Essay on Police Brutality

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.

We often trust police officers to protect our homes and our loved ones, but what if the officers we trust can actually harm our loved ones? Over the past few years, unjustified shootings, rough treatments, and severe beatings have been on and off on our tv screens and on our phones. We hear various stories especially from minorities about their unforgettable encounters with police officers who hurt and accused them. According to CopCrisis, almost 3,000 Americans have died over the past three years. One of the relevant factors why this issue keeps happening is racial discrimination. Police officers have been discriminating and accusing minorities over the littlest offenses like selling DVDs outside supermarkets or

Police brutality and racial profiling have become one of the most common topics of discussion in the United States today. Both of these things have had a huge impact on the African American population’s everyday lifestyle. There have been many controversial examples of this in just the past two years. Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown and Walter Scott, were all killed during an encounter with a caucasian police officer. Was there a valid reason for the police encounter? Was the victim holding/carrying a weapon? Was the police officer threatened verbally or physically?

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

Police brutality is a very serious problem in the United States. The term “police brutality” has been used sense 1872. According to Wikipedia, it is an act of misconduct done by a member of law enforcement by using an extreme amount of force to physically, mentally or emotionally attack a member of society. The job of a police officer can be a dangerous one and sometimes they are put in situations where excessive force is needed. The problem is when there is excessive force used by the people that have been sworn to protect and serve the Americans. Some are using excessive force when it is not needed. It has created society to have a fear of the police. The officers have power but need to be responsible with that power. It has become a controversial topic among communities. .

African Americans are highly diverse group and a part of this diversity is police profiling, equal rights and discrimination. Individual versus society, blacks, for example are more likely than whites to report having negative interactions with police, to be exposed to media reports of police misconduct, and to live in high-crime neighborhoods where policing may be contentious—each of which increases perceptions of police misconduct. Relations between the police and minority groups are a continuing problem in the United States and other multiracial societies.

Being a minority in the United States has never been easy and does not seem to be getting any better. Minorities have been exposed to violence by law enforcement for many decades. Law enforcement 's are tasked with protecting and serving its citizens, not to harass and assault them. Police brutality is a continuous problem in the United States and officers need to be accountable for their actions. This research project will examine how police brutality often leads to death because of some officers ' unnecessary physical aggression and poor judgment, some incidents leads to unjust shootings, and finally, the misconduct of police officers. By understanding how police brutality is increasing and the violence that comes with it, police officers can then receive better training and learn how to gauge certain situations to avoid the use of violence and abuse their power.

"Relations between the police and minority groups are a continuing problem in many multiracial societies. Surveys consistently document racial differences in perceptions of the police, with minorities more likely than whites to harbor negative views." (Weitzer and Tuch, Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct, 2004)

We must acknowledge that people of color are still thought of as a different. There are still people in the world that believe being racist is right, but there are also some who believe that everyone is equal. But often what we hear about is the racial profiling within the American walls that we all live in. “Nationwide, driving while black has been criminalized, racial profiling used for traffic stops and searches for suspected drugs or other reasons, the practice especially common in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas” (Rodriguez, 2012). “Los Angeles has settled many lawsuits arising out of more than 50 deaths related to lethal police choke holds, and many other cities are paying out large sums to settle instances of police misconduct” (Angola, 2013). Due to the demands for services, the police presence is generally situated in poorer communities as the crime rates and calls for service are statistically higher in these areas. As a result of greater police presence, those who reside in poorer neighborhoods have developed a perception that police use excessive force frequently (Weitzer, 1999). This information is understandable that police are called to poorer communities but this does not make an excuse for what has been headlined on the news for the past couple of weeks.

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.

The people of the minority community have been affected by or possibly for countless of years, have been abused by police forces across the United States. The misconduct of law enforcement towards minorities has been accountable for many of untruthful arrests, inaccurate convictions, and even deaths of the African American. Police discrimination and racial profiling have been serious concerns over the years and is still a considerable important subject to the minority people in today’s society. Today, law enforcement officials are using life-threating and excessive force that contributes to outrageous beatings, horrendous attacks, and unreasonable shootings. This is a terrible and terrifying factor the minority face just because of the color of their skin.

There is a widespread and persistent problem of police brutality across the United States. Thousands of individual complaints about police abuse are reported each year and local authorities pay out millions of dollars to victims in damages after lawsuits. Police officers have beaten and shot unresisting suspects; they have misused batons, chemical sprays, and electro-shock weapons; they have injured or killed people by placing them in dangerous restraint holds.

Police misconduct against people of color has been an issue for centuries and it continues to be a problem today. According to Packman, police misconduct is any action performed by and officer that is unethical, against employment guidelines, unconstitutional, or criminal in nature. Police officers are sworn in to protect and serve our communities from criminal acts (Brenner and Ardebili, 2011), but in reality all they really do is put fear in the people of color. People of color know that they are at a higher risk of being stop and harassed by a police officer because of their skin color. According to Siegel (2015), “police are more likely to use racial profiling to stop black motorist as they travel further into the boundaries of predominantly white neighborhoods” ( p. 209). This shows how police officers believe to know where a person belongs and where they do not just by the color of their skin. There has been cases in our history that provide evidence to how Black people have been in certain places at the wrong time and come in conflict with

In today’s society, law enforcement has become an even larger issue than early times involving the safety of the black community. The fear and hesitation of trusting police officers has been a common worry amongst the black community for centuries upon centuries. A major question that people continue to ponder is, if they can not trust the law, then who can they trust? There are over a million incidents where an innocent man, woman, or child has come into conflict with a police officer, the majority of the time results in the loss of their life. Not only are police officers killing innocent people; in some cases, they are also getting away with it. White officers have become a part of the leading cause in the murder of innocent African Americans who are more likely to be killed than any other race. Police officers should not be allowed to get away with breaking the law just because they are a part of the law.

Historically, minorities have been victims of police brutality in the United States. Since the middle of the 19th century a dominant white social class maintained racial injustice through a police force willing to use violence against minorities. This violence expressed itself in the years immediately after the civil war through brutality in various forms. America has a lengthy an disgraceful tradition of police brutality to attain a sense of law and order in its society.