Jason Stockley Research Paper

One event that caused a huge uproar among the Houston populace occurred back in 2014. Writing for the news website Chron, Cindy George and Katherine Driessen (2015) reports “The officer, a 10-year veteran at that time, said Baker reacted uncooperatively when approached and ran into an alley behind the strip mall. Authorities have said the shooting happened behind the stores” (pg. 2). In the defense of the officer, Jordan Baker may very well have acted suspiciously via running away. However, does that justify the use of a gun against an ordinary unarmed civilian? Baker’s family does not think so and George and Driessen (2015) notes “The complaint asserts that Baker was ‘shot and killed without any lawful justification’ and accuses off-duty officer Juventino Castro of considering Baker a suspect because he was a black man in a hoodie” (pg. 2). There are two issues at play here: the use of unnecessary force and race. When it comes to the former, it is very hard to defend the usage of a gun unless Baker pulls one out himself. For the latter, it is also very hard to defend the officer considering HPD’s track record when dealing with racial minorities. Like many other police departments, HPD is no stranger when it comes to the accusation of racially profiling Houstonians. Baker’s family believes that race is in fact a factor contributing to the usage of gun. Judging by the huge uproar, many others appear to share their suspicion in regards to HPD officers being

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.

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.

Recently I saw a post online, that really opened my eyes and made me think, The post was speaking about racial bias in the media, The post talks about how the media portrayed Nikolas Cruz the recent mass school shooter as a kid with a mental illness. But it also showed how when the news speaks about african american shooters in the media they never give them a second look or give them any consideration they are automatically seen as “thugs” Is this an example of how African american suspects are treated differently than white suspects? I think so. Why does the media portray white suspects in a better light than African American suspects? Could this show how our world and society is stuck in a racist way of thinking and living?. Another example of how African American suspects are treated unfairly and differently than white suspects is the recent news story of Stephon Clark. In this news story it talks about , Stephon Clark who was an unarmed black man. Who was shot eight times by police officers in his backyard. Only because the police officers were suspicious that he was doing something wrong. When, he didn't do anything wrong at all. Yet, the police officers still took his life away. How is this fair? If we compare this story to the recent story of nikolas cruz, how is

On November 19th, 2015, a fatal shooting of an unarmed black male, Jamar Clark, by two white police officers pushed the relatively small population of black individuals in Minneapolis to protest the legality of the shooting. The shooting took place on the north-side of Minneapolis, where there is a higher poverty rate with a majority black population (Baenen, Glass, and Karnowski, 2015). Police officers said the individual allegedly committed and assault and was interfering with the paramedics treating the victim. The two police officers shot Clark once in the head. The protests took place over the days following the shooting at a police precinct in Minneapolis.

Many African-Americans are killed every year by police officers and their deaths impact not only their families but their community. However this past year the death of John Crawford and Tamir Rice impacted not only their family or community, but the entire nation. The case of Rice and Crawford isn’t nothing new, we always hear about a black person being shot by the police quite often. The only thing that makes these cases unique from rest is that they were both caught on tape. On November 22nd, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing in the park with a toy airsoft gun when officer Timothy Loehmann shot him two seconds after arriving to the scene. He died the next day due to a "gunshot wound of the torso with injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis” according to the autopsy results that were realized shortly after. 22-year-old African-American John

An unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer. The shooting prompted protests around the nation as people rallied for change. Pick a time period, pick a place, and pick a black person from the archive of African Americans who have fallen victim to this social injustice, and I guarantee that the scenario above will remain the same. Police brutality against African Americans is not a new topic, but the recent shootings of young black men by cops in cities around the Nation has reignited this oh so familiar fight for justice. Within the last few years there have been an abundance of protests and riots due to cops not being indicted for murdering unarmed black

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

On July 6th, a Minnesota police officer pulled Philando Castile, a 32 year old black male, for a broken tail light. The officer asked the man to get out his license and as he reached for them, the officer then pulled a gun and shot Castile. As Castile lay with his head back bleeding out, his fiance, Diamond Reynolds filmed a video explaining he had shot Castile four times. Reynolds’s four year old daughter had been sitting in the back seat to witness the entire thing. Of the 708 police shootings to occur before September this year, ¼ of those deaths, 173 black individuals have been shot dead. Between 2008 and 2012, 12,765 people had been victims of police shootings and 51.1% were African American. Just to put things in perspective for you.

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

In many cases law enforcement likes to do justify many of their wrongdoings on the hunch that he was “just doing his job” in the instance of killing or brutality injuring an innocent man or child for being somewhere at the wrong place or time can be validated with a simple statement (Kiely 209). Similar to when Paul was once telling Quinn “It’s harder to be a cop here now than it used to be” (Kiely 167). Nostalgically thinking back on time when Whites made up majority of the town's population and minorities precisely made up a unreasonably small fraction less than half thus implying that because there are more minority races particularly African Americans taking occupancy, the town has become more prone to violence, stealing, and other crimes . According to The New York Times, “In 15 high-profile cases involving deaths of Blacks, one officer faces prison time” (Lee). Implicating that only one officer out of 15 cases was convicted for the crime he committed and the others were given a leave of absences from duty. For the families of those who didn’t receive rightful justice they were granted payouts to pay for funeral expenses leaving the officer able to walk away scot free acquitted of all charges. However, thankfully the family does walk away with a hefty amount of money but, at the expense of their love one’s life. Racism within law enforcement takes so many innocent lives each year on account of just because of race alone regardless if a crime was committed or not. However, society as well is a major component revolved around

Jason Eighmey, is an amazing person, he plays sports too. He plays sports like baseball, basketball etc. He is amazing because he is always there to help me with my homework. He is a father to me and my little brother. He was super small in high school when he pitched it was only when they were winning by many runs. If you were wondering he was 4 ft. 10in.

Jason Singleton is a dynamic and colorful drummer who can only be describe on the drums as a “musical beast”. His versatility to adapt in any genre of music is demonstrated in traditional bands setting, contemporary charge or jazz flow, Jason’s talents and ability continues to make him a very sought after drummer in the music industry.

In Malcolm Holmes article Plague of Police Shooting states that “the police subculture's strict code of secrecy helps shield officers from detection when they needlessly kill a citizen” which allows other officers to be given the benefit of the doubt with whom they have formed an allegiance with, over any witness many who come from poor backgrounds and seem less credible. Holmes argues that the way to solve the “police-minority relations” is for the investigation of police involved shooting to become more transparent and for officers that violate that law and other officers who are involved to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Many police shootings that involve African-Americans have went to trial but many of the officers involved

On Nov 25 ,2015 Laquan McDonald died after being shot 16 times for walking away from a police officer. Too many people saw Laquan as “another black person killed by a cop”. But to officer Jason Van Dyke he believes his client was justified. It took 13 months for the charges but Jason was finally charged with 1st degree murder. On CNN they reported that “ The video shows McDonald running, then later walking down the middle of the street. He was heading towards the police but then he decides to walk away. When he starts to spin around he is brought down by a barrage of bullets”. Laquan was unarmed and wasn’t assaulting anyone during the moment of the shooting, the officer predicted that Laquan was dangerous; armed because of his certain skin color and dress code. Protesters during that week took the streets of chicago and remembered Laquan Mcdonald, the protesters were being peaceful and doing no harm. They even told police officers Happy Thanksgiving to thank each and everyone for their