“I don’t have a gun.Stop shooting” imagine those being your last words you say before you get killed, those were the last words of Michael Brown before he was slain by a police officer, who assumed he was committing a crime but was later found innocent. What just happened is the mentality of Us vs Them its dangers problems such as murder seen from michael Brown example. Even if it doesn 't go to that extreme it can divide of two different groups of people .In the past couple of years the issue of police v.s people of color has been given attention by media we have started to see the prejudice, racism, and discrimination in America.
The justice system in general has practiced racism for hundreds of years. Police officers have the support
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People of color is how the people of color react to the actions of police. The peaceful protest of people of color turns into riots of police acquittals, for example in Ferguson with the case Michael Brown where police officer killed innocent unarmed teenage Michael Brown, the black community in Ferguson spent two weeks protesting around with signs trying to be heard and show that they were in pain mourning the loss of Michael Brown but the protest got violent quickly on both sides, the community started to hurt and his innocent police officers and in order to get back at protesters and to protect themselves police used tear gas and even resorted to using guns to ward off the protesters. Another example was in Baltimore with the case of Freddie Gray the black community would protest march around the Baltimore Police Department but eventually got violent and started smashing storefronts and disturbing that baseball games in order to get attention of the police department. Bharati Mukerjee gave an example of this in her article with the L.A riots. According to Bharati Mukerjee, a English professor at The University of California at Berkeley. Mukerjee discusses a major problem of the us vs them mentality when the LA riots happened in her time. In her article "The American Dreamer" Mukerjee states, “We must be alert to the dangers of an "us " vs."them" mentality. In California, this mentality is manifesting itself as increased violence between …show more content…
them mentally specifically in the problem of police vs. people of color is a very violent and damaging one. In this problem what happens is that the police think they are bigger and better then the people of color so they thinks it gives them the right to mistreat the people of color both physically and mentally. We can see how the issue of police v.s people of color has been given attention by media we have started to see the prejudice, racism, and discrimination in America.The citizens of America as whole have to open their eyes and realize the danger of this us vs.them issue and stop turning their back on people of color because the situation is only going to get worse and more dangerous and
Minorities and Policing: Unfairly Treated If we look at the past, we can see that there is no warm tradition of community cooperation between the African-American community and law enforcement. Minorities and Policing is an important topic because it deals with issues pertaining to how minorities are treated by the police. Racial profiling and social injustice are important areas when dealing with unfair treatment of minorities. 1.
Police brutality has been a significant issue for many years.. The people affected by this most of all, are people of color. They are subject to racial inequality by the police and the justice system every day. They are being killed everyday simply for existing. The excessive force used by the police specifically towards African Americans is continuous; with the justice system doing close to nothing to change that. This is one of the reasons they continue to kill and harass African Americans. According to Propublica, young black males are about twenty times more likely to be shot and killed by the police than their white peers are. Murderers are walking free, and innocent lives are being taken. Over the past couple of years, thousands of people have been killed on the hands of the police, both black and white.
Racial tension has been a part of America ever since the Civil War. Today we have a different issue with race, which is called racial profiling. Over the years, the relationship between the police and community of color has gone bitterly racial profiling. America’s society today tends to be tainted by racial profiling and stereotypes. These issues can have great effects on our society.
Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in
This insulated environment of race-based protection helps to build white expectations for some sort of racial comfort, leading to what the author calls White Fragility. The concept of White Fragility refers to a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, inducing defensive moves, that might include violence as happened in the context of Marlow’s photograph (DiAngelo 56). The protester in the photo was manifesting his desire for an equal society, where blacks and white could have equal treatment and opportunities, but he was oppressed with violence. By using DiAngelo’s lens, it is possible to affirm that the white cops felt threatened by the possibility of having to face a society where their race was no longer the dominant, and therefore they reacted with violence. The “racial stress” in which the white people are usually protected by the environment of the American society came up and the consequence was the intolerance with which the cops reacted. Besides violence, the reactions might include the display of emotions like fear, guilt, and anger, and behaviors such as silence, argumentation and leaving the situation that induces stress (DiAngelo58). This explains the lack of action of the cops that surrounded the police officer that assaulted the black man, since they acted with silence, another consequence of the racial stress. Therefore, it is now clear that the photograph, which was taken in London and at first glance seems to address a British issue, expands its representation to an American problem, and perfectly reflects the racism that is still present in American popular culture. Clearly, this racism is a consequence of the threat which racial equality would bring for white
The criminal justice system is united under one basic law body, in which no racism is present. Personal beliefs and anecdotes prove nothing, the criminal justice system isn’t racist. Although it may seem African Americans are highly discriminated upon in the justice system, there is ample amounts of data to prove otherwise. The criminal justice system is united under one basic law body, in which no racism is present. The system is not to blame for the racial differences found in the United States criminal justice system. The racial issues found in the system are due to inner city isolation and common crime patterns involving drugs even if it may seem as if the system is racist.
