Ethnic Tension Research Paper

Not only has Police Brutality exposed hidden racism, but it has begun to cause separation in our nation. All of these Police Brutality cases such as Alton Sterling, Mike Brown, and Trayvon Martin just to name a few, all have happened within the last 3 years, and they were all documented on camera, exposing the reality to millions around the world. The conflict didn’t stop at the shootings though, many big-name Athletes stood up for the altercations and asked for attention. I am going to go over each individual shooting, the athletes that stood up for them, and political leaders that spoke on it.

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)

policies that are currently in place to reduce tension between police officers and the minority groups that they serveLaw enforcement officers and the community have been disconnected. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police who here to protect and serve our communities. When Ferguson, Missouri exploded after the police shot an unarmed black teenager, the tension between the community and its protectors was laid bare. Ferguson is not the first and certainly not the last community forced to bridge that chasm. In South Carolina a policeman shot an unarmed black male who was stopped for a seat belt violation. The cop asked the male for ID, who then reached under his seat to retrieve his wallet, but was shot in the leg by the cop before he could take out his ID. When the body cam video was reviewed it shows that the trigger happy cop probably was in fear of his life, however it is also obvious that the cop shouldn’t have felt threaten as the behavior of the black male involved nothing unusual. Many would say if the driver was white the cop would have not reacted the way he did.

All across the nation, in the news the black community has been making their voice heard, in regards to white police brutality, and murder against the unarmed black community. Many of these brutal attacks and flat out murders of unarmed black people haven’t been largely prosecuted, some officers have even been acquitted of any wrong doing or murder. This has led to outrage in the African American community at large. The shooting of an unarmed black teen named Michael Brown caused the racial strain in this country to break.

Our society shows how racism and police officers are a focal point within our country. In the United States, many police officers demonstrate racist qualities. Research states that many police officers are only patrolling around predominately African American neighborhoods. People agree that police officers are just sitting in areas where African Americans live instead of just sitting anywhere and waiting for any crimes. (Martin, Trayvon. Racial Profiling). Polices are just waiting for African Americans to make a mistake. Most Police Officers haven’t changed their ways on racism. “Diallo was gunned down by NYPD officers while trying to enter his apartment building. The officers had mistaken Diallo for a suspected rapist—who was also black’’ (Martin, Trayvon. Racial Profiling). NYPD killed an innocent man because he was African American and he looked like the guy they were looking for. Therefore, this just proves police officers have not changed their racist

Race riots are one of the major news items we hear about via the media when a social crisis occurs. The riots in Baltimore, however, were not so much about race, but more about economic and social class separations. The riots began as a peaceful protest amongst the citizens of Baltimore over the death of one of their own, Freddie Gray. Gray was a young, African-American, from a financially lower class area of Baltimore. Unfortunately, he died while in custody of the Baltimore Police. While this is a tragic loss, he was unlawfully detained by the police (Sarlin, 2015) during this ordeal. On the surface, the riots may appear as a cut-and-dry race provoked, once they are looked into further, that is not necessarily the case.

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

Racial discrimination and police brutality are very big issues, especially in the US. Racial discrimination is an issue because abusive behavior towards another race is disrespectful and unconstitutional. This issue wasn't talked about or confronted until the start of Kaepernick's protest. The Constitution says all men are equal, no matter their race, ethnicity, or where they came from. Racial discrimination also plays a big part in police brutality. Police brutality is when a person of the law (mainly police) uses excessive force when dealing with civilians. Many of the situations that have to do with police brutality relate to the civilian being black and the police using excessive force because of the civilian's race. This relates to basic traffic stops for driving violations to just interacting in general. For example, not too long ago a black male teenager in Ferguson was shot multiple times and killed by a police officer. The black teenager stole and ran from the cop, but does that give the officer a right to shoot multiple times and kill him even though he surrendered? No, it does not give him the right because all men are equal and deserve the right to a jury and that's wrong and an example of excessive force being used. Nothing came from this murder as the news died down. This seems to

a few years now, police brutality has become an extremely controversial topic and has raised many debates and questions about law enforcement and civilians. Police brutality has been common for decades. However after the death of African Americans such as Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile, many other African Americans have rose up in protest and anger. The anger stems from these men dying at the hands of police which the civilians believe they died from situation that should have been handled differently. Cases like these have caused a major divide with African Americans and law enforcement. Many people wonder where the relationship between the two went wrong and how police brutality became such a big issue that seems impossible

When it comes to America, in the recently news we have seen racism be a big part of our issues today. We watched what happened to Maryland in their communities, how they began riots in April and started destroying their own communities because of the recently death of a young people like Freddie Gray. The Baltimore Police Department suspended six officers with pay pending an investigation of Gray's

On August 9th, 2014, an unarmed teenage boy named Michael Brown was murdered by a Ferguson police officer. The reason for his death remains unknown. Bystanders say that the boy in question did not do anything wrong, he even put his hands in the air when police told him so. The conspicuous circumstances of this shooting sparked an already tense situation between the majority of Ferguson inhabitants and the police to a situation which quickly escalated towards riots and protests. This “hands up, don’t shoot” movement received worldwide media attention and generated a debate about the relationship between the black community and law enforcement in the U.S. In this essay I will try to answer how the anger towards the Ferguson police manifested

Racism and police brutality go hand and hand, and causes a major concern in today’s society, in the United States. On March 3,

During 2013 the police force attempted to fight through the hatred of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ group. While not every person in this movement hated police and the ‘oppressive white man’, just as not all whites hated blacks during Reconstruction, many of them sought after their right to ‘peacefully’ protest against police forces around the US by physically assaulting police of all colors and acting out against the safety laws, put in place for everyone’s protection, by walking around with solid black BB guns and pointing them at the men and women who are trying to uphold the law and safety of all citizens. This event lead to many deaths on both the polices and black persons’ sides and an uproar of fights within families and friendships over ‘who’s side is right.’ In the end, this movement fell to the back burner of national news as the talk of president Trump’s immigration policies and ‘wall’ came to focus and has been the ‘race talk’ to recent days.

Being that it is 2016, I can honestly say that society has grown substantially since my elders were my age. It is a new era of cultural diversity that most would not have believed would have ever happened. However, here still stands a tremendous issue, much more than Ferguson. One of the problems is the limit and extent to what we as a population accept. Where is the line drawn? Is the protesting and illegal rioting really helping to solve the major problems that are buried so deep into our culture? Police violence towards minorities has been something we’ve dealt with for quite some time now. Not until much recently have the community drawn so much attention to it.

The United States of America is a country with a history built on diversity and promise of opportunity. Striving to blend multiple cultures and sectors of individuals into a melting pot. However, some state that it has failed citizens, as even after a century of attempting to not see colour African Americans continue to struggle to be viewed as equal and not be discriminated against. In our modern day, "racially open" societies, racial profiling towards African American men can be witnessed frequently in their everyday life. American citizens have witnessed countless cases of police brutality and in recent unlawful murders of black lives, it has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place on their local newsrooms or in front of their homes. Over the past decade police abuse remains one of the most serious human rights violation in the United States. Police officers are trusted and expected to respect society as a whole and enforce the law, yet a great amount of the population feels unsafe because of the colour of their skin. Racism is a global issue that is widely conversed, yet it is still a growing concern amongst the nations of the world. Racial discrimination and/or can be defined as any action, whether intentional or not, based on a person’s race, which has the effect of imposing hate towards an individual or group. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity