African American Police Shootings

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else” (Malcolm X) is a contestable ideal. Do we Americans allow our law enforcement to continue killing innocent African Americans whose own ancestors contribute to the success of this nation? No! We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch innocent lives ruined over and over again. We must auscultate to the cries of our four fathers. In order to halt the self-destruction of this nation we should fight for change in the police force, attempt to cease the embodiment of racial profiling, and support the efforts of those striving to bring about change.

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

The killings of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Alton Sterling can undoubtedly be attributed to the systemic racism deeply embedded in police forces across the country. Around the country African American communities are oppressed by this racism every single day. Any officer who makes a racist statement should be immediately fired, yet this is not the reality; systemic racism exists in the police force and warrants and overhaul.

Police shootings are unfortunate events but whenever there is a shooting, the topic of race emerges. Police shootings have always been the highlights on news channels and there is always the racially biased narrative that keeps repeating itself yet no one seems to dispute this narrative. However, did you know that studies show a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a African American male than an unarmed African American male is to be killed by a police officer? In fact, a recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were actually less likely to shoot an unarmed black suspect than unarmed Caucasian or Hispanic suspect in simulated threat scenarios. Some would argue that there are still police shootings all over America and they occur when police officers

When looking back at all of the success of the civil rights movement, it seems that our country has come a long way on many important social issues. Whether it’s ending racial segregation in public facilities or putting an end to disenfranchisement of African Americans, our country has made many strides. That being said, our country still has a long way to go in order to reach true equality for all. Specifically, when it comes to the subject of police brutality. Throughout history, African Americans have been plagued by unfair treatment from members of law enforcement and with each passing year it seems to become an even bigger issue. In fact, it has led to the protest of many powerful members of society, including Tina Charles of the WNBA.

To show the other side of the argument, an article by CNN was written on December 20, 2016. The article, written by Jacqueline Howard, stated that black men are almost 3 times as likely to die from police use of force. The claim was that, among males aged 10 years or older who were killed by police use of force, the mortality rate among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic individuals was 2.8 and 1.7 times higher than that among white individuals. They claimed that because the population of white men is larger, the number of deaths per million in each demographic population was 2.8 times higher among black men and 1.7 times higher among Hispanic men. To someone who is looking at the article with a mentality that the police are looking to kill minorities

In the previous year, the amount of people killed by the police department has increased, and even worse African Americans are three times more likely than Caucasians to be killed by the hands of a police. In 2015, the percent of unarmed African Americans killed was 30 percent compared to 19 percent of Caucasians. Although, 2016 is not over yet already 793 people have been killed by policemen. Mike Luckovich drew this cartoon representing the fear of African Americans, and to point out that recently the shootings are reoccurring. The number has made it so difficult for African Americans to live peacefully, they are in constant fear that their life could be taken away by the police. The cartoonist drew a black man in the car conversing with

In 2016, 51.4% of all police killings involved an African-American male. False, in 2016 African-Americans only make up 26.5% of the police killings. What this means is that the vast majority of police killing do not involve an African-American, 51.4% is actually the number of white males murdered by police in 2016. Racial profiling does not exist. The conclusion to this paragraph is that based on these statistics, there is no evidence of inequality among police shootings.

In The United States of America much of mainstream media picks up on police violences that includes shootings and beatings that get dished out to anybody caught on camera. One of the earlier and most controversial events in the media was that of Detroit in 1967 between police and African American protesters. This event started when a group of African American partygoers were arrested for having a party at an illegal bar and the Detroit Police Department aggressively arrested the partygoers, sparking a conflict with citizens. When police make a lawful arrest there is never a reason to resist or fight back, but when police starting throwing and pushing citizens around during an arrest there is understanding among protests to be started. The protests

Yes I do feel that our police departments generally do a good job of screening applicants. The Knoxville Police Department employees 397 police officers to protect the city of Knoxville, which had a population of 185,638 in 2015 (UCR, n.d.). According to the statistics on officer involved shootings from the Knoxville Police Department there showed to be no shootings in 2015 but in 2014 there were five officer involved shootings, three of which were fatal for the suspect (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). In each of these cases the officers were exonerated from liability as their actions were found to be within departmental policy (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). I feel that the psychological testing of incoming officers is an important aspect to ensure we hire the most professional officers for our police forces but sometimes individuals with behavioral or mental issues can be missed and any individual who exhibits such traits or bias should be dealt with or dismissed from the force to avoid issues that could impact the entire

This indicate a police official might pull over a driver solely because he or she is African American and then they can be interrogation, examine, and/or charged with a silly offense. Additionally, blacks are seven times more likely to be pulled over by 5-0 than Hispanics, and Caucasian. Sadly, these polices are is just one way police officers are insensitive to blacks.

Police shooting has become a huge issue across The United States. Community will usually become outraged if the shooting was committed by a white or black cop who shoots and kills a black subject. Protests seem to follow in areas where the police force is predominantly white and the suspect is black. Regardless of rather or not the officer is right or wrong. This started a huge conflict of rather or not the shooting was done due to racism. These conflicts affect the communities the shootings happen in and can draw national attention like in the police shoot death of Sylville Smith. One resolution that will help to eliminate racism within the police force and stop the misconception that most police shooting happen due to racism, is

Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.

Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways. Today, police officers use deadly, excessive force that leads to inexcusable assaults, beatings and shootings.