Seeing these events people conclude that these shootings are the result of law enforcements being bias to black or white people. But in“Paper finding no racial bias in shootings by police criticized” by Samantha nelson shares about the reality of the bias. Here she writes about a new study confirming that “black women and men are treated differently in the hands of law enforcements.. They are likely to be touched, handcuffed, and pushed to the ground…but when it comes to the most lethal form of force-police shootings- the study finds no racial bias”. She shares about Mr. Fryer a Black economic Harvard professor who studied the data of 1,000 shootings in major cities in America. In result, Fryer found that the results contradict to the image
Each year law enforcement officers throughout the county are involved in shootings, some of them fatal. Frequently the shootings are reported by the media, which exploits the feelings of the victim while ignoring the effect of the shooting on the police officer. It is “estimated that approximately 87 percent of all emergency service personnel will experience a critical incident at least once in their career, which include officer-involved shootings” (Kureczka, 2002, p. 18). Officer-involved shootings have a profound effect on not only the officer involved but also their spouses, families, and the departments they serve. Law enforcement officers that are involved in officer-involved shootings need support and assistance such as critical incident stress debriefing and sometimes long-term trauma recover therapy in order to cope and live successful lives beyond the critical incident of the shooting.
This is proof that there is racial discrimination in law enforcement that affects police brutality. This also reinforces the culture of people of color being less human than white people, which takes its roots all the way back to slavery in America. When slavery was still prevalent in the United States, white people believed that black people(slaves), did not feel pain like they felt pain. After slavery was abolished, black people were still strongly regarded as inferior to white people and white people still saw them as wild creatures rather than human beings. White people saw themselves superior to every other race of people, so it was common for them to mistreat other races that weren’t white. This mindset is not as strong as it was in the past but, it is still strong enough to affect the choices police officers make during interactions with people of color. As a result of discrimination at the police level, many people have turned to court system’s to reach justice.
Ironically, “Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or, were armed or threatening the officer with potentially lethal force.” “Alternatively, some believe that these statistics are
A 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black driver by Jason Stockley a former white officer from St Louis resulted in a massive violent protest this September when Stockley was announced innocent and murder charges were dropped. The fact that victim was black caused such a massive outrage in the St. Louis city. Would the city respond the same however if the victim was white? It turns out no. In Fresno California unarmed Dylan Noble was shot by police. Officers had received a report of a man carrying a rifle but really just found noble speeding in his pickup truck. When he was pulled over at a gas station Noble got out of the truck and was acting suspicious.
Just this April, the city’s Police Accountability Task Force found that the Chicago Police Department has “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Chicago’s population is 31.7% white, 32.9% Black, 28.9% Latino, and 5.5% Asian. However, the Task Force reported that the city’s police officers shoot Black residents at significantly disproportionate rates. Between 2008 and 2015, of all people injured or killed in police-related shootings, 74% were Black, 14% were Hispanic, 8% were white and less than 1% were Asian. The report found almost identical numbers when it came to statistics regarding the use of Tasers. The report also analyzed all people stopped by police during the summer of 2014 and found they were 72% Black,
To show the other side of the argument, an article by CNN was written on December 20, 2016. The article, written by Jacqueline Howard, stated that black men are almost 3 times as likely to die from police use of force. The claim was that, among males aged 10 years or older who were killed by police use of force, the mortality rate among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic individuals was 2.8 and 1.7 times higher than that among white individuals. They claimed that because the population of white men is larger, the number of deaths per million in each demographic population was 2.8 times higher among black men and 1.7 times higher among Hispanic men. To someone who is looking at the article with a mentality that the police are looking to kill minorities
With the many officer-related shootings that occur in our world. Many may ask, Are there specific things, we can do to help make officer-related shootings more accurate? Recent studies and surveys have shown that those police officers, who were involved in officer-related shootings, were not fully aware of what had happened. The studies and surveys also showed that many of the officers’ memories and perceptions were not as accurate as they had thought. Therefore, in order for us to help those officers, we need to find specific ways, in which, we are able to help. First, there should be an agency that would help with the investigating of the officer-related shooting. Some law enforcement agencies establish specific
