Essay On Police Brutality

1,100 is the estimated number of homicides due to some form of police brutality in 2015. Fifty-five years ago Harper Lee wrote of yet another case of police brutality in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The theme of the book, that the United States justice system is corrupt and unjustly biased, is developed through the unfair treatment of Tom Robinson at the local jail and throughout his case. Racism is exactly what many would expect from a small town in Alabama in the 1930’s, and Lee delivers in that realistic aspect of her novel. One example of such is this: “He despises negroes, won’t have one near him” (170)

Recently, our country has undergone tremendous suffering due to police brutality. Some police officers are taking the law into their own hands and intertwining their personal views and stereotypes on the black community. They are committing inhumane crimes on African Americans and our justice system is allowing it to continue. Several police officers are noticing that if they commit this crime out of pure hate it is acceptable and the courts will rule in their favor. It continues to happen because there is no punishment for their wrong doing.

Police brutality is the lavish physical assault or verbal assault during police procedures which can involve interrogating or apprehending a suspect. Police brutality originated from the labor worker strikes in the 1800’s through the 1900’s. The violent brutal act of these officers usually formed around the lower socioeconomic class. Since then police brutality has hit an all-time high in the 21st century. In New York alone there has been reportedly over 72 police brutality reports some reports even ended in the deaf of a citizen. There’s been claim of police officers violently choking citizens at traffics stops and beating citizen up in public. There’s been new technology such as body cameras which are used by most police but not all.

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)

Clearly provocative and even chilling, “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay stirs deep and powerful emotions in any who reads it. A poem inspired by violent race riots, it serves as a motivating anthem representative of an entire culture. Graphic and full of vengeance this poem is demanding action, not telling a story. McKay utilizes imagery to its fullest extent creating an end result which any man or woman, black or white, who has ever felt the hard and hateful hand of oppression can relate to.

“Officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black Minneapolis man” (Capecchi). “Brian Encinia, former Texas trooper charged with misdemeanor perjury stemming from his arrest of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was later found dead in a county jail” (Almasy). “Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, charged with failure to supervise in connection with the 2014 death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black Staten Island man who died after police to administered a controversial choke hold” (Eversley). These are a few examples of the mistreatment suffered by young black citizens at the hands of police officers that resulted in the death of a suspect. Throughout the nation, the mishandling of the authority given to police officers has increased and is not merely coincidentally occurring.

Lately in the media police brutality has been a very popular topic. Most of the instances reported in the media are of white police officers killing African Americans for seemingly nothing. These reports have strengthened the divide between both races. In “White Rage” by Carol Anderson the issue of police brutality is touched on within the first few words of her essay. Anderson talks about many acts of aggression at the hands of white men, and she seems to really focus on an unarmed African American male who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. “Black and Blue,” by Garnette Cadogan continues with the struggles of police brutality in America, but also touches on the abuse in his home country of Jamaica. Cadogan

In analyzing Jerome Karabel’s: Police Killings Surpass the Worst Years of Lynching, Capital Punishment, and a Movement Responds, in comparison to the writings of Karl Marx, W.E.B. Dubois, Charlotte Gilman, Anna Cooper, and Ida Wells-Barnett, the social problems revealed within the text address the social conflicts of society and how differing populations are faced with discrimination and oppression by those who are dominant in power. Jerome Karabel’s profound article specifically focuses on killings committed by the police as a growing social problem resulting from the most recent movement of racial injustice within the United States. All of these authors offer a unique perspective as they represent different populations within the United

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

To prove his case, the author cites various statistics and incidents that demonstrate that these incidents are not accidents but manifestations of a larger problem. Granderson quotes CNN poll statistics that state that almost half of the white respondent in the poll affirmatively stated that none or almost none of the police in their neighborhoods are not prejudiced against African Americans. Contrastingly, only thirty-five percent of non-whites are of this opinion. Additionally, Granderson relates his own experiences with racial profiling (Granderson,

How would you feel if the outcome of your interaction with authority depended on whether you were black, Latino, or white? Unfortunately, police brutality is the sad reality that many black and Latino boys experience in their childhood. The disadvantages of their upbringing results to the reinforcement of societal restrictions on their success. On a positive note, education becomes salvation to marginalized group because it provides them means to escape the system that prevents them from becoming successful. However, Charles M. Blows and Victor M. Rios reveal that black and Latino boys are at a disadvantage in the school to prison pattern. Therefore, the recent death of Michael Brown only heightens public awareness of police brutality on colored males. According to Charles M. Blow, bias educational system is a major factor in criminalization of black and Latino boys. But we cannot disregard that a significant perpetrator of racism is ignorance and false media representation. Therefore an increase of awareness of the existence of discrimination and improvement on media depiction of black and Latino characters would render racism defenseless.

Police ruthlessness against african americans have been among us for a considerable length of time . from slave days until the 20 century . Every last one of those passings of these youthful african americans have brought about a great deal of hurt and agony to a considerable measure of families. The most well-known killings in the unified states have been activated upon african americans. The vast majority of these killings are cause due to " generalization" while somebody will look upon an african american and consequently think " It 's a dark man, they might be perilous, destructive ,or even horrendous" . There are a large number of situations where police have not been charged for unlawful murdering .cops additionally have their own particular mystery codes that helps them in each circumstance that they may wind up in, either on the off chance that they are pure or not . Families need to live with the way that no equity will be given to them,because sadly the law dependably wins .

Police brutality has become a frequent and sensitive debate for some time now. The encounters between the police and men of color have brought to light an underlying thought in the minds of many. Has racism been resolved or has it manifested itself in modern times? Hinton highlights the unfortunately clear divide in the way that people are policed. Personally, I believe racism cannot and will not disappear in the hearts of people, however, the system, especially the criminal justice and law enforcement systems, with which we all live under should not put African Americans in a state of internal nervousness out of not being sure if the color of their

In 1986, Brent Staples wrote a prose essay writing about his experiences because of his color. To this day, his essay is still relevant towards black people, but America is finally starting to change their perspectives on African-Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it an official day for African-Americans to have their rights, but caucasians became aware of such freedom the blacks had and became frightened by them. As a result, white people, especially cops, took action by using weapons against blacks when the blacks were innocent in some cases. In Staples’s prose essay he wrote “Where fear and weapons meet--and they often do in urban America--there is always the possibility of death” meaning when an African-American man would come

In the summer of 1919 America had an increased rate of hate crimes and riots towards the black race by the white community. In the poem “If We Must Die” written by Claude McKay, this author speaks about these issues and encourages the people in his community to fight back and take a stand. The speaker uses different types of imagery, rhyme and meter and symbolism to express the injustice being committed. Using these techniques the author demonstrates a call-to-arms for the black community.