Black Friday Essay

After the death of Stephen Lawrence, an inquiry was held to investigate how the metropolitan police handled the case. Sir William Macpherson released a report that “institutional racism affects the Metropolitan Police Service, and police services elsewhere. “He made 70 recommendations which he thought would help eliminate institutional racism within the metropolitan police services. In a review of the Macpherson report the Home office stated they applied 67 of the recommendations in part or full.

many accusations. It shows back then police officers did not care about protecting people. They

However, post-PACE there have still been injustices. In 1990, the ‘Cardiff Three’ were wrongly convicted of the murder of a prostitute. During police interviewing of the men, the police deployed barbaric interrogation techniques, petrifying the men into signing false confessions (Belloni and Hodgson, 2000. pg. 10). These confessions, used as evidence against the men in court, wrongly imprisoned them. However, two years later in 1992, the scandalous nature of the police investigation was exposed and the men were released (Campbell, 2013). The court’s decision to quash the sentence exposed the misconduct and institutional racism present in the police. The ‘Cardiff Three’ is an example of the police fabricating confessional evidence, through the torment and torture of the men. All three men were from BAME backgrounds and had consequently been framed for a crime they didn’t commit. Such incidents suggest a discriminatory and racist culture that still exists within the police and court institutions today, and hence, the task of the CJS in England and Wales providing justice for all is unachievable whilst racially discriminatory views within such agencies continue to exist. (number of BAME court

Police officers are given a lot of power because it is needed to help protect citizens and the community. However, police often abuse their power by the over use of force, corruption, sexual misconduct, bias based policing, and failure to maintain police ethics. (Peak, 2011)

It is interesting to note there was a stark contrast between day and night activities in the city of Kent. During the day, guardsmen casually patrolled and went about business as usual. In fact, there were even reports that throughout the daytime hours students would have long, peaceful conversations with the guardsmen. However, at night, the violence would break out while mass protests were held, forcing the students and guardsmen to quickly retreat to opposite sides. Once again, on the evening of May 3, non-lethal force was used and people were arrested as the guardsmen again struggled to take control of the violence erupting in the city of Kent Ohio.

However, on a positive note, it led to the Introduction of Race Relations Act 2000 and a recruitment drive for police officers from an ethnic background in a bid to show that the institution of the Metroplitan Police are not racist which has been successful in some respect. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/22/stephen-lawrence-murder-changed-legal-landscape A recent poll by the British Future showed that ‘’ nearly 60% of the British public believed the police response to such cases is now quicker, fairer and less racist. The police say that much has changed over the past decade and there is now a firm desire throughout policing, especially within its leadership, to tackle racism more robustly’’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/metropolitan-police-still-institutionally-racist-20-years-after-stephen-lawrence-murder-black-police-leaders-say-8581873.html

The Bradford riots in 1995, and other public outcries showed the growing animosity that was being felt toward the police by minority ethnic communities. Another factor, which led the opinions of minority ethnic citizens of the police to become additionally hostile, is the ever advancing statistical and research evidence of racism within the police force. In 1978 Stuart Hall et al showed most clearly how, largely on the basis of pre-existing stereotypes minority ethnic people (in particular black people) were being criminalized and subjected to extraordinary policing and punishment. Both these factors increased the feelings of hatred for the police amongst minority ethnic communities. This was then furthered by the subsequent failings of the Scarman report.

     The police stations were so old that they were infested with rats. These working conditions had to be improved. No policeman could work to there fullest potential in a place where the rats chewed leather off of the policeman’s helmets. The cities government did absolutely nothing to improve these places. This was not a place where the people that maintain peace in the city should have had to work in.

MacDonald presents an adequate amount of knowledge by stating research found by “credible” foundations, but when evaluated closely, there is faulty reasoning within her arguments. Towards the middle of the article, two claims are brought out-- One, that police encounter “tens of thousands” of armed felons a year without using lethal force and that roughly “987 people” were fatally shot. Two: fifty percent of police shooting victims are white; in comparison to the twenty-six percent that are African- American. The author fails to properly cite her sources, which causes the reader to wonder where she pulled the information. Consequently, her credibility diminishes. In addition to the unknown sources, MacDonald seems to have committed a fallacy in her thinking process. In the very beginning of her article, she states that since the police have reframed from

Both arguments were arguing with a lot of evidence and lots of detail. The first argument had data to help support the reason for the position. The first article all the data relates to the ethos and exclamatory analogies and from the officer action you can see that it is affecting the community in a negative way so the officer are going to have to change the way they police the community. The second article follows

Firstly Policing, Philips and Bowling (2007) have noted that in the 1970’s there have been many accusations of oppressive policing if minority ethnic communities. These have included mass stop and search operations, police violence and failure to respond to racist violence.

The attitudes and beliefs of the police effectively weaken their ability to act as an agent of justice, evident in the manner that they victim blame women. Before women even contact the police in relation to a crime, they are instantly a victim of police ignorance and biased naivety. In response to the murder of Masa Vukotic a senior police officer stated that women should not be alone in parks, recommending this as a preventative measure against any violent or sexual attacks (Ration 2015,

Which has encouraged the representation of a police subculture which glorifies crime fighting (Dick, 2005). There is a belief that individuals who are considered to be more authoritarian are more likely to apply for a career in policing, and these individuals are more prone to violence (Belur, 2009). Police routinely over-use coercive authority when they are encouraged to maintain a purpose of fighting the war against crime (Skolnick and Fyfe, 1993). This can further encourage other officers to believe that using force against criminals is a desirable method of controlling crime (Belur, 2009). However the United Kingdom is a country that does not condone any killing of its members, therefore the issue of police killing being deemed as legal creates friction between the public and police (McCulloch, 1989).

On May Day, the protests in Seattle turned violent resulting in nine people being arrested and five officer injuries. Among the violence that happened, rocks and Molotov cocktails were thrown at police as well as property. These May Day protests were mostly about anti-capitalism. Luckily for the police of Seattle, they were already prepared for this kind of act to occur as similar May Day protests have occurred in the past in Seattle. Of course, Ed Murray, the mayor, thanked the police for handling the situation well and disapproved of the violence that erupted.

Gorringe, Scott, and Rosie (2012) conducted a study after Her Majesty’s Chief of Constabulary (HMCIC) revised the public order approach, stating that the way public order is handled needs to change and to make sure there are no surprises for either party. With this new approach, there are two areas of focus: The Elaborated Social Identity Model (EISM), is used to gain more understanding of crowd psychology, and a dialogue policing tactic that focuses on communication between the protestors and law enforcement (Gorringe, Scott, & Rosie, 2012). There are five essential parts of dialogue policing. The police negotiate, mediate, initiate, communicate, and constantly asses the threat level during the protest (Gorringe, Scott, & Rosie, 2012). The authors of this study note that these officers try and maintain positive communication with the protestors as well as keep their word with agreements made