Ideology Of Police Brutality

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Ideologies are to blame
Secondly, dominant ideologies in the media represent criminals as demoralized and dangerous individuals while, on the other hand, police officers are depicted as “honest and heroic public servants” (Hirschfield and Simon 2010: 155). In turn, these forms of ideologies lead to individuals blaming the victims for their experienced abuse. In addition, according to William Ryan (1976: 3) the formula for blaming the victim is, “justifying inequality by finding defects in the victims of inequality”. In other words, blaming the victim occurs when the victim of a crime is held accountable for the violence that they endured. Thus, the victim of the crime is blamed for his or her suffering. In addition, as mentioned above, dominant ideologies which
Lastly, police brutality against African Americans is legitimized as ideologies of Blacks are reproduced through the media which results in reproducing social and racial inequalities and leading to more cases where officers oppress African Americans. To conclude, the analytical concept of ideology is important as it helps us understand why certain inequalities exist in society. From analyzing police brutality through the analytical lens of ideology it became clear that police brutality against African Americans is legitimized as stereotypical ideologies which are perpetuated by the media, results in victim blaming and therefore reproduces racial inequalities. The concept of ideology can also aid in understanding where certain beliefs that may seem ‘natural’ come from and ultimately how they influence individual actions and beliefs in society. Furthermore, from exploring the ideologies which legitimize police brutality against African Americans, I have determined that Blacks are being depicted as criminals, this idea may seem ‘natural’ as the media portrays them in this light. Therefore this dominant ideology influences police officers to use excessive and unnecessary

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