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The Death Of A Police Officer

Decent Essays

On Aug. 9, 2014, two unarmed teenagers were walking the streets of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. The names of the two unarmed teenagers were Michael Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson. All of sudden a police officer named Darren Wilson rushes towards them in his police car and begins to tell them to get on the ground. The boys had committed no crime and were only one mile from their destination, they were simply trying to get home and off the streets. Things escalated and the officer pulled out his gun and told them that he would shoot them. As he was saying these words the officer pulled the trigger and shot Michael Brown. Both of the boys started sprinting away from Officer Wilson. The officer continued to pursue Michael Brown and then the unthinkable happened. Dorian Johnson says in an interview, "He shot again, and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and he put his hands in the air and he started to get down, but the officer still approached with his weapon drawn, and he fired several more shots". Michael Brown was shot dead. The shooting immediately caused riots around the community of Ferguson for weeks. This story is one of the many examples of what is called biased based policing. The officer chose to do what he did because of his racial bias. Not all biased based policing is sparked by racial bias but it is one of the bigger issues. The main issue is figuring out what needs to be fixed in order to refrain from instances like the one in Ferguson.

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