Police Brutality In 'Meet Me Halfway Milwaukee Stories'

A great deal of society views law enforcement officers as heroic and honorable individuals, whose main purpose is to protect and serve the community. For many officers, this description is accurate, however for others; violence and brutality against innocent citizens is the key to getting the job done. For years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other unjustifiable reasons that has cost several innocent lives. The involvement of officers in police brutality against minority social groups causes tainted and negative views on policing and their overall duty to protect, when they are ultimately the aggressors in this case. Police brutality is a violent incident involving an officer and a victim, usually including excessive force, unnecessary violence and sometimes resulting in a senseless fatality. Minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics have often been the victims of this form of abuse by officers, however little justice has been done in order to protect these individuals from this form of cruelty by the hands of those with the most power.

Recently, our country has undergone tremendous suffering due to police brutality. Some police officers are taking the law into their own hands and intertwining their personal views and stereotypes on the black community. They are committing inhumane crimes on African Americans and our justice system is allowing it to continue. Several police officers are noticing that if they commit this crime out of pure hate it is acceptable and the courts will rule in their favor. It continues to happen because there is no punishment for their wrong doing.

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)

Police brutality and feminism are some of the issues the United States faces today. Police have always been an issue for people to deal with especially for the black community. Numerous African American males have encountered situations where they have been accused of crimes or beaten by the police. Feminism dates back to history where women were discriminated and degraded because of their gender. In today’s society, many of these conflicts still occur today and many prejudicial statements are made to downgrade women as a whole. In the book “Meet Me Halfway; Milwaukee Stories” written by Jennifer Morales, she addresses these two topics that people face everyday. In her book, she states the issues that African Americans face in

I commence with this anecdote for several reasons one of which is to humbly acknowledge my unique, and privileged position as a Black female scholar in the midst of a war waged against Black bodies. Another reason is to recognize police brutality as a national endemic that plagues Black communities, unveiling remnants of anti-Black racism that legitimately suppresses the lives of Blacks in America . The non-indictments in each case concerning the sanctioned murder of Black youths evoke a

Living in the information age, the prevalence and awareness towards social problems are able to receive more access than ever before. We always hear the term Social Problems being thrown around habitually in the 21st century, but the term Social problem is defined as “A general cause that motivates activists and social movement organizations to address a particular troubling condition”. (CITE). The current world has too many social problems to name off in under 5 pages so for this paper I would like to focus on perhaps the most prevalent one that we are seeing way too often these days. Police Brutality and racial profiling. As a white male, someone who is a criminal justice major in hopes of eventually becoming some type of law enforcement for my career later in life, you may ask why I even care about this issue since it isn’t necessarily affecting my life directly. My response is simple, I am tired of seeing the hashtags behind these deaths and one death from police brutality is already too many.

The history of Police Brutality for minorities; especially people of color has left America wondering have times changed. Police brutality has deemed the opportunity for socioeconomic advancement or access to good and services for many Black/African Americans dating back as far as 1955. The system of Police brutality has affected many realms of society for minorities’ employment and family life. After some scholarly research, police brutality is still prevalent in the Black/African American community; moreover, it comes in many different forms and fashions. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use

Police brutality is a controversial issue that has recently been in the news, but seems to have always been an issue in America. Police brutality refers to the intentional use of verbal or physical attacks directed towards individuals by the police force that result in false arrests, sexual abuse, or death. (Dudley, William 13.) Most of these actions are linked to racial profiling: the targeting of individuals for suspicion of crime based solely on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. (Dudley, William 13.) Statistics about how often racial profiling and police brutality occurs, movements such as Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, and police reform efforts are just a few points as to why this topic is so controversial today.

Racism and police brutality in America” by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson touch upon racism and brutality in America. Their article talks about respecting the cops but they also mention police brutality through stories from people that experienced this. Although Satzewich and Shaffir reached out to people to cops to write about their personal experiences and thoughts about racial profiling, Chaney and Robertson’s article is a stronger source because they used several sources and focus on both sides of the situation.

In Brent Staples’ article, “Black Men in Public Spaces”, provoked by racism against him, and other black men on the streets, he gives many personal examples in high hopes people will understand how he, and many other black men, face prejudice from regular encounters simply because of their race. With a Ph.D in psychology, Staples’ writes to his strongly feminist audience in the Ms. Magazine and Harper's publication in 1986. Although staples’ addresses the fact that women have reasonable cause to fear black men on the streets, he comes back to the idea that racial profiling is a serious issue. Throughout his article, Staples’ uses personal anecdotes, an accepting tone, and strong diction in order to further develop his argument.

Police brutality is a major issue in today’s society. Many African Americans tend to avoid the police for that very reason. A campaign was started in 2012 against police brutality and the unfair treating of African Americans entitled, Black Lives Matter. This movement was met with controversy as well as support from the American people. This movement has followed several controversial police brutality cases in the United States including, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland. All African American and all killed in the presence of a police officer, with no convictions. These three cases have been some of the biggest cases in the Black Lives Matter campaign. This campaign is determined to make sure that Black lives are treated just as equally as white live and Hispanic lives, because black lives matter

Police brutality has always been a controversial issue in America. Fortunately, the issue is being brought to light and there have been many protests and speeches done to address the awful acts committed by select police officers in this country. It is enlightening how most of our society is trying to change what is happening and bettering this country and bringing back what America is truly about, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all individuals. In the article, “Anything Can Happen With the Police Around”, Michelle Fine and other authors, discuss the perspective of the urban youth and how they feel towards law enforcement. The authors also touch base on the perspective of females and their encounters with the police. Although the article includes some information on women and sexual harassment committed by police officers, most of the surveys and data collected in this research project were collected from males and their views on police brutality. The broad topic of police brutality needs to be broken down into pieces, a huge piece being the concept of intersectionality. Intersectionality is the interconnected nature social categorizations that include race, class, and gender as they refer to a given individual or group and creates an overlapping system of discrimination and creates disadvantages. In this particular scenario, women being the victims of police brutality is being

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.

Generally, individuals tend to stereotype without even realizing they are doing so. Protest are supposed to give a message out so that the individuals voices are heard. Police brutality is an issue and should be dealt with caution, but the way the Dallas protest ended is not the way to get a message across to other individuals. Officer’s should learn how to use proper procedures when arresting an individual. At the end of the day violence does not solve the situations dealing with injustice. The concepts used for this paper reflects how police brutality is due to racism, stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice if an individual loses their life in the hands of an officer the officer should be served with justice and pay the consequences for not using proper procedures. Knowing the meaning of these concepts helped me have a better view on the protest and why it took place. It also helped with the outcome of the protest as the shooter racially profiled Caucasian citizens and officers to harm them. Though he did not consider how his actions would affect

Feminist criminology, as an outgrowth of the second wave of feminism, came of age during a period of considerable change and political optimism however, as a mature field, it now inhabits a social and political landscape radically altered and increasingly characterized by the politics of backlash (Chesney-Lind, 2006). The field has had a dual focus on gender and crime; however the political backlash has come in the form of racism and sexism. Therefore, the feminist criminology movement must prioritize research on the race/gender/punishment nexus.