Analysis : The Rodney King Incident Essay

Throughout police history in the United States and around the world there have been numerous incidents of reported police brutality and other forms of corruption including taking bribes, theft, sexual deviance, and many more. In our present time corruption has decreased significantly from what it once was decades ago but still exists. One of the most publicized cases of police brutality, if not the most, was the beating of Rodney King. Most people have heard about the case and seen the video of the brutal beating that took place in Los Angeles on the night of March 2, 1991. The video shown to the public contained officers appearing to beat Mr. King while he is on the ground while

Second, police in our country do racial profiling. This practice of law enforcement is morally wrong and personally sickening. Racial Profiling is the idea that just because someone is a different race automatically makes that one person a suspect. Racial Profiling goes against everything that the United States Constitution is about. The constitution is about freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. Our law enforcement is put into place to serve and protect the innocent. The constitution protects us of unlawful search and seizers as well. Racial profiling makes our law enforcement give in their minds probable cause when there really is not any in the first place. Also, it goes against the United States Constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberites Union Foundation said, “Racial profiling is a longstanding and deeply troubling national problem despite claims that the United States has entered a “post-racial era.” It occurs every day, in cities and towns across the country, when law enforcement and private security target people of color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without evidence of criminal activity and based on perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Racial profiling is

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King led the Los Angeles police on a high speed chase. Once the chase was over officers pulled King out of his vehicle and began to brutally beat,taze and stomp on him. The recording of the video taken by a witness standing on the other side of the street was locally broadcasted then nationally broadcasted.The reasons that police officers acted the way they did was because “Rodney King was driving while intoxicated and when officers attempted to arrest him, the large belligerent man resisted that arrest.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou ) It was already said that King had a criminal record of second degree robbery and out on parole so the officers were aware of who he was by now. I also believe that racial profiling was another factor that caused the police officers to act they way that they did. As stated by Connie Rice a lawyer and civil rights activist , “The LAPD at the time was almost an occupying force, partially biased against people of color.” (Sastry & Bates) Personally, I do not believe that the officers acted in an appropriate matter because instead of pulling him from his car and brutally beating him they should've just gone up to him and arrested him. I understand that he was seen as a threat during this time because of the high speed chase but there were other ways that they could have handled the situation. The use of forces that could have been appropriate for this situation were verbal commands, maybe a bit of empty hand control with the soft empty hand technique and if he resisted then that is when the use of less lethal force would of been used. Also they found out that in the first three seconds of the film were cut of and showed that “Rodney King rising up from the street to charge one officer in a clear-cut violent assault. In self defense, that officer struck King with his PR-24.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou.) Now with this new information I believe that the officer had a right to defend himself however not to the extent that they all went. Hitting King ith the PR-24 would have caused him to fall and during that time they could have arrested him instead. According to Biography.com, “The United States Department of Justice filed federal civil rights charges

Since way back in the day, racial and ethnic minorities have received a good amount of exposure to the police. In the recent times, people have been attaching the term “racial profiling” to the practice of picking out Blacks and other racial and ethnic groups for increase of police exposure in hopes of preventing and reducing crime. While I was doing research I read a poll and it said that 46.8% of respondents felt that the relations between Blacks and Whites will always be a problem. I thought that was a really interesting poll in my opinion and I agree with it only half way. A study conducted by Higgins took a New York poll that included a large sample of Hispanics. The poll concluded, “Blacks were more likely than other groups to express the view that racial profiling was widespread. Blacks also were more likely to view racial profiling as unjustified. They also were more likely to believe that they had been profiled. Hispanics also were more likely than non- Hispanics to believe that racial profiling was pervasive. (Higgins 14) In 2004 the data

Racial profiling is simply, “the unlawful police practice of using race, color, or ethnic background, as the reason for conducting a traffic stop on an individual.” (Michigan Civil Rights Commission) This definition can be extended to any kind of discrimination mainly based on myths and stereotypes towards a certain race or ethnicity. However, the term racial profiling is commonly used when a police officer or any other law enforcer stops, questions, searches or arrests an individual purely on the basis of their race. African Americans or simply blacks have been the major racial group that has suffered much of racial profiling. Much of this is based on the stereotypes against the blacks are perceived as more likely to engage in criminal activities. For instance, in a 2013 Racial Profiling Data from Ferguson Police Department, out of 5384 police stops, 4632 were against blacks. (Ferguson Police Dept. 1) Despite the low population of blacks in U.S. compared to other races, the former continues being subjected to more racial profiling. Racial profiling against African Americans continues to expose the blacks to humiliation and racial injustices, as this paper will expose, thereby calling for the responsible authorities to address and find solutions for the problem.

A person may not be a threat to society, but just because a citizen or officer of the law felt like they were does that make it okay to take matters in their own hands? Law enforcement has a job to protect, if their racial profiling judgment is in fact wrong, they can lose trust and creditability. Through there may have been cases were racial profiling has worked, due to luck; the cases in which they have been wrong have ended in devastating ways. Racial profiling continues to be a prevalent and egregious form of discrimination in the United States.

