Growing up as a young black male there are daily struggles that you go through as anyone else would, and then there are the struggles that you face being black in our day and age. As America’s history has proven to us, the day in the life of African Americans have been far from easy. From the various stereotypes to racism on a daily it is an issue that quite honestly is hard to understand if you are not an African American. As time has passed we have been through slavery, the Jim Crow Era, the Civil Rights Era, and our present day issue Police Brutality. Although Police Brutality has always been an issue faced in the African American Community the last few years has proven that it is becoming a bigger issue in the community and one that needs …show more content…
Police Brutality can also take the form of false arrest, verbal abuse, psychological intimidation, sexual abuse, police corruption, racial profiling, political repression and the improper use of Tasers (What Is). Nowadays, there are laws against police brutality, however even with the law covering Police Brutality; many complaints made by civilians about excessive use of force are not investigated (What Is). This is an issue that has become very present in recent Police Brutality cases in the African American Community. Like stated before, Police Brutality has always been an issue in the African American community. The attention of the “Rodney King” incident was what really began to shed light on the issue. Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991(Rodney). The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on tape (Rodney). The four L.A.P.D officers involved were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer …show more content…
Although there is no official record or system of the amounts and victims of police brutality, many outside research organizations keep record of the numbers. In 2014 America ranked number one in the amount of police killings, brutality incidents (People). In November 2015, the total number of police killings surpassed 1,000, and of this number 161 of them were unarmed (People).The total number of unarmed deaths totaled to around 25% of them being African American compared to the 17% of them being white (People). Data from the 2015 deaths were compiled by “The Guardian” for a project called “The Counted” a continuously updated, interactive database of police killings in the United States (People). Based on their figures, police killed an average of about three people per day last year (People). Based on The Guardians statistics, police killed more white people than any other race last year (People). However, activist like the Black Lives Matter Movement argue that police kills blacks at a rate disproportionate to their total percentage of the population (People). Police killed almost five black people per every million black residents of the U.S, compared with about two per million for both white and Hispanic victims (People). Shootings were the most common cause of police-related death, at 680(People). Of the 161 unarmed individuals, 71 were shot by police (People). The second most cause of
In the year 2014, 1108 people were killed in cases of police brutality. Of those 1108, 23.5% (265) of the victims were African Americans. In a poll conducted in 2009, 54.4% of African Americans said that they or people they knew experienced violence at the hands of police. Only 44.2% of the African Americans taking the poll
Racial Injustice and police brutality is a huge subject that has been for decades. According to data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011), between 2003 and 2009 at least 4,813 people died in the process of being arrested by local police. Of the deaths classified as law enforcement homicides, 2,876 deaths occurred of
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)
As I witnessed the videos and sound recordings of the police killings of these Black youth: Trayvon Martin, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Darnisha Harris, I, too, lost hope for racial equality and developed a fear of law enforcement that still exists to this day. These emotions are quite common amongst Black youth, yet the presence of such is
First, it is crucial to note that police brutality is not synonymous to racism against a particular group. However, there is a stigma that police often racially profile a specific African Americans. In February 2015, two cases of police brutality did not involve African Americans; instead the two victims were a Hispanic shot and killed in Washington State and an Indian-American severely paralyzed in Alabama. Even with this considered, of late, a majority of police brutality cases have involved minorities and specifically African American males. Cases such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray have sparked a cultural uprising. These trigger event inspired the protests and riots against police brutality demonstrating collective action and physical violence, but the idea of police brutality is much larger than these individual cases, since it is a reoccurring cycle.
There is a major issue with police brutality within the confinements of the United States of America, within society in general. The problem of police brutality is not just a problem with African American, it is spread throughout all the races. “Mr. Castellani who is 20 years old, yelling and pointing at officers, who are posted down the street, after his ejection from an Atlantic City casino for being underage. Four officers rush him, take him down and begin beating him -- a fifth officer soon joins in.”(The Baltimore,Leonard Pitts Jr.). It just so happened that this man was black and had been brutally attacked by police because he said something they didn't like it. It isn't always African Americans that are attacked thought, in 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the hospital by police men claiming Duran was intoxicated and hallucinating. He was brutally attacked because of what he believed in, it didn't have anything to do with his skin color, as he was attacked by white police man and Duran turned out to be a Caucasian man with a family and a job. All of that was taken away from him the moment the cops dragged him into the hospital claiming he wasn't right in the head and the cops found him like that. In 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the
“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
A police force is an organized body of people empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. In today’s society, it is often questioned if policeman’s purpose in society is fulfilled. Since 2015, police have killed 964 people in the U.S. Despite being only 13% of the population, black people were 25% (242) of those killed. (MappingPoliceViolence.org) These killings are often identified as police brutality. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Police brutality is a rising but yet unsolved issue that remains relevant in today’s society. Differences between African Americans and police officers often affect interaction amongst each other. When police officers aren’t representative of the people they are supposed to protect, they often use cultural differences, racial tensions, and bias to target or view these communities as dangerous.
In 2015, police brutality peaked to an all time high, with over 100 of the 776 people killed blacks. Yet only 10 out of the 102 killing of unarmed blacks resolved in the conviction of the officers . For example, the death of Freddy Gray was unnecessary and occurred because a white
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.
“Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age…”(Swaine et al, 2015; para. 2).
Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.
Writers Jon Swaine a senior reporter as well as the lead director of the reporting team “The Counted” for The Guardian newspaper and Ciara McCarthy a journalist for the Guardians newspaper and The Counted team, delivered an article based on their project “The Counted” that is focused on analysing and recording the deaths caused by police and making it known to the public. In this article, contains a study on the death rates of americans in the last year it has been found out that young black males are far more likely to be killed by the police than white males, according to their research “Black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers last year ”(Swaine McCarthy).There studies
Police brutality is an ongoing problem in the United States. Law enforcement agents are there to protect the public for they have the legal right to use physical, and even deadly, force. However, many of these officers abuse of that power. In the past year, there have been more than 900 cases of police abuse. Most of the victims have been innocent, unarmed, and/or of color. Police brutality is becoming more and more of an issue as society keeps growing. This nationwide problem could be solved in many ways, but having peaceful protests and by educating our police officers about racial differences are two good possible solutions.
We live in a world where police brutality is caused by the ignorance’s of people who believe they aren’t colorblind. The numbers of cases of murders and homicides in communities with high levels of poverty have increased. With the number of criminal activity growing, Law enforcement have brutality tried to crack down criminals at no expense. With the following happening young men and women in the Black community who commit minor to no offense have been taken in to detain facilities beaten. In addition to police brutality when arresting a person of color we are now experiencing polices using brutal focused on young black men and women without probable cause of threat.