The justice system is in place in America to protect its citizens, however in the case of blacks and some other minorities there are some practices that promote unfairness or wrongful doing towards these groups. Racial profiling is amongst these practices. In cases such as drug trafficking and other criminal acts, minorities have been picked out as the main culprits based off of skin color. In the article “Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling” it recognizes racial profiling as a problem in America and states, “[In order to maintain national security] law-enforcement officers have detained members of minority groups in vehicles more than whites”…. “these officers assume that minorities commit more drug offenses, which is not the case” (Fauchon). In relationship to law enforcement there has also been many cases of police brutality leaving young blacks brutally injured, and even dead in recent years, cases such as Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddy Gray just to name a few. Many of these young men were unarmed, and the police involved had no good justification for such excess force. They were seen as threats primarily because of their skin color. Despite the fact this nation is trying to attain security, inversely they are weakening bonds between many of its
To illustrate, majority of blacks are stop by police more than any other racial groups. Police brutality is base on ethnicity. Officers seem to target black communities for many reasons. Racist cops might view blacks as less innocent compared to whites. Growing up as an African American you witness hearing your parents telling your male siblings to respect officers and to interact with them differently than they would do their families and friends. After the fatal shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The public wanted justice because the incident was not handled properly. The people wanted to express their concerns. After this incident I remember more allegation from black communities begin surfacing that the police use excessive force against them,
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without
In today’s society, there are many ways that people perceive law enforcement officers. It is believed that all police officers like donuts. Some people picture all officers as being masculine or sporting a flattop haircut. Many believe that all cops must meet a ticket quota each month. And lately, police officers are perceived to violently arrest based on racial profiling and discrimination. All of these views are stereotypes of a law enforcement officer. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines stereotype as “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same”. A stereotype is a broad generalization that many times is only true for a small minority. Stereotypes can be hurtful and incorrect. They
(Marino, G. 2015) The feeling is that police officers are being targeted, merely for being a cop. BLM say’s there is no proof that they are involved in those police shootings. Most Black Lives Matter protests have been peaceful, but, in Baltimore, anger over the death of Freddie Gray escalated into violence. Police cars were destroyed, and several police were injured. The Baltimore mayor called for peaceful protests. Critics argued that the BLM protests result in violence against and disrespect of police officers. Supporters of the police have used the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag to argue that police officers are unfairly targeted and demonized. (Black Lives Matter 2016)
Police brutality is one of the most serious human rights violations in the United States and it occurs everywhere. The reason why I chose this topic is because police brutality happens all the time in the United States and still remains unrecognized by many. Additionally, the public should be knowledgeable about this topic because of how serious this crime can be and the serious outcomes that police brutality can have on other police officers and the public. The job of police officers is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crimes. They are involved in very dangerous and stressful occupations that can involve violent situations that must be stopped and controlled by any means. In many confrontations with people, police may find it necessary to use excessive force to take control of a certain situation. Sometimes this makes an officer fight with a suspect who resists being arrested. Not all cops in communities are great cops. At least once a year, the news covers a story about a person being beat by an officer. The article “Minority Threat and Police Brutality: Determinants of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints in U.S. Municipalities” by Malcolm D. Holmes from the University of Wyoming, uses the conflict theory to explain why officers go after minorities sometimes causing police brutality. It explains the police’s tension with African American and Latino males. Those minorities are the ones that retaliate more against police officers which causes the officer to use violent force to defend themselves.
Police brutality and racism are an ongoing problem in our country. It goes back hundreds of years with no sign of it stopping. Police officers have been abusing their power since they have been around. Abuse against African American males by white police officers is getting out of hand. Most officers face no punishment at, and all there is a special code that they follow. Officers follow The “Blue Code of Silence”, which is a code that means they look out for one another. Even with video recording devices, the news, and social media, these events still go on. African Americans take most of the abuse and it looks like there is no end to this. This is a reflection on our society, and it makes us look ignorant to what is going on around us.
There are several beliefs of how police officers treat different racial groups. Several people say police officers are ethical and that they are just doing their job furthermore, its the doing of the suspects that causes the need of unwarranted force by the police officers. The chance of this is very reasonable, but then issue that comes to birth, is if this was true and police are just doing their jobs and being fair, why these events are mostly happening to minorities. Why are so many minorities constantly being pulled over for stop and frisk situations, frequently being killed? Unfortunately, racism remains in this day of age and it is ubiquitously in our society, and also in the criminal justice system. I think that race has affects that are positive and negative prejudices concerning the police. Numerous people think that, race is a factor that has lost a great deal of beneficial power as the U.S. develops as an increasingly international
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