Killing Of Black People Essay

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

Police brutality has been the most prominent form of racism captured by the media and since the 1992 Los Angeles Riots protesting the death of Rodney King, it still dominates headlines. After more than two decades later, the number of innocent, and unarmed black American deaths have only increased along with the acquisition of the police accountable. According to “More Than 250 Black People Were Killed By Police In 2016,” Julia Craven states that “34 percent of the unarmed people killed in 2016 were black males.” This is unreasonable because according to the same article, “black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population.” The numbers are disproportionate enough to show that there is a clear target against blacks. This statistic of black males compared to their white counterparts also show a significant disparity as statistics John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille provide in “Excessive or reasonable force by police? Research on law enforcement and racial conflict,” clearly state that unarmed blacks were killed at twice the rate of whites with “31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males.” There is clear cut evidence of racial profiling in policing as blacks who make up a only a small amount of the U.S. population are killed at a much higher rate than whites who make up a majority of the population. This is obvious discriminatory intent by the hands of the police,

Conflict between African Americans and police has been a continuous issue that has been afflicting American society ever since The Civil Rights movement. The confrontation between these two groups is one of the most serious issues in America. From the Civil Rights era to the present, tension has and still is exhibited through media insinuation, intrinsic human nature, lack of awareness, institutional racism and violence, which divides the two groups. Today in society problems mainly emerge between the two groups due to lack of awareness and different forms of discrimination and prejudice. The commonality of police brutality has become a norm in American society so much so that police officers get away with crimes and injustice everyday.

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)

It is depressing how many African-Americans have to deal with this, by either being a victim or witnessing it. Take for example, Eric Garner, a man who was choked to death by Officer Daniel Pantaleo, for illegally selling cigarettes. Despite the fact that Pantaleo killed Garner, he has not faced any charges against Garner’s death. In an article, Civil rights prosecutors recommend charges in death of Eric Garner, written by, Matt Zapotosky, he mentions that, “Even incidents that are caught on camera -- such as the shooting death of Alton Sterling by police in Baton Rouge -- do not necessarily mean federal charges will be brought.” Although Garner’s death was caught on camera, federal charges will not be made towards the cop who killed him. This is a prime example displaying how unfair it must be not only for Garner’s family, but for the families of other police brutality victims as well, who don’t receive the justice they need. Besides trauma and despair families have to deal with, some may get affected mentally as well. In another article, Racial violence by law enforcement a public health problem, by David A. Love, he states, “The Student National Medical Association, meanwhile, recognizes that: "police brutality threatens the physical, emotional, and psychological health of those involved and should be addressed not only as an issue of social reform, but also as one of public health…” Society seems to

Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.

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.

Police shootings are unfortunate events but whenever there is a shooting, the topic of race emerges. Police shootings have always been the highlights on news channels and there is always the racially biased narrative that keeps repeating itself yet no one seems to dispute this narrative. However, did you know that studies show a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a African American male than an unarmed African American male is to be killed by a police officer? In fact, a recent “deadly force” study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were actually less likely to shoot an unarmed black suspect than unarmed Caucasian or Hispanic suspect in simulated threat scenarios. Some would argue that there are still police shootings all over America and they occur when police officers

Despite the important racial progresss our society has made since Emmett Till’s death, from the civil rights era, to present increase of police brutality has still left the Black/African American community in shadows of segregation. The second most recent shooting of teenager Michael Brown has left citizens in ongoing battles with law enforcement officers of Ferguson, Missouri. New Statement (2014) reports, Missouri police similarly attempted to retain control of the narrative, claiming Brown had stolen cigars, and then paying for them, and then claiming he was a bad child and attacked the officer who shot him” (New Statement, 21). Brown autopsy reveals he was gun less and shot six times. Police brutality is not solely about Ferguson, Emmett Till, or the civil rights movement, but it is simply about the history of capitalism and police brutality in America and having many forms of it.

The police involved shooting of Michael Brown has changed the way society views law enforcement, and the method of how law enforcement officers have to interact with this same society. With the deaths of individuals like Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, and with the assistance of social media and bias news reporting, as well as high level officials within our social structure, who’s speech and words can carry a large impact on our behaviors, there has been a picture painted that police are murdering people of different ethnicities without regard for justifiable force. Politicians, celebrities and the media alike, have been a major contributor to the anti-police sentiment and the violent interactions that police

Police Brutality is an enduring problem and current concern in the America and should be fixed instantly. Those of the minority community have been subjected, for many decades, to violence by those in law enforcement in the United States. We have to enforce the law function as a component that consists of prepared and educating officers. This type of violence is a direct description of police brutality. Police brutality has been a problem for many years, and it remains a major concern for those of the minority community. Police brutality must be stopped so that police do not forget who they are serving not themselves, but the public. Over the past centuries, black people have suffered from violence in many ways. Even the criminals, who are

Who are we? What defines us? In America, we are defined by our class, what we do and most importantly – how we look. Since the birth of our nation, a notion of “race” has been rooted to our core personas. In fact it can enforce stereotypes of class and careers. It is evident that Black Americans are un-proportionally living in poverty and without easy access to achievement. This harsh reality is not helped by our media-driven society. In a world so heavily integrated with mass media hysteria, we scroll past posts that can have the countering effects of degradation or empowerment through our identities. While movements of Black Power can be painted through media, it also not hard to see the difference between the ways in which Black Americans are manipulated within the lens of media. They are portrayed as fitting a certain stereotype – uneducated, violent and intriguingly exotic. For example, while women in general face the enemy of “sex sells”, black women have this experience intensified. These women are portrayed as exotic sexual beings. They are objectified and degraded with the intent of women of color being seen as sexually gratifying, but nothing more. The parallels to the mindset one hundred years ago is uncanny – black women, black men and black children are seen as objects to appropriate and use for the media’s benefit. We can see this through our some of our “greatest” stars. Miley Cyrus, the Kardashians and even Justin Timberlake have taken a culture and twisted

“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.

A problem that is immensely significant to me is the killing of African Americans by law enforcement. As a member of the African American community, this affects me along with my everyday life because it could happen to someone in my family or someone whom I am close to. I would also like to point out that there are very few cases where the police officer who killed the civilian gets penalized; keep in mind, the punishments are very minimal. In my opinion, they are getting rewarded for killing black people. As a member of law enforcement, their job is to protect and serve the community, but it seems like all they are trying to achieve is inflict fear upon and intimidate people. One action that I have taken is joining the “Black Lives Matter”