Police Inequality

In recent years inequality has been on the rise in America. Not only has there been hate crimes but also police brutality, and objectification of women is on the rise as well. These are crimes against equality. Spikes in hate crimes targeting religious groups such as Jews and Islamics sweep the country. Jewish and Islamic centers burned to the ground, threats made to physically harm or kill people of Jewish or Islamic faith. What happened to freedom of religion? Jewish and muslims shouldn’t have to look behind their back everywhere they go because they live in fear. As well a videos are surfacing of a type of inequality that nobody expected. That is police brutality. Police are here to serve and protect everybody no matter their race, gender, or sexual orientation. However some cops use their authority over others to frame innocent people most commonly an African American males for a crime that they didn’t

In the past years we have seen many riots and debates over the racism and inequalities in our criminal justice system. We have heard story after story, and watched video after video of police brutality and racism in America. We saw the unfair outcome of the Zimmerman and Treyvon Martin case. When George Zimmerman followed Treyvon Martin, a seventeen year old African American boy who was walking around the neighborhood, just because he looked suspicious to him. Even after notifying the police, Zimmerman followed Martin and ended up shooting him, after Zimmerman had hung up with the dispatcher who told him they did not need him

One can say that we live in a country that under the constitution states that there is justice for all citizens, we are all granted equal protection under the law, and we have equality for all; but yet people are still fighting for equality. Blacks are being victimized by the system that causes them to be treated unfairly by the police which leads then to dealing with discriminatory sentencings for small crimes, and they would forever live in this vicious cycle that was created to put Blacks away. There are many laws, policies, and legislations that are set in place to keep certain groups of people oppressed without even openly stating which group of people would be oppressed. Race and crime, as two significant social phenomena, are

Inequality is a theme that runs throughout all of history. Harper Lee uses the theme of inequality in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson must deal with inequality when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit because no one will trust a black man over a white man. The Cunningham family must face discrimination because of their lack of money. Scout even faces inequality when she tries to play with Jem and Dill. The theme of inequality is a strong one in Lee’s book, and her use of inequality doesn’t only define racism, but also discrimination based on wealth and gender.

“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these, are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Deplorable, though, is the fact that people of color have systematically had their liberty violated unceasingly throughout our history. Fifty-two years ago, in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” Uttered decades ago, these words should have no pertinence in today’s society; yet they still ring loud and reveal the same plight that people of color share today. The real argument, though, is that under the constitution, police have no legal right to rob people of color, or any people for that matter, of their civil liberties; however, people of color are continually targeted, and are treated with such an abysmal impertinence that it should no longer go unnoticed.

On August 9, 2014,a young man by the name of Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. It is little known why the shooting occurred, but the boy was unarmed.This could be one of many cases of modern day racism and segregation. In 1930, “even after the abolishment of slavery in 1865, blacks were still almost powerless(BBC 2)”.Blacks were heavily segregated and had almost no rights.Many cases of segregation in the 1930s caused a lot of current day racial tension in the united states.

Our past is full of cases that represent the inequality of the criminal justice system. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Plessy V Ferguson, in 1896 the court upheld racial segregation and made the separate but equal the standard doctrine of the United States until 1954, when the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v Board of Education which made the racial segregation illegal and highlighted the protections offered in the fourteenth amendment as it relates to equal protection. Despite the 14th Amendment 's promise of life and liberty under the law, this group of Americans found themselves subject to another law, known as the "Jim Crow Laws." These were a group of laws passed primarily in the southern states during reconstruction and lasting until around 1965, were established to make sure that the whites were treated differently than the blacks, in everyday life, including the criminal justice system. Even though the Jim Crow era has passed by, we unfortunately have come to the conclusion that we have just entered a new era of Jim Crow. “We are arguably no longer under Jim Crow or de jure discrimination; however, unfortunately and regrettably, we are presently realizing manifest de facto discrimination, or the new Jim Crow” (Durrant, 2015). Statistics show that over 40 percent of students who are expelled from school today are African American and over 70 percent of students who are referred to law enforcement for criminal activity are

