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.
Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years, there has been a history of tension and conflict between the police and minority communities in the United States. In principle, the police exist to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of race or ethnic background, yet police departments across the country have been repeatedly accused of targeting and harassing racial minorities, and of failing to root out racist attitudes and practices within their ranks. In recent years, high profile cases such as the beating of Rodney King in Los Angles and the assault on Abner Louima in New York have only served to heighten concerns over the mistreatment of minorities by the police, resulting in widespread calls for major legal and institutional reforms. The recent shootings of Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Terrance Crutcher underscore the danger Black men and boys face when they cross paths with law enforcement officers. In the absence of a coordinated national strategy, state and local police departments have largely been left to develop their own solutions to the problems of policing minority communities and improving cultural sensitivity amongst their officers. Many departments have sought to reform recruitment and selection policies in the hope of attracting greater numbers of minority applicants, while others have instituted diversity training and education programs aimed at improving police understanding of minority cultures and communities. To date, however, these efforts have yielded mixed results. Some departments have achieved notable successes, but on the whole, relations between the police and minority communities across the country remain strained. of cultural diversity and the police.
Conflict theory maintains that the privileged, acting on the perception of threat, will use the crime control apparatus of the state to restrain and limit those who threaten their interests. Practically, this means that one should expect more aggressive law enforcement practices in areas with greater percentages of poor and non-White citizens. This ‘threat hypothesis’ has been tested in several areas of American policing. (M. Petrocelli/ Journal of Criminal Justice 31)
Use of Force on Minorities There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).
Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict
Minority Police Brutality in Major Cities of the United States Since the first state-sponsored police forces in the U.S. racial discrimination in police forces has been a characteristic of the American landscape. Racial profiling and police brutality have their roots in enforcement of slave codes, black codes, and Jim Crow
Mothers Reclaiming our Children (ROC) is one of the organizations that deals with issues that involves criminal justice system. The organization began its operations in the year 1992 in Los Angeles County with the stakeholders being few mothers amongst other men being led by the president Barbara Meredith (Afary, 2009).
I stand here today to present you with the issue that needs to be addressed immediately: racial injustice and police brutality. America is base on the fundamental principle of equality and freedom to be individual. However, this cannot happen due to the unjust to we, the
Police Relations with Minority Ethnic Communities The Macpherson report was published in 1999 amidst problems of racial inequality and a lack of faith in the police amongst minority ethnic communities. There is an ongoing debate on whether Macpherson’s report was a help
"Relations between the police and minority groups are a continuing problem in many multiracial societies. Surveys consistently document racial differences in perceptions of the police, with minorities more likely than whites to harbor negative views." (Weitzer and Tuch, Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct, 2004)
How law enforcement affects minorities : Over time more and more news reports have raised flags on law enforcement, courtrooms and their outcomes due to the crime and the criminal and their racial background. Although a long time has passed since all decision making came from the white supremacist and
The contemporary social problem I would like to conduct sociological research on is the use of excessive force used by members of the police department in recent unconscionable shootings of unarmed civilians. With all the recent attention that the people of Ferguson Missouri and New York City have been able to rise on this issue, making it a media sensation, it seemed like a good topic to discuss. Police brutality is an egregious, ongoing problem in our society that, until just recently, has been accepted as a sad fact of life by the people it affects and is largely ignored by the rest of society, including politicians and the mass media. Police brutality affects the people that society has come to stigmatize such as minorities, the mentally ill and impoverished people, more so than the well off or middle to upper class white people.
The author sees that there are many factors that tie into police culture. Skolnick tried to find the reason for continuing police culture and why they are expected to fulfill their obligations. He looks at the qualifications that can be for police culture. He tries to prove how politics, the code of silence, community norms and expectations regarding police and race, restrictions on the use of force, police management, race, broken windows policing and the size of the police can be expected by the police within their
Keywords: crime, ethnic-racial socialization, policing techniques, race, racial discrimination Introduction The socialization techniques of African American males in the American criminal justice system are vastly disproportionate in comparison to their white counter parts. Economics and power play a vital role in this epidemic. This is best associated with Karl Marx’s philosophy of Marxist Criminology. (Marx) Early Marxist criminologist, William Bonger(1905), associated misuse and separation of capitalism as the
Introduction It has been consistently shown in research that minorities are more likely to be mistreated by the police compared to other people (Dunnaville, 2000). Recent incidents have seen the police use excessive force on people and mistreat minorities. As such, the legitimacy of the police has been put under scrutiny