Racial Hierarchy Of Ferguson Shooting Incident

On August 9, 2014 a white male police officer named Darren Wilson fatally shot an African-American male named Michael Brown to death in Ferguson, MO. An investigation was immediately launched through the collection of evidence from the crime scene, an autopsy of Michael Brown’s body, and interviews with witnesses. For several months following the shooting and after the Grand Jury met, there was immense public speculation over whether Officer Wilson justifiably shot in self-defense or in racially motivated cold blooded murder. The ballistic evidence collected from the crime scene and from the autopsy corroborated Wilson’s story that he was justified in what transpired that fateful afternoon.

On the afternoon of August 9, 2014 an African-American male by the name Michael Brown was fatally shot to death by a Caucasian male police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO. An investigation was immediately launched through the collection of evidence from the crime scene, multiple autopsies of Michael Brown’s corpse, and interviews with witnesses. For several months following the shooting, investigation, and Grand Jury decision, there was immense public speculation and scrutiny. The country was divided on the controversial matter and intensely debated if Officer Wilson justifiably discharged his sidearm in self-defense or in racially motivated cold blooded murder. This event produced protests, riots, political movements, and national

9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old who had scuffled with Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, came just a few weeks after Eric Garner — an unarmed black man accused of illegally selling cigarettes — died in a struggle with white New York City officers. Garner’s death was captured by an onlooker’s video. Brown’s was not, and word quickly spread that he had been shot while surrendering with his hands up — an assertion uncorroborated by state and federal investigations.

Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson. “Three minutes - that is how long it took from the time Officer Darren Wilson confronted teenager Michael Brown at 12:01, and 12:04 when other officers arrived on the scene to find Brown dead. Those three minutes, and the fallout that followed, have been the source of protests, headlines and general unrest in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri” (P 2). But what exactly happened in that time is still a source of confusion. Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson were leaving Ferguson Market and Liquor. Surveillance videos show Mr. Brown stealing some cigarillos. While they walk along West Florissant Avenue in

There are more than two million people incarcerated in the U.S, whether it is in jails, prisons, or immigration detentions and the race with the highest percentage of locked up people are blacks. For many years, black men have always been at top of the list for going to prison during their lifetime. Following black men would be the Latino males, then white males, and so forth. Of course minorities are arrested more than whites. This is because they get off way easier with police officers and the law. Blacks have it the hardest where they get pulled over for any and everything. Most of the time they get killed for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Everyone is supposed to be treated fair, but police officers have their own motto for that. “Once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences.” (Knafo, 2014). I feel this quote is referring to blacks because police find anything to arrest them for just to be able to send them into court and convict with anything they could possibly think of. After they find something to convict them with, they face sentences that were never supposed to be given in the first place, leading to unnecessary lawyers and money wasted trying to get them out. For the people who are sent to prison for a real conviction, it usually has to do with making, distributing, or using drugs. “We find

The event that sparked the Ferguson report was the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9th, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Officer Darren Wilson gunned down an African American 18-year-old. This event ignited an uproar and made national news. This prompted the DOJ to start an investigation. The overall summary of the case is who they interviewed. Personal such as the city major, police chief, city manager, and half of the officer in the Ferguson police department. Researching files, spoke about how the city’s police revenue plan is, how the police department go about performing their duties and exercising their practices. Touched on racial bias in the city of Ferguson, Missouri and the municipal court systems held in place and how they practice

Whites are less likely to encounter with the police compared to African Americans. African Americans are twice likely to be arrested and almost four times likely to experience the use of force during police encounters (Costly, 2011). As stated earlier, other sociological factors need to be eliminated to attribute the high number of Black arrests to race. Poverty is known to be a predisposing factor for criminal acts according to the strain theory of

This statistic shows that the officers of the NYPD are judging blacks and assuming they are guilty before they even gather enough evidence. When black people are arrested, they receive ten percent longer sentences than white offenders, says the US Sentencing Commission, for the same crime. An obvious example of bias against black men is to incarcerate black men in jail for longer periods of time simply because of race. This is clearly a problem in the legal systems of the US. Eventually someone will get harmed in the middle of this racial discrimination. (Quigley)

In addition to treating those in poor neighborhoods as criminals until proven otherwise, police also are failing these individuals when they continue to have the preconceived notion that efforts to control violence and crime in these neighborhoods are futile. According to statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice, African Americans are disproportionately represented in incarceration rates. Among men, blacks are about six more times as likely to be admitted to prison during their life. Based on current rates of incarceration an estimated 7.9% of black males compared to 0.7% of white males will enter State or Federal prison by the

Numbers suggest that, for instance, while Blacks compose six percent of population in St. Clayton city, they represent 57% of overall police arrests. Similarly, the probability of Black arrest in Berkeley (CA) and Madison (Wis) cities is nine times higher than other racial groups compared to their corresponding population. In addition to this, Bureau of Justice statistics report that at the national level, Blacks are two times more likely to be arrested compared to Whites. Concurring with media reports and national statistics institutes’ estimates, empirical studies also report high proportion of minority arrests compared to their representation in the population (Golub, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007).

While both sides of this deeply entrenched controversy substantiate meaningful claims, neither of their arguments is exhaustive, although Walker, Spohn, and DeLone’s case is much more convincing. African American arrest statistics are best understood as the convergence of both a somewhat higher incidence of crime as well as racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. Although higher incidence of crime may initially appear to justify higher arrest rates, there is significant evidence demonstrating that not only is African American crime exaggerated by a racially discriminatory criminal justice system (one of the products of which is disparate arrest rates), the greater crime rates in and of themselves are a result of economic inequality.

Figures show that in 2006/07 the arrest rate for blacks was 3.6 times the rate for whites. By contrast, once arrested, black and Asians were less likely tan white to

The basis for this issue stems from several causes. Policy, implicit bias, biased decision making, education and other structural disadvantages and criminal history are several of these causes. At several points during the justice system, African Americans are at a clear disadvantage that can lead to their imprisonment and consequently over imprisonment of the minority. It has been found that police officer’s decision to stop or pull-over was dictated heavily by racial composition of certain areas (31). Beyond this, it has been found that factors such as race and ethniticty influence sentencing decisions as well as prior record and crime severity (33) and that prosecuters are more likely to prosecute and place heavier sentencing on African Americans than Whites who have committed similar crimes.

The “War on Drugs,” and “Get Tough on Crime,” policies also play a major role. The areas targeted for these specific policies are also poverty stricken, and majority of the population in these areas are predominately black, consequently accounting for more arrests and convictions to be made. While the amount of whites arrested versus blacks for drug crimes may be higher, the amount of blacks being held in prisons and jails for drug crimes is greater. The reasons for this may vary. It could be improper representation in court, mandatory minimum sentencing rules, or habitual offender policies, or racial profiling. The statistics vary, depending on the source. Nonetheless, numbers across the board make it clear that racial disparity is a major issue in the criminal justice

Mac Donald (2008) looks at the idea that cops over arrest blacks and ignore the crimes that whites commit. However, the races of criminals that are reported by the victims do in fact match arrest data. According to a research study as far back as 1978, “a study of robbery and aggravated assault in eight cities found parity between the race of assailants in victim identifications and in arrests--a finding replicated many times since, across a range of crimes” (Mac Donald, 2008, p. 15). It does not make sense to think why crime victims would be biased in the reports they give to the police.