Police Officer Targeting Minorities

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When a police officer uses force it is put out into the media and people argue back and forth about if the police officer was in the right or wrong with how much force was used. Some people seem to think that the police would rather use force than to resolve the problem peacefully. More people believe that the police are targeting minorities and are using excessive force on minorities. The police do not like using force to apprehend a suspect; the police are not racial profiling the suspects. The police are taught to use force when the suspect is a threat to the officer or others around the area. The officer has to be one level above the suspect in order to keep as many people as possible safe. Police officers do not get a chance to say why …show more content…

Some people think that the police are targeting minorities, because there is more police activity around minorities; however, police officers are not targeting minorities. Accordingly, one reason people might think minorities might be being targeted are because of the color different races of the individual and the police officer. Based off recent events the public believes that if the police officer and the suspect have different color of skin, the officer is targeting that suspect. However; the literature does not agree, “In addition, officers’ race and racial interaction effects between officers’ being white and arrestees’ being non-white did not produce a significant relationship” (Lee Jang, Yun, Lim, & Tushaus 2010). The police are not looking at the suspect’s skin color before the officer justifies the arrest, police judge the arrest justified if there is probable cause that the suspect broke the law. Police officers look for criminal activity, and people who match the description of a criminal, but the police do not just go after people of an opposite race. Additionally, people believe that the police use more force around people of color because those individuals are being targeted. “Police officers use deadly force when they believe they have no choice in order to preserve human life, their own or that of other citizens… Police officers characteristically restrain their use of force with citizens, sometimes at the cost of their own safety. However, certain types of attitudes, personalities, and job experiences may make some officers more prone to use force in police-citizen” the types of attitudes are common in minorities (Miller, 2015). This is not true though, police officers are not targeting minorities. Minorities might be more aggressive because many might think the police are racially profiling. Police officers do

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