Black Lives Matter In Prison

“Brian Clark was instigating Patrick Raymond to fight him. About 5 minutes later, Brian told Patrick that he was using his phone to record Patrick on live Facebook. Patrick asked Brian to prove to him that he was recording him by showing him his phone and when Brian put his phone to Patrick’s face Patrick grabbed the phone to turn it off. Brian had earphones in his ear connected to his phone when Patrick grabbed it, causing him to fall out of his seat. Brian then stood up, walked up to Patrick and punched him in the face. Brian then began to choke Patrick before slamming him to the ground. As Patrick was on the ground covering his head, he received numerous punches to his face, ear, and also a kick to his upper chest before another student stepped in to break up the altercation. Patrick suffered bruises and swelling to his face as a result of the assault. Officer Tennyson was made aware of a video that displayed the assault that was placed on social media. The video displayed Brian using a chokehold on

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

In the year of 2015, more than 102 unarmed African American people were slaughtered by police officers, making it nearly twice every week. Trayvon Martin was the first people to influence the Black Lives Matter Movement creating a guide to end police brutality regarding African Americans. Although some people believe the Black Lives Matter Movement was successful because of their huge exposure, it was not successful because many unarmed African Americans who were murdered did not receive justice, prejudice people towards Blacks are still stereotyping, and there is still police brutality.

A case of police brutality in Charlotte, North Carolina is the 2013 case of Jonathan Ferrell. Ferrell had been in a car accident and ran to a woman’s home for aid. The woman assumed someone was breaking in her home and called the police. The police found Ferrell near the scene of the car accident and he attempted to make his way towards them asking for help, when the footage on the dash camera show that police officer Randall Kerrick began to open fire at Ferrell shooting him ten times. Kerrick was not indicted by the jury after the judge declared a mistrial. Two years later Ferrell’s family is still fighting for justice. General Roy Cooper told the press “Kerrick did not follow his training during his encounter with Ferrell. ”Most of them [police officers] ...understand that officers must be held accountable when they do not follow their training --

Luvelle Kennon barged into his daughter’s school during the early afternoon and attacked an elderly teacher, who he then dragged into a nearby classroom and held hostage for hours. Luckily, the teacher’s students were out of the classroom at the time and did not witness the altercation. A fellow teacher attempted to stop the incident, but was beaten by Kennon. Police were called several minutes after the incident began.

The criminal justice system in the United States is evident of several deep flaws relating to the treatment of black men and women accused of committing criminal offenses. It is logical to believe that due to the U.S.’s rather dark past surrounding the treatment of black Americans, systematic racism is included under the guise of the criminal justice system. The U.S. is historically infamous for it’s open racial discrimination against black Americans, up until systematic racism became one of the more dominant forms of discrimination in the most recent years. Systematic racism has been shrouded under societal ignorance and regulated particularly by social and political groups in order to keep the human rights of black Americans frigid and

“We ain’t thugs for the sake of just bein’ thugs. Nobody do that where we grew at N___, duh! The poverty line we not above. So I come in the mask and gloves ‘cause we ain’t feelin’ the love. We ain’t doin’ crime for the sake of doin’ crimes. We movin’ dimes ‘cause we ain’t doin’ fine. One out of three of us is locked up doin’ time. You know what this could do to a N___ mind? My mind on my money, money on my mind. If you owe me ten dollars you ain’t givin’ me nine! Ya’ll ain’t give me 40 acres and a mule. So I got my glock 40 now I’m cool.” –Jay-Z

We were told to let them talk, debate, etc. and while they warned that discussions could be emotional, we were cautioned to ‘keep it clean,’ meaning have legitimate, open dialogue, but do not let it turn into something not appropriate for the classroom (language, threats, etc.)” And this is where the Hazelwood School District got right. For school districts that surrounded the Ferguson area, the Michael Brown shooting was something that was supposed to be kept out of the classroom. Principals didn’t want students to be distracted from their learning by talking about something that happened outside of the classroom environment, but did the administration honestly believe that student’s we’re just going to let this one go? Of course not! This is where the actions of the teachers and administrators became crucial. For the students, they believed that they were getting the chance to express their thoughts and feelings about the situation that was happening, but what they didn’t necessarily notice, was that the teachers were turning this into a learning experience! That’s where Hazelwood got it right. Around this time, The New York Times published an article entitled, “The Death Of Michael Brown: Teaching About Ferguson.” The author of this article