In class, we learned that the Bill of Rights was a contributing factor in enforcing the Declaration, even though it was passed after the Declaration in 1787; we are still using this bill in 2017. There are many reasons that led me to believe that we aren't equal in the U.S . Discrimination is an infestation that has manifested from morons in this country who are preventing us, as a nation, from coming together. For instance, pewresearch.org states that, “ 64% of black adults say blacks are treated less fairly than whites in the workplace, compared with 22% of whites who say the same – a 42-percentage-point gap. Blacks are also considerably more likely than whites – by margins of at least 20 points – to say that blacks are treated less fairly than whites in dealing with the police, in the courts, when applying for a loan or mortgage, in stores and restaurants and when voting in elections.” Statistics show how blacks are perceived in a more negative light than whites. There are many current events that support this Statistics. For Example, Nandi Cain was continuously beaten because of jaywalking allegations. He was initially being arrested for resisting arrest but was out the next morning whereas the cop was placed on paid administrative leave. Why was the cop being placed on paid administrative leave for beating someone who was allegedly jaywalking? It's no secret, it's obvious, it's because he's black. In 2016, Jeremy King and Lourdes Glen had a similar case. Court documents stated that their free speech rights were violated and the cops ignored the white people who had also jaywalked at the time. Their encounter was recorded and it showed unnecessary force the six officers used to “contain” the situation. The attorney clearly says that the officers, and I quote, “ acted in a racist manner because

“Racial inequality is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone's race” (Racial Inequality, 1996-2017, line 1). Racial profiling and police brutality falls under racial inequality. According to Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2017), " Officers' racially biased use of discretion – either intentional or unintentional – is one cause of racial disparities in police contact that are not explained by differences in crime rates" (p. 6). When one group is targeted more than another it will cause the group that is targeted the most to have more involvement. The crime rates for black people is higher than those of white people because more black people are arrested than white people. Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2017), states that, "Almost

In the United States the issues of race are a fragile issue. African American people have different treatments only because of their skin color. Nowadays in US this problem is shown mostly by the police, young African American men are treated differently only because their skin color, their culture and tradition. This issue did not start recently, but it was there from a long time ago. Starting from the slavery where the right of freedom did not exist for African Americans and until a not so distant past. The race problems were a serious issue, even now this issue is treated with special caution. African Americans are treated differently in a way or another, and this issue has its roots a long time ago, this treatment is often called “separate but equal”. If we look it in the social context this term means that a group of people (black people), is treated differently from others even though that, that group of people (black people), according to documents of human rights has access to public services and has all other legal rights as the other group (white people). To illustrate this with an example, in the late 1950s, African Americans did many protests against the “separate but equal” doctrine. The reason of this

The Declaration of Independence declares “all men are created equal are endowed with certain unalienable rights,” and yet people ignore the fact that police officers treat colored people differently, and unjustly. Racist police brutality disparities continues to be one of the most prevalent, and yet insignificant racial discriminatory act. If police officers are hired to ensure people’s safety and security, to serve and protect, why is it that they continue to harm, and brutalize the people they are protecting? In spite of all the laws that are place to end racial discrimination, people of color continue to be mistreated, discriminated against, and placed into a low societal status, especially by our police officers, because people believe that colored people are the cause of any and all problems.

White and black Americans are deeply divided on views of race relations in America. The racial divide in America is fueled by the social inequality in the school systems, justice system, and poverty in general. Black Americans should be treated as fairly as white Americans with full access of privileges, benefits, and responsibilities of any American.They should have the right to determine for themselves what they want to do with their

Today many people believe that we have obtained racial equality. However there are multiple reasons and statistics that contradict those arguments . For decades African Americans has been deprived of basic rights, “If America had racial equality in education and jobs, African Americans would have two million more high school degrees…(Raines)”. There are many drastic racial gaps from education to owning property. Throughout America’s history blacks have been limited, when it comes to education, property, and other things. If people truly believe that after four hundred years of enslavement and limited rights, can be fixed within one generation they are wrong. The African American community has faced

“Racial minorities, particularly Black Americans, have had a long and troubling history of disparate treatment by U.S criminal justice authorities.” (Birzer, 23) I am not here to give you another lesson on slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s or any other struggle we faced in our history, but I do want you to keep it in mind as you read about the current struggle we still face in 2017. You would think that America would give us a break since we’ve been fighting for equality for centuries, but they are not simply because of the color of our skin. When I say “they” I mean White America. Now, don’t get me

Nine hundred and thirty-seven. That is the number of people assaulted and killed by law enforcement officers, this year alone. Our government is implementing laws and regulations that punish minorities and those without money so they cannot afford to live comfortably in our society. Citizens are being refused the right to serve in our nation’s military strictly because of the fact that they don’t conform to an archaic idea of a two-gender system. We are witnessing the Great Divide. American citizens are disunited based on issues of identity. With this divide, inequality has become an increasing issue, but strong individuals are unifying to fight for racial and gender equality. Many concerned individuals are fighting for equal opportunity in American society because our divided country allows some people to advance while others are held back.