Police related shootings deemed ethical or unethical show a greater prevalence in low-income black communities’ statewide more often than white communities. Usually, the outcome of civil
Yes I do feel that our police departments generally do a good job of screening applicants. The Knoxville Police Department employees 397 police officers to protect the city of Knoxville, which had a population of 185,638 in 2015 (UCR, n.d.). According to the statistics on officer involved shootings from the Knoxville Police Department there showed to be no shootings in 2015 but in 2014 there were five officer involved shootings, three of which were fatal for the suspect (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). In each of these cases the officers were exonerated from liability as their actions were found to be within departmental policy (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). I feel that the psychological testing of incoming officers is an important aspect to ensure we hire the most professional officers for our police forces but sometimes individuals with behavioral or mental issues can be missed and any individual who exhibits such traits or bias should be dealt with or dismissed from the force to avoid issues that could impact the entire
Police abuse has been one of the most serious human rights violations in the United States especially for African Americans. In the most recent years, it has come into view of the public for its negative behavior. Unjustified shootings, severe beatings, and rough treatment have all contributed to the problem of police brutality. The case of 47-year old, Charles Kinsey, was one of many to be a victim of unjustifiable actions. Police brutality results in the lack of trust towards policemen, them being charged with a criminal offence, and civilians being afraid of the authorities who are obligated to protect and serve.
Undoubtedly the most controversial topic in the recent past is police involved shootings. Although not specific to a police officer, the Trayvon Martin case in 2012 gained national media attention surrounding Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law. The case of Michael Brown Jr. sparked the 2014 riots, protests and civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri when shot and killed by Officer Wilson. Areas of the country witnessed the same response by large populations supporting inaccurate facts and circumstances involved with these cases. An instant gratification society coupled the court of public opinion and widespread media coverage yielded disastrous results in many of these cases. Community relations are hugely impacted while investigators attempt to
According to a Washington Post database of lethal police shootings 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police so far this year. This means one a black man dies every nine days. Three unarmed black men were shot and killed in the month of April alone. All three shootings were either caught on tape or reported on local TV. The 24 unarmed black men that were killed compose a startling small amount of the 585 people shot and killed by police. According to The Post database. Most of those killed were white or Hispanic, and a good number of all races were armed. However, according to Wesley, black men accounted for 40 percent of the 60 unarmed deaths, even though they make up just 6 percent of the U.S. population.
Police shootings of young Black males that ultimately result in their death have become an all-too-common occurrence in this country. The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner have highlighted police relations with this population. Before viable solutions can be established, a number of areas need to be addressed that relate to the historical context in which police relations with this group exist that impact current relations between the police and young Black males, why their lives are seemingly given less value by society than those of their White counterparts, the role that spirituality and religiosity play that may help to make connections between them and the police, and the benefit of the Black church in fostering amicable police relations with young Black males.
Washington Post (TMP, 2016). Then it leaves the question as to why there were only unarmed minorities that were being blasted all over the media outlets when they were shot and killed if this were the case. The first reason was that this person was unarmed and black in America. Then it was that racism still existed even though many came to the conclusion that this was not the case. Now it is because of the Black Lives Matter movement. There are thousands of reasons as to why this is being done except for the real reason. The real reason appears to be exposing those departments that fail to adequately train their officers for all situations and determining when and where to use excessive force (Kesic, Thomas & Ogloff, 2012).
Many frontline police officers have died in shootings, Because of this, I have come to the conclusion that every frontline officer should carry firearms on them while on duty outside the police station, and be equipped with a body cam. The cost for body cams throughout New Zealand will approximately be $2,707,500 police already have firearms locked in their vehicles I'm not sure how many firearms there are as I don't have access to that information. Many people think police shouldn’t be armed as there will be more shootings, I feel this won't happen as police still have a protocol to follow which is to communicate the whole time with the offender before using pepper spray and tasers. They will only carry firearms so they don’t need to run to their car and collect them as this means the offender could either get away or prepare for a shooting.