The amount of force used was excessive and unnecessary. Fields was not in a situation where is like was in danger or where he needed to defend himself. There could have been other alternatives to this incident like having a female officer coming to get or, or calling her parent. Other measure could have been taken before Fields did what he did. This is one reason why I think officers should not be allowed to use excessive force in most circumstances. By doing what he did, not only did he injured the student, but he could have injured himself or another student in the process. Because some officers do not the proper methods they were taught at the police academy that put themselves in danger as well as the lives of others. By implementing the proposed alternative this could have limited the amount of discretion used be officer Fields and maybe the female student would not have a broken arm. Another alternative is to pair rookie cops up with seasoned officers until they can show they can weigh the cost and benefits of the situation and come up with the best solution possible. This process may take a little longer, but over time the benefits should be much greater. The only time when police officers should be allowed to use excessive force is in life or death situations, or in the pursuit of a chase. Other than that, I do not think officers

The woman in the video used her white privilege to defend the ‘suspect’, confirming that he did infact work for her and he was truthful about not committing the crime. By being a white woman, the officers automatically took her word, even though she was just repeating what the man said. Her defense of this man is being an ally, someone who uses their privilege to help members of the oppressed group. The man did say several times that he was disabled, but the officer continually held her hand up to signify that he should stay on the ground.

According to Alexander, so many black men are missing because they are under the criminal justice system. In today’s society, there has been a mass incarceration of black men due to the federal program called the war on drugs. Because of this mass incarceration, a lot of black men are far from home without being able to raise their children. “Hundreds of thousands of black men are unable to be good fathers for their children, not because of a lack of commitment or desire but because they are warehoused in prisons, locked in cages” (Alexander 738). African Americans were victims of slavery in the past; however, in today’s society the number of black men in prison is even bigger than the black men enslaved in the past. “More black men are imprisoned

needed as workers and were therefore used as so . What are Blacks needed for

The correctional officer chose to become whistle Blowers after the death of inmate Preston Tate, and after the other officer said that he was the attacker in this situation. However, the correctional officers main allegations was of “brutality that the correctional officer were exploiting racial tensions to stage fights between inmates for entertainment of the prison guards (Holding, 2009)”. The prison tape shows all of this illegal behavior going on, and the two whistle blower watch other officer cohorts their coworkers in how to alter their reports to make it justifiable for the shooting that took place in the recreation yards.

“Black Lives Matter” —an intended progression in society without a hierarchy, merely marching forward by spur of the people. Started by three sisters who continue to keep the organization a chapter-based, left wing social justice operation, it can best be described as “Not a moment, but a movement” by those that follow it. The case that began this outcry involved a man —George Zimmerman— whom, according to Lizette Alvarez and Cara Buckley (2013), “was found not guilty [of] second-degree murder [and] was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge.” (para. 1). Since its initial start in 2013, the movement follows and protests against police brutality and civil injustice towards individuals of the Black minority; however, this is a prime example of hate breeding hate as the movement, has opened a new floodgate full of antipathy aimed towards the White-community and Law Enforcement Officials. In short, the initial idea of “Black Lives Matter” —which is to bring civil justice to the Black-community— is a good concept, but the execution by its adherents are, ironically, bigoted; the movement needs to either evolve its state of thought or disperse before it further segregates America.

The video of Ian's interrogation for the case of his sister's alleged sexual abuse by their father was an uncomfortable sight to behold. The detective seemed to disregard every rule for an effective interview with a child, except for maintaining eye level with the target. However, the eye contact was extreme could be interpreted as an attempt to assert power of authority. Detective Brusseau decided to act like the "bad cop" of a cop drama by insisting that Ian was lying the entire time. Brusseau did not allow the clearly distressed Ian to have some time to calm down, and he led the conversation instead of following Ian's pace. Detective Brusseau completely ignored the non-verbal actions that showed Ian's discomfort, such as pulling at his