If you ask most people the role of a police officer, they would probably tell you that it is to serve and protect their families and communities. However, when that question is posed to most members of the African American community the answer is dramatically different. As opposed to protecting and serving, many members of the African American community feel that police are a powerful occupying force and threat to the lives of their families and community members. In order to understand the feelings that African American’s have towards police officers, one would have to look at the facts. One reason is that African American communities are constantly targeted by police. They are constantly being watched in their communities and schools then …show more content…
During this time the enslavement of Africans Americans was in effect. As the big cities grew, especially the ones in the south, the police force expanded simultaneously. According to Eastern Kentucky University Professor Dr. Gary Potter, originally the role of the police officers in the south was to hunt down African American slaves and return them to their “owners,” keeping disciplined slaves. In Dr. Garry Potter’s article, The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1, another duty of the police officers in the 1800s, was “to provide a form of organized terror to deter slave revolt” (Potter). They did this to stop them from any revolts. Today, that fear is still in motion through the lack of trust between the African American community and the police force. As simple as it sounds, that gut feeling when being pulled over for a broken headlight or not stopping at a stop sign for the whole five seconds, are the result of the fear enforced in the 1800s. Looking through the lenses of a large percent of African American communities in major cities, the relationship between the police officers and the citizens are …show more content…
Police officers take advantage of the economic disadvantages African American community have as a whole. By targeting some of the poverty communities that are mostly colored people, police officers break the trust between them and the people. When looking at cities such as Philadelphia, New York, etc. African American people make up majoring of the communities that live in poverty. Since the Africans were brought over as slaves in the 1600s, African Americans’ social status has been the lowest compared to other races. When a group of people are lacking economically as a whole, this means that they are not getting the same economic opportunities as others groups of people; keeping them in the same economic state they start in. Without giving these African American communities the sources to grow as a group, they stay living in poverty and being the main target of the police force. The State of Working America is an online data base that keeps up with the economic growth in America. According to their facts, African Americans have the highest poverty rate in America. In America, “27.4 percent” of African Americans live in poverty (State of working America). When going into the city of Philadelphia and observing the African American communities, notice how they are constantly being observed by the Philadelphia police department. When visiting the block of 18th
Jim Crow policing is not a problem, the way certain cops are using it is becoming a problem in certain cities. A Witness of Jim Crow Policing and Racial Profiling, Bob Herbert, believes that the New York police department needs to be restrained due to his personal experiences. The author uses many examples to strengthen his argument in order to influence others to be against Jim Crow policing, yet throughout his article he lets his emotion show too much losing his credibility and straying from logic versus his opinion.
When our parents tell us to “address the police by sir or ma’am, sit up straight, and don’t move too quickly, we ask ourselves why? It is in that moment we realize it is because that the world does not love us and wants us dead. This epiphany hardens us and strips us of our innocence and ability to float through the world. We are weighed down by the weight of hatred towards blacks. Our only chance of being able to free our minds is to live without fear of judgement, and without fear of persecution. Because if we do, we will always be looking behind our backs, overanalysing everything that is said to us, second guessing the work that we do, and never truly be able to trust the
When police officers are perceived as being racially motivated, where certain groups of people are being targeted, it undermines the social goals of policing, weakens residents’ cooperation with police and raises questions about the legitimacy of law (Fagan & Davies, 2000). Supporters also back up this claim with statistics that show an association between racial/ethnic groups and crime (Harris, 2003). The arg...
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
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.
Black men have been taught from a young age to be wary of how they speak to the police (Hughes, 2014). Grandparents of millennials have told their grandchildren firsthand stories of segregation. Flags of the Confederate Army still fly high in some of the South’s state capitals. It didn’t take the highly publicized deaths of Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis for Southerners to realize this country’s systematic injustices, as the South has been well aware of the countries racial injustices since the days of slavery.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
The duty of a police officer is to protect the people with the laws and enforce them, not hurt the people. For all the African American women and men that have been killed by a police officer should be brought to justice. However, this is not the solution to the problem of police brutality in America. The solution to police brutality is the proper training and certification of police officers, so they understand how to handle various situations without using lethal weapons. For instance, Moore states that “extensive training for several weeks in patrol and observation, narcotics activities and community relations” (Moore, 2010) will lead to the solution of police brutality. Also, in order to dissolve the police brutality in America, America must recognize race as more than just one complexion and accept that people of color shouldn’t be dehumanized, but equal to their
The Baltimore City police have faced a myriad of problems in the last year. The riots following the Freddie Gray arrest were reported around the country and created a situation where the Governor was forced to call in the National Guard to protect the city. Community leaders report that African American’s are stopped, searched and arrested at a far greater number than Caucasian’s. The Baltimore city police are at an impasse with the community at this time, it is up to the city leaders and the police officials to come up with some real solutions to the issues that can no longer be ignored.
Since then it has become a rallying call to African-Americans all over the nation and has been the cause of several demonstrations turned riot, the most infamous of these taking place in Ferguson, Missouri. (Sidner-Simon, The Rise of Black Lives Matter: Trying to break the cycle of violence and silence) As these potentially violent demonstrations are something to be wary of, the Black Lives Matter group has taken to policing themselves. Why not let the police do it? It is their job after all. The answer to that question lies yet again in Ferguson, Missouri. After severe rioting in Ferguson, law enforcement officers have come to fear the “Ferguson effect.” It is this fear that has kept them from doing their jobs by avoiding violent confrontations which has potentially caused them to no longer effectively do their jobs.(Buchanan, Blue Lives Matter) This response to violence with violence is what has shaped our police force, this is what has kept both officers and the general public safe. If these officers can no longer confidently do their job, then society as a whole could very well be at risk from
A police officer’s job is to protect civilians by keeping criminals off the streets. Without the use of force, this duty would become quite difficult. Some people try to turn the use of police force into a race issue when it has absolutely nothing to do with it. While some
The movement BlackLivesMatter have outed hundreds unlawful officers and victims that never got the justice needed. The same characteristics (color and style) that emulates strong, noble people can backfire. Black people in this country who actively resist dehumanization makes a call to action and a response to anti-Black racism in our current society. (Cullors, 2015) The growth of the movement has moved country-wide, first starting in the south; the south had always had history of racism and anti-black impulses. This movement is continuing to carry up north and west, and is projected that any officer can be the next one to unlawfully kill another black individual. These immoral police officers are no different from the rest of the police force, their uniforms are no different color or style they do not have different titles, there is no distinction between the these two types of officers. African Americans are persuaded to be more cautious and angry towards police officers; anyone with a cop uniform can be considered a threat to their life. Innocent cops were murdered in retaliation to the unfair judicial systems that are not punishing these cops. Once a police-like uniform is worn it not only once symbolizes honor and power, but t too many communities
Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race. Racial disparity in the United States is a coherent reason for the increase of criminal injustice in the United
When you think of police what does it mean to you? The responsibility of a police officer is to protect the public and to serve the community. Also, they detect and to prevent crime, police officers strive to maintain the law. New police officers work with the general duty as patrol divisions, that provides a range of experiences and assignments. The General duty of policing involves patrolling in assigned areas to enforce laws, protect public safety, and arrest criminal suspects either by car, foot, bicycle, or in some cases, horse. Police officers can also do some of the following: they Investigate accidents and crime scenes; to secure evidence and interview any witnesses; they collect notes and reports; they can provide emergency assistance to victims an disaster, crime, and accidents;