African Americans Attitudes Towards Police Essay

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

Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years, there has been a history of tension and conflict between the police and minority communities in the United States. In principle, the police exist to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of race or ethnic background, yet police departments across the country have been repeatedly accused of targeting and harassing racial minorities, and of failing to root out racist attitudes and practices within their ranks. In recent years, high profile cases such as the beating of Rodney King in Los Angles and the assault on Abner Louima in New York have only served to heighten concerns over the mistreatment of minorities by the police, resulting in widespread calls for major legal and institutional reforms. The recent shootings of Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Terrance Crutcher underscore the danger Black men and boys face when they cross paths with law enforcement officers. In the absence of a coordinated national strategy, state and local police departments have largely been left to develop their own solutions to the problems of policing minority communities and improving cultural sensitivity amongst their officers. Many departments have sought to reform recruitment and selection policies in the hope of attracting greater numbers of minority applicants, while others have instituted diversity training and education programs aimed at improving police understanding of minority cultures and communities. To date, however, these efforts have yielded mixed results. Some departments have achieved notable successes, but on the whole, relations between the police and minority communities across the country remain strained. of cultural diversity and the police.

Another factor in conflicts with this nation’s police force is the differences in races between American neighborhoods and their police force. In order to reduce the presence of racism in law enforcement, the race and ethnicities of the police force must be representative of the population they are responsible

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

Many of the problems and conflicts between the community and the police are based on situations involving police misconduct and race. Other issues occur because of an experience one has had with the police because he or she is minority. Early resentments from White officers cause a different outcome when handling a police situation that involves a different race as oppose to his or her own. This begins to shape the perception of the residents that witness these actions. It has been shown that an officer’s attitude and behaviors when dealing with a minority is harsher and unfair. Several situations like the Rodney King story and police brutality where a minority was the victim is viewed by the public and discriminatory behavior solely caused by a person’s race or ethnicity. This creates distrusts and suspicion with regard to the way a police department handles these issues. The public is disappointed and reluctant to construct a relationship with his or her fellow officer.

The above study, proves that police officers show different characteristics, then they would to someone who was Caucasian. As mentioned formerly, it is almost as it is in the police officials ‘nature’; just like women may hold their purse a bit tighter when passing a man of colour on the street. It is set into our culture to be cautious of some individuals of a minority group, just like it is part of the police culture to use “extensive force”. Much like how it is part of the African American’s culture to be more cautious around police officers. Following the same point, African Americans may not feel safe in the hands of police officers, which may cause the distaste. “The internalization of negative Black stereotypes may be outside of his or her conscious awareness, the individual seeks to as simulate and be accepted by Whites, and actively or passively distances him/herself from other blacks.” (James, 2001, p.18) This statement shows evidence that it is hard-wired into minority groups inner brain to be cautious around people who are of high authority; especially if they are Caucasian. Based off of the on-going discrimination that is being brought upon them.

Kowalski, B & Lundman, R (2007) Vehicle stops by police for driving while black: common problems and some tentative solutions: Journal of criminal justice, 5(2),165-181

A national problem that is affecting me personally is the issue of police brutality. I am an African American female living in a society where there is an overlooked where between my community and the police task force. Before I delve into this topic, I need the reader to understand that I know all policeman are not bad and that all African Americans are not innocent. The problem I am addressing is the apparent discrepancy of police officers assuming that just because someone has a darker complexion that means that they are doing something illegal.

"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)

The rate for police brutality has not successfully decreased, in fact, according to the article “Racism and Police Brutality”, by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson NMPSRP, “months of April 2009 and June 2010 there were 5,986 reports of misconduct, 382 fatalities linked to misconduct, settlements and judgments that totaled $347,455,000, and 33 % of misconduct cases that went through to convictions and 64 % of misconduct cases that received prison sentences.” The victims are usually black, in cases like this. Blacks feel like all cops don’t care about them or really see them as human beings, which creates tension and miscommunication. The miscommunication makes cops believe they have the right to be more physical or brutal, but some don’t realize it is all caused by police methods and treatment towards Blacks. People say such things like “cops are pretentious douche bags. Officers may have a dangerous job buy y choose a line of work where most off hates you” (Chaney, and Robertson 488), these are people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs toward

Cooperation from members of the public is important in order for police officers to effectively fight crime within the community. In order to obtain cooperation from members of the public, police officers must gain their trust and confidence. It has been known that African Americans and Hispanics have lower levels of trust and confidence in police because of racial disparities and racial profiling. This paper will discuss the public opinion of police by different ethnic groups and how racial minorities hold lower levels of trust and confidence in police.

There have been many explanations about citizen’s perception or including others minority groups on how they feel about law enforcement and racial profiling. Moreover, there has not been numerous quantitative study but not a real qualitative study. However, the research will be completed through qualitative study approach of an ethnography experience with African-American’s attitude toward law enforcement (Regulus, Taylor,& Jackson, 2000). Also, it does not address the perception of African-American community alone or even if there is a racial issue. Understanding the challenges that blacks faced as a group enslaved by white Americans has impacted America. The research will try to dig into the mindset of the African-American community on

Racial Bias are a direct correlation to police violence against African Americans, stereotypes perpetuated by social constructions and media representation along with individual prejudice help by police officers view African Americans as a threat especially African American men. Police trust this ideology of “threat” to assist in their use of excessive force against African Americans to comply. (Tyler, 2011; Tyler et al., 2015, Skinner, Haas,2016).

An article in TIME magazine talks about research done by Injury Prevention that proved that racial minorities, including African Americans and Latinos, are more likely to be stopped and searched than white people are. I don’t know if this means that the officer on the scene was an outright racist and chose to be harsher because they saw that the person they had to deal with was a minority or if they truly felt threatened but somehow there is a correlation between color and arrest ratio. I believe that there are definitely policeman that were raised to believe that their race was superior to any other race and that don’t do enough to understand people who aren’t from the background that they are from.

The participants for this study will be undergraduate college students in introductory criminology and criminal justice classes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, NY. A sample frame will be generated from class rosters. The participants will be randomly assigned to watch one of three brief videos which depict a police traffic stop resulting from a minor traffic violation. Given the findings from previous studies, which highlight the importance of age, sex, and race in perceptions of police-citizen interactions (see Engel, 2005; Hurst & Frank 2000; Jesilow, Meyer, & Namazzi, 1995; Taylor, Turner, Esbensen, & Winfree, 2001; Tuch & Weitzer, 1997; Webb & Marshall, 1995), balance tests will be conducted for all three variables to ensure that the randomization procedure was effective in generating groups that do not exhibit significant differences in regards to these aforementioned variables.