Police Related Shootings

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 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

A 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black driver by Jason Stockley a former white officer from St Louis resulted in a massive violent protest this September when Stockley was announced innocent and murder charges were dropped. The fact that victim was black caused such a massive outrage in the St. Louis city. Would the city respond the same however if the victim was white? It turns out no. In Fresno California unarmed Dylan Noble was shot by police. Officers had received a report of a man carrying a rifle but really just found noble speeding in his pickup truck. When he was pulled over at a gas station Noble got out of the truck and was acting suspicious.

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, there has been much in the media about clashes between African Americans and the police. Two such cases, being the shootings of Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald - both incidents resulting in public outrage. These cases result in questions about racial profiling by police. Through research, it is clear that African Americans are the target of racial bias by many police departments in the United States; in order to remedy this situation, law enforcement agencies need to (and are beginning to) undergo scrutiny on their interactions with the public and, additionally must receive training on diversity.

Yes I do feel that our police departments generally do a good job of screening applicants. The Knoxville Police Department employees 397 police officers to protect the city of Knoxville, which had a population of 185,638 in 2015 (UCR, n.d.). According to the statistics on officer involved shootings from the Knoxville Police Department there showed to be no shootings in 2015 but in 2014 there were five officer involved shootings, three of which were fatal for the suspect (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). In each of these cases the officers were exonerated from liability as their actions were found to be within departmental policy (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). I feel that the psychological testing of incoming officers is an important aspect to ensure we hire the most professional officers for our police forces but sometimes individuals with behavioral or mental issues can be missed and any individual who exhibits such traits or bias should be dealt with or dismissed from the force to avoid issues that could impact the entire

In a matter of 630ms an officer is confronted with the decision to open fire on a suspect or proceed with caution. Police officers are trained to deal with a broad range of circumstances, including minor traffic violations to hostile shoot outs. Additionally, they are trained to deal with a wide range of people from compliant to aggressive and to act accordingly in each condition. The decision to use lethal force is supposed to be restricted to situations in which an officer feels threatened. However, in light of recent officer involved shootings, civilians have begun to think

This literature review seeks to examine the death of un-armed black men by police officers in the United States. It includes rationale that supports unconscious bias, poor police training, explicit racism, a biased judicial system, the inherent violent tendencies of black males and overall societal culture. Throughout the course of this examination a constant them emerged. Unconscious bias, a poor judicial system and insufficient police training seem to be the cause of this phenomena.

The Department of Justice data indicates that per capita, police are approximately five times more likely to shoot a Black person than a White person (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Some argue that the discrepancy when use of force is concerned, is driven by the types of activities that Blacks and Whites engage in (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). The thought is that if Blacks conduct more crimes than Whites, it would make sense that Blacks will be overrepresented in the encounters (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Even though officers were still more likely to use force against Blacks, it was largely because officers were more likely to encounter Blacks in dangerous neighborhoods (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Studies using controlled racial differences in arrest rates eliminated the effect of race on shootings. It was found that race generally had little effect of sensitivity. Regardless of race, police participants were usually able to distinguish between armed and unarmed suspects well (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma,

In recent years the on-going clash between the Chicago Police Department and the city’s black youth have epitomized in the shooting of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer seventeen times. Since, the city has witnessed large and violent protests and further endured racial out lashes and anti-police sentiment. As a baseline for understanding, this violence too is subject to only a few Chicago neighborhoods mostly on the city’s south and west sides where poverty is high and opportunity is slim. Some startling statistics involving race and the Chicago police verified by Chicago’s police accountability task force has concluded that in Chicago, African-Americans are shot nine times more than whites. In addition, blacks are stopped eight times more frequently than any other race (Johnson, 2016). Further, according to the study almost 300 African-Americans were shot by Chicago cops between 2008 and 2015, compared with 55 Hispanics and 13 whites. Since the McDonald shooting and the police scrutiny that has followed, violence in Chicago have risen astronautically in the year 2016 to date with 1,587 shot and 270 dead in only six

Police officer’s participation in ethical/unethical shootings and/or patterns of excessive force practices has shown a greater prevalence in low-income black communities’ statewide more often than white communities. Eruptions of anger due to the outcome of civil proceedings leading to civil protests, violence, and the creation of various pro-black groups have shown greater evidence of a widespread issue meanwhile having a domino effect in cities and states across the nation. In the wake of the death of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray, all killed by white police officers during apprehension cities in the states: Cleveland, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, and Baltimore have

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

A new study confirms that black men and women are treated differently in the hands of law enforcement. They are more likely to be touched, handcuffed, pushed to the ground or pepper-sprayed by a police officer, even after accounting for how, where and when they encounter the police.

I believe that this is a question that most people ask, when they hear of incidences of police brutality within the black populations. Statistics on police brutality suggests that black people, particularly men, are three times more likely to be killed by the police in the United States in comparison to the white population. Last year there were a number of cases on police brutality against blacks, however, the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray gained much attention from the media and the Black Lives Matter movement (BBC, 2015). This past week in San Francisco, racists and homophobic texts were discovered among some of the police officers in the San Francisco police department (Williams, 2016). This particular story makes me wonder whether some of these stereotypes against blacks are at times the driving force behind the acts of brutality against black men during arrests. In some cases, the black men are not innocent either, but are there other humane options that can be utilized during these arrests. In some cases, the victims are shot more than ten times, is it really necessary to shoot them this many times when other options can be used? Are the arrests made justifiable, or are they made due to these biases? Overall, this example brings into awareness some of the effects of structural and institutional racism in

However such department with one that does not view the use of force as abnormal. There may be inadequate or poor understood policies providing officers with guidelines regarding the use of force. There probably is no administrative producer for investigating incidents where force is used. The culture of the department is such that officers come to view the use of forces as an acceptable ways of resolving a conflict (Hanson, 2003). In the past few years, there has been significant progress in improving police-community relationships. The major challenge creating friction between the police and the community today is police use of deadly force. It is an age-old problem of which only in recent years has their public become aware. The fact this problem existed for such a long time before receiving widespread attention can again be related to the culture of police. Popular discourse and academic about American policing sometimes assess police corruption and misconduct. More examination states that police sub-culture may lead to some of the misconduct. Police sub-culture such as many other sub-cultures has its taboos, morals, and customs (Hanson, 2003). However, the reason policing is unique in comparison with sub-cultures is the form of service and protection provided to the society. Social management is also another way of describing the same phenomenon. Few subcultures unlike those relate to law enforcement, offer service and protection to people. During the provision of the