Police Harassment Of Black Males

ntroduction Police harassment is all purposefully threatening, disturbing, or upsetting behaviour by police towards citizens whilst on duty. Police harassment is a direct form of police’s abuse of power over other citizens. It is often fuelled by discrimination of age, sex, nationality, or race. Police harassment has occurred long before its recent publicity due new technology enabling civilians to more easily record it. Police harassment can happen to anyone however it is particularly prevalent in minority groups and those of lower social classes. Police harassment often goes unreported due to ignorance of legal action that can be taken and civilians perceived powerlessness to the actions of police. There have been many reports of in the

Why are young black men being harassed by those that are meant to protect and serve them? Young black males are targeted by police due to stereotypes held by both society and the media, possibly due to the history of racism. Black men are usually characterized as criminals and deserving of the treatment they get from police whom are usually revered members of society. This puts all the power in the hands of law enforcement. I will examine this problem by looking at the social facts that shape the issue, the social institutions that perpetuate this problem, and the ruling apparatus enforced by these social institutions. This paper will explore how the social institution of law enforcement and how their innate position of power renders young black males almost powerless in fighting police

Also 54.4% of black millennials claim to have experienced or know someone that has experienced violence or harassment by police. In 2015 alone, 7,158 innocent black New Yorkers have been stopped and frisked by police. Despite Civil Rights efforts, this issue continues due to black people being marginalized in law enforcement. Law enforcement in many states in the U.S. does not accurately represent the population. Many police departments only consist of white policemen despite being in cities with a significant black population. There are becoming more and more cases of black people speaking out against police brutality however, justice for these instances are few and far in between. Many of the outcries for help by black people are often never heard due to their lack of power in the media. As many of the black men being harassed are poor black men, they have little power to manipulate the media unlike white police officers. This harassment could also be designed to keep them poor as many of them are imprisoned for a significant amount of time for resisting these unwarranted and illegal searches and arrests. Race is also an organizing principle that police officers use justify their actions to the public. They use their position of power to tell society that black people are the other and are dangerous. This ruling apparatus marginalizes and criminalizes black men