Anti-American Police Shootings

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

“From that point on,” after witnessing the body—and Mamie’s courage—“Mississippi began to move” (Bush 3). On July 2nd 1964, John F. Kennedy signed the civil rights act into law. Now, This was meant to be a turning point in history and the act of gunning down a black youth became a staple case of racism considering it was the case that led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. However, within the emergence of this new racism, “African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged in 2015 by investigation into the use of deadly force by police” (Swaine 1) even though African American males only make up 2% of the population. From Emmett Till’s gunning down in 1955 to Walter Scott’s in 2015, we are witnessing history repeat itself when America can clearly see, “of course the evidence is not there, but we are still claiming skin color was not a factor” (Crump 2). The city of North Charleston, S.C., was all too willing to accept the officer’s version of events, even though the physical evidence clearly showed that the officer had landed four out of eight bullets in Scott’s

Racial injustice against people of colour is an immense, ongoing issue that has not only targeted lives but has also taken many innocent lives. In America, these racial divisions date back to the days of slavery, where black people were denied of their basic human rights because of discrimination. In present day, some individuals view America as a post-racial environment, due to such victories as electing a black president; but the brutal, fatal and unjust events in Ferguson, Missouri prove that these divisions are still present. On August 9th, 2014, an unarmed, 18 year old black teen was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The events that led to the death of Michael Brown occurred on an early morning where Mr. Wilson stopped Michael Brown and a friend after leaving a convenience store. An altercation occurred which prompted Mr. Brown to flee and officer Wilson to begin shooting. The death of Mr. Brown caused the city to stand up against police brutality through peaceful protest, looting, and even violence, to gain justice for Mr. Brown and his family. As the protests grew, the police used military tactics such as, tear gas, to “maintain order” during the unrest of the city. In recent, news the grand jury decided that Officer Darren Wilson was not responsible for the death of Michael Brown, which led to a larger public outrage not only in America, but also across the

Ironically, “Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or, were armed or threatening the officer with potentially lethal force.” “Alternatively, some believe that these statistics are

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

Racial disparities occur in arrests, stops and use of force. A report on the Minnesota police department found that Black people are stopped more than twice as much as they should be, for their share of the population(4); In Ferguson it was found that police arrest black people at a rate three times higher, than their share of the population, and “At least 1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson” (5). Force was also found to be used at more disproportionate rates against black people. It was found that blacks are 50% more likely to experience “use of force”(6). These are clear cases of racism in the police force, it shows that there is bias rooted in all enforcement actions. It would be statistically impossible for these disparities to exist, without some element of racism in many actions and levels of the police force, and the only way to change this is to completely reconstruct how enforcement is carried

Police shootings are unfortunate events but whenever there is a shooting, the topic of race emerges. Police shootings have always been the highlights on news channels and there is always the racially biased narrative that keeps repeating itself yet no one seems to dispute this narrative. However, did you know that studies show a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a African American male than an unarmed African American male is to be killed by a police officer? In fact, a recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were actually less likely to shoot an unarmed black suspect than unarmed Caucasian or Hispanic suspect in simulated threat scenarios. Some would argue that there are still police shootings all over America and they occur when police officers

“In 2015, nearly a thousand people were shot and killed by police. Almost all of those people shot, over 95%, were men” (Police Shootings, Travis). The racial breakdown of these killings consist of “51.3% white, 27.3% blacks, 17.8% hispanic, 38 people were other race” (Police Shootings, Travis). While it is true that African- Americans represent only 12% of the population, and yet are 2 times that rate in police shootings. According to F.B.I data in 2014, 4,224 black men were arrested and charged with murder in this country. Statistics also state that in 2013, 90% of African- American murders were committed by other African- Americans. While similar statistics can be stated about whites, since 84% of whites were murdered by other whites. Racial killings

Many say that black people hold 26% of the shootings but are only 10% of the total population. This is invalid as many will know that in the inner cities and poor neighborhoods like the streets of chicago many are involved in violent crimes, resulting in a heart-breaking death. Many will put in that statistic and rely on it with no further information. The millions that see this are influenced, and many people mostly youth begin to believe the false stereotype amongst white cops in particular. “ The second piece of evidence is another statistic showing rates of Police on Black Violence to Black on Police. “The article by the wall street journal says “Officers are killed by blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police” As many say cops kill black males unproportionally the FBI says otherwise. The third piece of evidence is also from the Wall Street Journal.“Officers’ use of lethal force following an arrest for a violent felony is more than twice the rate for white as for black arrestees, according to one study” If their was an existing bias it would be in favor of blacks over whites. In many cases in poor neighborhoods where a vast majority of the inhabitants are blacks or hispanic, the crime is higher, and there still continues to be less violence against

Police related shootings deemed ethical or unethical show a greater prevalence in low-income black communities’ statewide more often than white communities. Usually, the outcome of civil

Many Americans have noticed patterns regarding the victims of police brutality. A source from the New York Times written by Timothy Williams, a graduate from Columbia University, concludes that, “Although officers employ force in less than 2 percent of all police-civilian interactions, the use of police force is disproportionately high for African-Americans — more than three times greater than for whites”(Williams). He observes that although police brutality doesn’t occur often, African-Americans face police brutality more so than Caucasians. Another source by Julie E. Samuels, a senior fellow in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, notes that “about one in six (17 percent) believed that whites are treated better by police than blacks and other minorities, and about one in 10 (11.1 percent) believed that more police violence occurs against blacks than against whites”(Samuels). This information also

According to a Washington Post database of lethal police shootings 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police so far this year. This means one a black man dies every nine days. Three unarmed black men were shot and killed in the month of April alone. All three shootings were either caught on tape or reported on local TV. The 24 unarmed black men that were killed compose a startling small amount of the 585 people shot and killed by police. According to The Post database. Most of those killed were white or Hispanic, and a good number of all races were armed. However, according to Wesley, black men accounted for 40 percent of the 60 unarmed deaths, even though they make up just 6 percent of the U.S. population.

White police officers are infamous for using excess force towards young African-American especially in larger cities such as Chicago. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes.$1,800,000,000 is estimated to be the annual cost of police misconduct to taxpayers. Although the misconduct isn’t strictly towards police brutality, $1,800,000,000 is incredibly outrageous. There may be a reason to why African-Americans seem to be targeted by police officers. Many believe this could be a sign that racism has been institutionalized in our police force across the nation.

It appears that instead of being determined by the violent crime rates of an area, it is more of a lack of responsibility being held to the law enforcement officers for their actions. At present, it is the job of the FBI to collect information regarding deaths that are categorized as justified by police throughout the country ;however, they have a voluntary system where police departments can choose whether to submit data or not (Cassisi). From January 1 to December 15 of 2015, 1,152  people were killed by police in the United States. “ Black people were 25%(242) of those killed despite being only 13% of the population”(Ross). There is a 3 to 1 ratio of being shot by a law enforcement officer because of a person's race/ethnicity

As for police violence towards blacks, a study analyzing data from the U.S. Shooting Database found that in America “the probability of being black, unarmed, and shot by police is about 3.49 times the probability of being white, unarmed, and shot by police on average.” As you read the only