. A group that is also scorned in today’s society is police officers because of racial tensions, hatred toward them, and how the news media has portrayed them.
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
The author focuses on the U.S. Task Force on 21st Century Policing and Police Data Initiative or PDI to determine if it helps to restore trust and the broken relationship between and communities and police officers. The Task Force made by Barack Obama recommended the analysis of department policies, incidents of misconduct, recent stops and arrests, and demographics of the officers. The PDI has tasked 21 cities to comprehend the police behavior and find out what to do to change it. Also PDI was said to have data and information on vehicle stops and shootings by police officers. The use of statistics has a purpose to help rebuild trust and the relationship between and communities and police officers.
In order to have effective policing I believe integrity and ethics play a huge part in helping build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder. There are three ways that police departments can strengthen community relationships just by training officers about procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation. If we implement these concepts, we can create an environment in which effective partnerships between the police and citizens can flourish.
There has always been a love-hate relationship between the public and the police. When called upon to help, they can be something sent from God, but when they are writing tickets, or taking a friend to jail, the view changes from a savior to a presence that is unwanted and often hated. An effort to improve the public view of law enforcement is being attempted by many departments. Using different styles of policing techniques, mainly community based policing, has proved to be the best way to improve the image of law enforcement.
Letter to Any Would-be Terrorists by Naomi Shihab Nye is protest literature, targeting possible would-be terrorists with the main goal of fighting the discriminatory injustice faced by Arab-Americans following the action of some individual Arabs after 9/11. In her letter Naomi Shihab Nye describes how proud she thinks Arabs should be about their origins and using that feeling and idea, exhibits as an example her own family’s living style to show to her audience the immensity and richness of the Arab community. She thinks Arab definitively should be proud of their heritage. She talks about her Palestinian father who has been defying the word terrorist from the Arabic community to her American mother, who as she stat...
Arabs primarily speak Arabic with “variations in the dialects, words, and meanings in different Arab countries” (Lipson & Dubble, 2007, p. 43). Despite the different variations, most Arabs understand each other. All Muslims are required to read the Koran that is written in Arabic. While they all read this, not all speak Arabic fluently, or at all in some cases. There are some ethnic minorities that speak their own language, and are not understood by most of the surrounding populations. In the United States, nearly 600,000 people speak Arabic in their own homes; professionals and business p...
Understanding the issue is just part of what’s needed. The purpose of the section is to identify a solution, or as may be the case, solutions. So, the question here is what can we do to improve the relationship between the police and the citizens. Over the years there has been many books written and studies conducted, all in an effort to find the best way to improve police and citizen relationships. To do this we must look at all available information. According to The Study Circles Resource Center’s Protecting Communities, Serving the Public: Police and residents building relationships to work together (2000), “Bring police and community together. We need to meet not just when there is a crisis or a big crime. We should do things to build relationships that are not so full of conflict. Then it would be easier to work together. We can build respect and trust for one another when we make time to meet with and learn about each other. This is the only way to do it.