crimes. For example, Ricky and Tre drive away from the party on the street, and two crooked black and white policemen pull them over. The black policeman, Officer Coffey, has both Ricky and Tre step outside of the car, and proceeds to start questioning Tre. Tre quickly pleads, “I didn’t do nothin’!” Officer Coffey retorts, “You think you tough?” He then pulls out his gun, points it at Ricky’s face, and sternly says: “Scared now, ain 't you? I like that. That 's why I took this job. I hate little motherfuckers like you… Look like one of them Crenshaw mafia motherfuckers.” (Boyz in the Hood) This unnecessary action scares Tre as he is forced up against his car crying and shaking his head with no power to say a word. It is this discrimination from inside the community that, while possibly helping to reduce violence, causes the very stereotype of blacks being the number one target of enforcement, the crime of simply driving while being black. There are some who still struggle to succeed in everyday life, but do not result to alcohol or violence; these few can still go on to be successful, but often still have to deal with discrimination and violence. Take, for instance, Ricky; he struggles educationally, but does not result to alcohol or violence to deal his problems. His approach to succeed is through hard work and practice on the football field. While he may not be blessed with intelligence, he has skilled ability on the athletic field that leads him to be an
“The African American community is not making this up. It’s not something that’s being politicized. It’s real”
As I was conducting research about police brutality I came up with three questions I wanted to find out. I wanted to know what race group is affected by police brutality the most, why they were affected by this the most and what to do to stop police brutality involving shooting civilian. This Paper talk about how police brutality is a major issue in America right now. There’s many different types of police brutality but police officers killing civilians is something that is issue in our nation currently. After doing reaching this topic I was able to find out that African Americans have been affected by this the most out of any race. African Americans are affected by this the most because in some cases African Americans are usually stereotyped and this causes them to be treated different by police. Ways we can help this issue is by supporting these organizations that are against police brutality and encouraging police officers around the nation to always have a body camera on them at all times.
One night in April 1998, two New Jersey state troopers pulled over a van containing three black men and one Hispanic man, all in their early twenties and all unarmed. During the stop, the van began to roll backwards. Although the van's driver would later claim that he put the vehicle into reverse by accident, the troopers believed he was attempting to intentionally back over one of them. In response, the troopers—both white males—fired 11 shots at the van, hitting three of the men inside, one of whom was severely wounded. Many African Americans and Latino face racist police officers. Not much they can do about it either besides sit there and take it. The topic of racism in police officers has deep history to consider, and there will always be both supporters and critics who continue to debate this topic.
African Americans in modern America have bound together in unity against inequality to help end the unnecessary murders and unjust police beatings. However, where did these tensions between police and African Americans begin? This question can be answered by looking at the history of police in America and why they were originally established. Police first came on to the scene in 1704 when Carolina established the nation’s first slave patrol that would turn into what we know today as the modern police. The slave patrol had the duty of searching for runaway slaves and returning them to their masters. Therefore, the original reason the police force was established was to deal with black slaves and it seems as if some officers today still hold that as their job title. However, this was just the beginning to the negative police encounters that many African Americans would have to endure. With the ratification of the 13th amendment and the freeing of the slaves the slave patrol became what is known as modern day police. During reconstruction the police began a war to create a new form of slavery, this form of slavery was known as convict leasing. Although, the 13th amendment legalized the enslavement of anyone convicted of a crime it seemed as if it was only used against African Americans. This new method of enslavement sky rocketed the rate of African American arrests and created new laws in the south such as the pig laws which sentenced anyone who stole a pig to 5 years in
"There were two cops. One said 'You niggers have to learn to respect police officers.' The other one said, 'If you yell or make any noise, I will kill you.' Then one held me and the other shoved the plunger up my behind. He pulled it out, shoved it in my mouth, broke my teeth and said, 'That's your *censored*, nigger.'"(Abner Louima) The police officers that allegedly performed this act of racial violence on August 9, 1997 had no reason to brutally beat and sodomize Abner Louima. They beat him for the fact that he was an African-American. I will show how I researched a poem by Maya Angelou and how racism occurred in "The Bluest Eye". First, we need to understand what racism is.
