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Police Brutality Argumentative Essay

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From the beginning of America’s creation, slaves were not seen as people but as property that did not have the given right to reap thIntroduction The mistreatment of minority communities is starting to gain national attention though the reasons why they are the topic of discussion is shocking and disgusting. Michael Brown, a young black man in Ferguson, Missouri, was killed by Officer Darren Wilson, left in the street for four and a half hours, and conveyed to be a criminal while his killer was acquitted of all charges. Eric Gardner was strangled by NYPD police who broke protocol, was acquitted of all charges, and further justified their actions. Overwhelmed by the events going on in America in regards to police brutality, I wanted to take a deeper look at what event or series of events had led us to be in the terrifying predicament that our society is in today. The lives of African American men are being taken every day at the hands of law enforcement and I needed a deeper understanding of why this was occurring so …show more content…

The earliest leader of this crusade was Harry J. Anslinger, who was the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in 1930. His observations of drugs such as marijuana made America worry that blacks would soon attempt to rise in power. He is quoted as saying “reefer makes darkies think that they’re as good as white men” (The Devil Weed and Harry Anslinger, para 3) and “…most are Negros, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negros, entertainers, and any others” (The Devil Weed and Harry Anslinger, para 3). This was the start of the New Jim Crow which used drug enforcement to make blacks criminals and then led to the pipeline to prison

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