Police brutality has become alarmingly prevalent in today’s society, as more and more headliners feature something along the lines of “police brutally kills unarmed African American.” A plethora of names come to mind, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr., and Tamir Rice, who all have been brutally murdered by police who were using excessive force. This exposes the inappropriate and inadequate ways that police handle confrontations with people in the real world. Throughout the chapter, “Police Accounts of Normal Force,” Jennifer Hunt analyzes the ways in which police officers distinguish when to use force and when not to use force. Although it may seem simple, Hunt asserts that police officers often encourage the use of force and celebrate…
White policemen, in addition, compose 95 percent of police officers. This further increases the “us” vs “them” mentality and labels the police force as a “white male justice system which specializes in the arrest, prosecution, and convictions of people of color.” (Champion). In order to break this separation in law enforcement, diversification would help reflect the police departments surrounding communities. A report published by Columbia Law School illustrates that the occurrences of forceful outbreaks decreases when the race of the police force correlate with the environment it’s located in (Legewie).…
These are only five cases that are known, so many more may exist. At what point do we call to action the officers meant to protect us? Police brutality disproportionately affects African-Americans more than any other racial group in America. An FBI study of “justifiable homicide” shows that from 2005-2012, white officers used deadly force against a black person almost two times a week. Of those killed, one in every five was 21 years old or younger.…
Fryer Jr in his article “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force,” “Blacks are three times more likely to report use of force by police in the raw data. Hispanics are 2.6 times more likely” (20). Fryer Jr also states that “1,332 shootings between 2000 and 2015. Forty-six percent of officer-involved shootings in our data are blacks, thirty percent are Hispanic, and twenty-four percent are other with the majority in that category being whites” (14). This information shows that Blacks and Hispanics are a lot more likely to experience brutality than whites even though they are the majority of the US population.…
In the United States of America’s Pledge of Allegiance, it is stated that there is “… liberty and justice for all” (????). Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” (???). And yet, throughout U.S. history, blacks have endured slavery, segregation, mob attacks, discrimination, and injustice simply because of their race. “Race, the idea that the human species is divided into distinct groups on the basis of inherited physical and behavioral differences” (Race). “The number of reported incidents of police brutality and excessive force toward Black men could very easily lead one to believe that the Black man may be American law enforcement’s worst nightmare”…
There has been a recently new idea streaming that describes how violent police encounters seem to be the same across all races. There seems to be no racial disparity across minorities in regards to being stopped by the police. There was a study conducted and published in the journal, Injury Prevention, which described that one of 291 police stops arrests ends up in someone getting injured or dying. Nonetheless, racial minorities, blacks and native Americans, with the ages ranging from 15-29, were more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested by the police at higher rates than whites. (Oaklander)…
Police brutality is a very sensitive and controversial topic of discussion in the United States. Police brutality occurs when an officer uses excessive or unnecessary force when dealing with other people. Police have been under a microscope recently to make sure that their actions are necessary and appropriate for the situation that they are in due to the fact that there has been widespread media coverage of police brutality. This media coverage has allowed people to examine how police officers go about their business and determine whether or not they think that the police officer’s actions are just. Police brutality has been the cause for protest and the formation of movements such as “Black Lives Matter”.…
The officers’ actions are often perceived as racial profiling, where a person of a certain race is more likely to engage in criminal behaviors as a result of his or her race. “25% of officers surveyed claimed to be witnesses of fellow officers harassing citizen most likely because of his or her race” (Police Brutality Statistics). An individual may be accused of committing a crime even when there are no evidences to prove these claims. African Americans are one of the most vulnerable, minority groups targeted by police officers. This is the result of officers’ beliefs that if they are disrespected by a person of a certain race then people of that same race, sex and creed will behave the same.…
The conflicts between the police and the general public are creating an endless cycle of violence. The incidents of police brutality are causing anger within the people, causing groups to revolt and act violently against an officer when officers are trying to restrain them. During the year 2015, there were 385 police shootings, and of those incidents 365 of the victims were men and 20 were women. Of those 365 men, 171 were white, 100 black, 54 Hispanic, 6 Asian, 3 other, and 31 unknown. Of those 20 women, 9 were white, 5 black, 3 Hispanic, and 3 other.…
Data showing back to 1985 the Us Supreme Court ruled that to use deadly force you have to be an “officer under attack”. In 1980-1984 the term used to justify a deadly shooting, was used in 33% of incidents. From 2005-2009 the numbers have almost doubled in to 62% in deadly shooting by an officer. Numbers like the data reflect are correlated with misconduct with law enforcement and can have a strong relevance to racial…
The use of physical force by police during civil disorder. The first thing is I was very shocked to learn, was that not one single person was killed by an American police officer during all the Vietnam protest. The use of force during a civil disorder is only permitted when the protest or protesters stop honoring the restrictions of the protest. Such as time, place, and the manner you performing your protest. Inciting violence or a riot may result in physical force.…
Police Brutality and Racial Disparities Introduction Police brutality against African Americans is a widely discussed topic across the states. However, what cause the police to be so? Why do they use excessive and deadly force against them? And is it really only about African Americans or does the other ethnicities encounter the same problem?…
In fact, the high amount of firearms owned by US citizens creates a fear in police officers. Police violence and brutality has become a controversial topic in recent news. Stories of police officers using excessive force come out on the news every day. Media portrays most of these police brutality crimes as race-motivated, and this evidence is hard to refute as most victims are African-American. The question is, is race the only reason these police officers use excessive force when conducting an arrest?…
Police brutality and racism seem to be consistently connected to one another. This has become a serious issue in which circumstances have ended violently or even fatally when involving police officers and African American citizens. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that African American people make up only 13.2% of our population. Anyone can become a victim of police brutality, regardless of their race; but statistics show that African American people are being killed by police at more than twice the rate of Caucasian and Hispanic people. It is also considerably more likely for the African American victims in these situations to have been unarmed at their time of death.…
In the first place, it discussed two absolutely opposite researches on whether the police tend to target special ethnic groups such as African Americans. One research conducted by Brunson and Miller (2006) put forward the hypothesis that the minorities are more subjected to police violence, while Reiss’ studies (1968; 1971; 1980) argued that white men happen to be victims of police aggression more often than individuals of other races. However, the latter added that the victims tend to be from low socio-economic class. Thus, it supports the idea that unjustified excessive force is very often directed toward a certain group of people such as racial minorities or poor males. Moreover, other articles provided more broad explanation of the factors that induce law enforcement officers use this force.…