In August of 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, an 18-year-old African American boy by the name of Michael Brown, was shot and killed by an on-duty police officer during the investigation of an alleged, strong-arm robbery (Clarke & Lefte, 2014). The incident ignited protests and violent riots that continued for several weeks throughout the United States. Similar high profile deaths of Eric Garner in New York City, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, and Freddy Gray in Baltimore, have resulted in mass protests against law enforcement. For many, a deep divide was forged in the relations between law enforcement and the public; trust was lost on both sides. “Normally, official accounts of police fatally shooting black teenagers rest largely on the words of
In the previous year, the amount of people killed by the police department has increased, and even worse African Americans are three times more likely than Caucasians to be killed by the hands of a police. In 2015, the percent of unarmed African Americans killed was 30 percent compared to 19 percent of Caucasians. Although, 2016 is not over yet already 793 people have been killed by policemen. Mike Luckovich drew this cartoon representing the fear of African Americans, and to point out that recently the shootings are reoccurring. The number has made it so difficult for African Americans to live peacefully, they are in constant fear that their life could be taken away by the police. The cartoonist drew a black man in the car conversing with
In The United States of America much of mainstream media picks up on police violences that includes shootings and beatings that get dished out to anybody caught on camera. One of the earlier and most controversial events in the media was that of Detroit in 1967 between police and African American protesters. This event started when a group of African American partygoers were arrested for having a party at an illegal bar and the Detroit Police Department aggressively arrested the partygoers, sparking a conflict with citizens. When police make a lawful arrest there is never a reason to resist or fight back, but when police starting throwing and pushing citizens around during an arrest there is understanding among protests to be started. The protests
Do relations between the police and minority and the police and non-minority communities differ, how, and for what reasons?"
out. Unfortunately, gun and gang violence is a very contagious more over dictatorship in the rural community. The movie actually gave a statistic that one in every twenty-one black males will be killed by another black male. Boyz in the Hood; John Singleton. The movie also shed some light on the rapid increase and issue of teen pregnancy. Two things that stood out and kind of mirrored each other was that the main character, Tre was from two teen parents (Reva and Luscious), and years later Tre’s best friend in the movie Ricky was a teenage father. At the start of this film there is a scene that signifies how common gang violence at the time was so normal. For instance, the movie showed a few ten year old kids and they came across a dead body. They had become so accustomed to it that it did
But if we have better communication between the good cops with the community, there would be less of the bad cops who kill for no reason. Police brutality against African Americans have been increasing over the past couple of years. Proper training of law enforcers and better education to the community will help ensure some of these incidents would not end with a life lost. “Police need to learn more than logistics of policing but also the broader significance of their role in society” (Police Need Better). In this statement it is saying that yes, the job of the police to enforce the law, but also to ensure the safety of general public. Many Caucasian officers are getting away with the senseless killings of the African American population. For instance, in the case with Michael Slager trial, there was a mistrial declared. “A judge in Charleston declare a mistrial Monday after a jury deliberated 22 hours over four days without reaching a unanimous verdict. Slager, 35, testified he feared for his life when he shot Scott, 50, in the back as he fled a traffic stop in April 2015” (Bacon). There is now a delay in the justice that Walter Slager deserves.
The summer of 2015, on June 15th, my cousins, brothers and I were stopped by Montgomery county police officers. A robbery was reported and we “supposedly” fitted the descriptions. It was five African Americans, four males, and one female. We eventually found out the description they had told us was completely false. The women who reported the robbery came to our location to identify us and angrily told the cops that she said there were only three African-American males and they all had dreads, which none of us fitted that description. This experience of mine may sound surprising or uncommon to others, but this exact situation happens to many other African Americans. It has become a common way African Americans live in America.
This indicate a police official might pull over a driver solely because he or she is African American and then they can be interrogation, examine, and/or charged with a silly offense. Additionally, blacks are seven times more likely to be pulled over by 5-0 than Hispanics, and Caucasian. Sadly, these polices are is just one way police officers are insensitive to blacks.
This is why I do not think these Police Brutality cases involve racism. In the past year, there have been 4 notable cases where an african american man or woman was treated with excessive force by police. Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Walter Scott. Sandra Bland was a woman who failed to signal a lane change and ended up dead in a jail cell. Eric Garner was a man who refused to follow directions from police, was suffocated, and had a heart attack in an ambulance to a hospital where he died. Walter Scott was a man who fled from a policemen during a pull-over. All of these cases do involve police brutality but do not necessarily involve racism and could have been involved had the victims followed directions.
If I could choose to live in any time period I would choose to live the United States while police brutality against african americans. But first, what exactly does police brutality define as? Police brutality is the wanton use of excessive force, usually physical, but also common in forms of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer. This paper will talk about various examples of police brutality that is directed towards civilians, and then the side of police officers themselves. In particular, the cases of white cops on black victims. These will include those against Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Rodney King, and Malice Rose. The paper will also provide insight and examples on