Police Brutality Against African Americans Essay

With 232 African-Americans killed by the police in this year alone (the Guardian), the issue of police brutality has become more than just an occasional occurrence. In order to remedy this ongoing issue, law enforcement should undergo thorough training to eliminate ingrained racism and racial profiling; officers should wear misconduct tracking devices to hold themselves accountable for their actions; and perpetrators of such transgressions should receive harsh consequences. Because these tactics for the prevention, identification and punishment of racial profiling will reduce the unnecessarily high amount of police brutality against African-Americans, they are a viable way to solve this crime and prevent it from descending into a more dangerous

“Don’t Shoot”, a young African American male says to the police before they shoot him multiple times killing him. He was eighteen year old Michael Brown, and his death shed light on the ongoing issue of police brutality against African Americans. Police brutality is the use of unnecessary force on individuals by law enforcement. These civilians mostly be minorities especially African Americans. Police brutality toys with human rights and violates the fourteenth amendment. In the Constitution, The Fourteenth Amendment states that “States cannot make or put into effect any laws that restrict the rewards or protections of any citizen of America. No state can remove any citizen’s life, freedom, or belong­ings without right use of the regulation. Everyone is given the equal protec­tion under the law.”(United States Constitution). Police brutality against African Americans is a serious civil problem, but in order to stop police brutality, Americans must diversify police departments, eliminate racial profiling, instill body cameras, and focus the fight of police brutality on local and state levels.

The rate for police brutality has not successfully decreased, in fact, according to the article “Racism and Police Brutality”, by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson NMPSRP, “months of April 2009 and June 2010 there were 5,986 reports of misconduct, 382 fatalities linked to misconduct, settlements and judgments that totaled $347,455,000, and 33 % of misconduct cases that went through to convictions and 64 % of misconduct cases that received prison sentences.” The victims are usually black, in cases like this. Blacks feel like all cops don’t care about them or really see them as human beings, which creates tension and miscommunication. The miscommunication makes cops believe they have the right to be more physical or brutal, but some don’t realize it is all caused by police methods and treatment towards Blacks. People say such things like “cops are pretentious douche bags. Officers may have a dangerous job buy y choose a line of work where most off hates you” (Chaney, and Robertson 488), these are people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs toward

Lately there has been a lot of controversy around the topic of police brutality against African Americans. Everyone has their own opinion regarding this topic, some argue police are too harsh against blacks. Others say they are just doing their job. While indeed police can be brutal to people but it’s not just African Americans that face this brutality. Every race endures discrimination and I think it’s time for people to open their eyes and see that.

Community policing broadens the nature and number of police functions compared with traditional policing. It emphasizes organizational change, active problem solving, and external partnerships to address issues that concern both the police and citizens. Community policing shifts the focus of policing by placing equal emphasis on crime control, order maintenance, and service. By providing better training for police officers with the issues of police profiling will make the police officers more aware of police profiling.

“The African American community is not making this up. It’s not something that’s being politicized. It’s real”

There is a major issue with police brutality within the confinements of the United States of America, within society in general. The problem of police brutality is not just a problem with African American, it is spread throughout all the races. “Mr. Castellani who is 20 years old, yelling and pointing at officers, who are posted down the street, after his ejection from an Atlantic City casino for being underage. Four officers rush him, take him down and begin beating him -- a fifth officer soon joins in.”(The Baltimore,Leonard Pitts Jr.). It just so happened that this man was black and had been brutally attacked by police because he said something they didn't like it. It isn't always African Americans that are attacked thought, in 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the hospital by police men claiming Duran was intoxicated and hallucinating. He was brutally attacked because of what he believed in, it didn't have anything to do with his skin color, as he was attacked by white police man and Duran turned out to be a Caucasian man with a family and a job. All of that was taken away from him the moment the cops dragged him into the hospital claiming he wasn't right in the head and the cops found him like that. In 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the

Police brutality is defined as excessive or unnecessary force by police officers towards civilians. For decades, the civilians have mostly been African Americans. Up to the present time, society has witnessed African American lives become unjustifiably taken without any legal consequences. The police officers acquitted verdict overshadows the unwarranted death of African American deaths. The recurring cycle of undervalued African American lives is due to a history of prejudice, racial profiling, and inexperienced and racially biased officers.

When one thinks of police misconduct many not too distant stories might go through our heads. Most adults will remember how they felt when they saw the brutal beating of Rodney King on their local news station; or the outrage they experienced when they heard that the evidence in the OJ Simpson trial had been tampered with. But thanks to new guidelines, procedures and even civilian groups who now “police” the police, instances of police misconduct may soon start seeing a decline.

Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed. But, because some officers use

Police brutality has been a major issue since slavery. In slavery people, mainly whites, were able to do anything to black people without having to deal without dealing with the consequences. Families were destroyed, people died, babies were killed, and many unknown factors still to this day that will never be known. When slavery was abolished, it did not end right away. It took several years and still is not abolished if you look at in a political way. People of power, mainly white, were not happy that a black person could be seen as equals. This is the main reason why they feel it is okay to lash out at black people. There are several major issues that are causing and epidemic in The United States. However, the main issue that seems to be the most discussed is about police brutality in the black community. “Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. “Excessive use of force” means a force well beyond what would be necessary in order to handle a situation. Police brutality can be present in a number of ways. The most obvious form of police brutality is a physical form. Police officers can use nerve gas, batons, pepper spray, and guns in order to physically intimidate or even intentionally hurt civilians. Police brutality can also take the form of false arrests, verbal abuse, psychological intimidation, sexual abuse, police corruption, racial profiling, political repression and the improper use of Tasers”

An integral component to the infrastructure of government is law enforcement. In recent years, police abuse has come to the attention of the general public. While citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that they must also keep a watchful eye on those who have been given the responsibility to protect and serve. This paper will discuss the types of police abuse prevalent today, including the use of firearms and recovery of private information. I will also discuss what and how citizens’ rights are violated by the police. We will also explore the measures necessary to protect ourselves from police taking advantage of their positions as law enforcement officers with greater permissive rights than

“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.

Police brutality is an ongoing problem in the United States. Law enforcement agents are there to protect the public for they have the legal right to use physical, and even deadly, force. However, many of these officers abuse of that power. In the past year, there have been more than 900 cases of police abuse. Most of the victims have been innocent, unarmed, and/or of color. Police brutality is becoming more and more of an issue as society keeps growing. This nationwide problem could be solved in many ways, but having peaceful protests and by educating our police officers about racial differences are two good possible solutions.

Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.