Racial Profiling is a big problem is society. Over time you become biased of certain groups which is good and bad. Criminal profiling helps keep the bad guys off the streets. This maybe be also linked with being racist according to the people stopped by police. As a police officer you never win because no one wants to go to jail. It is very hard to

Racial profiling isn’t something new to today’s society. Most recently there were incidents in which the officers were accused of mistreating blacks such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. “Racism versus professionalism: claims and counter-claims about racial profiling” written by Vic Satzewich and William Shaffir discusses racism versus professionalism with officers. Their argument is more biased towards the police force and they argue that it’s part of their job. “

Racism exists in our American justice system… many years later. Many assume that racial profiling is a problem that just arose recently, due to multiple infamous incidents where “justice” was served to innocent victims. Most people have this assumption because the extremes of racial profiling has been making national headlines. When in fact racial profiling has been around and in use since the 1700s. By definition racial profiling is the use of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or national origin by law enforcement agents as a factor in deciding whom to investigate, arrest or detain absent evidence of a specific crime or criminal behavior. In other terms it is using racism and stereotypes to assume the worst of people. Racial profiling is executed by law enforcements by multiple tactics, such as a stop and frisk , vehicle or bag search search, a pat down, etc based on the police having a reasonable suspicion that the individual is going to commit or has already committed a crime whether it is a felony or misdemeanor. Racial profiling has destroyed our trust in police officers due to the fact that the law enforcements can use this to their advantage by using discrimination to interrogate citizens or immigrants, whom are by a large percentage African American or a minority. According to the U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics, African American males have a one-in-three chance of going to jail in their lifetime, a rate more than six times higher than whites (Knafo,2013). This statistic however is not based on crime rates yet based on illegal drug offenses. Although most african americans are incarcerated due to drug crimes it is a proven statistic that African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than the rate of white men.

Law enforcement officers anywhere should be motivated to improve their knowledge learned daily, stay true to themselves, master the tool belt, and just to have integrity in everyday life. One type of practice that is mentioned in the article used by police officers in “Is Racial Profiling a Necessary Police Practice?” is “stop-and-frisk” What this policy allows law enforcement officers to do is “stop, question, and physically search anyone whom they deem suspicious”. The law enforcement officers that use the stop-and-frisk policy are just trying to do their job effectively without causing any harm or violence to citizens who they think are up to no good; just like George Zimmerman caught Trayvon Martin in the act of doing for no reason. In particular, critics assert that “blacks and Latinos have been so disproportionately targeted by stop-and-frisk policing”. It’s all about the location of where these stop-and-frisk searches happen. If a law enforcement officer catches some black/Latino male or female in a particular area where he or she may not belong, the officer has a right to approach the black/Latino male or female and ask questions with no harm or violence done. Another aspect of this is the suspicion. Law enforcement officer love to stir the pot and want to know what is going on

Racial Profiling is unconstitutional and illegal, yet it’s still used in law enforcement. The practice of racial profiling, as defined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), refers to the “discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin”(ACLU 2005). Racial profiling causes more harm than good, it can cause emotional, mental and more often physical harm to the person being subjected to the practice. According to the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments, racial profiling is unconstitutional. It causes distrust in law enforcement because ethnic

“According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, white men and women were arrested for 60 percent of all violent crimes in 2012. Violent crimes include murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault” (Greenberg). As we can see by these statistics, it is untrue that most crime is caused by minorities, and using the excuse that minorities are crime creators is just nonsense, because the numbers do not lie. Blaming minorities for crimes, and stopping them for no reason is rubbish, and should not happen. “Research consistently shows that minorities are more likely than whites to view law enforcement with suspicion and distrust” (Race, Trust and Police Legitimacy). The only thing racial profiling is creating, is distrust between minorities, and the police. The minorities in this country should be pleased with the police, and their actions, but that is just not happening. The people of color are disgusted because of the constant blame and stereotype of them being crime starters. The police need to reevaluate their practices, and reasoning, because right now, it is unjust and

Racial profiling is when someone’s race is used by law enforcement to assume criminal suspicions (Spagnoli, Filip). Law enforcement has used racial profiling to “help” prevent criminal activity. For instance, a survey done by the department of justice when officers focused more on African-American and Latino drivers they found that less of them had drugs the when they least focused on white drivers (The Truth About Racial Profiling: FIVE FACTS). Some officers assume that Hispanics and African-Americans are carrying around illegal substances and weapons. This is not always true! As the survey revealed, most of the people who did have prohibited items were white Americans. Law enforcement should begin stopping drivers by suspicion not by their race. In another survey done by Ian Ayres and Jonathan Borowsky they had found very similar information. “We also found that, once people were stopped, officers were more likely to frisk, search, or arrest African-Americans and Latinos than whites…when these frisks and searches are substantially less likely to uncover weapons, drugs, or other types of contraband” (Borowsky, Ayres). Officers are spending more time on race than focusing on real criminals who are ousting the reasons why this country is remarkable. Other cases like these have been confirmed as well. “Relative to stopped whites, stopped blacks is 127% more likely and

Benjamin Todd Jealous once said, “Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”(Jealous, 2015). I couldn’t agree more with him. In today’s society more and more Black men and women suffer from police bias. Police is a powerful organization that was meant to serve and protect. Enforce laws and keeping communities safe. The problem is we fail to acknowledge that police are humans with real life bias. The problem with police is how much racial profiling is going up,

Well before he heard the first siren, Rodney King knew he never should have slipped that key into the ignition. They had been having so much fun, he and his buddies Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, just kicking back, sipping some inexpensive 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor at the local park as they jawed and laughed while the daylight ebbed away.