Police shooting has become a huge issue across The United States. Community will usually become outraged if the shooting was committed by a white or black cop who shoots and kills a black subject. Protests seem to follow in areas where the police force is predominantly white and the suspect is black. Regardless of rather or not the officer is right or wrong. This started a huge conflict of rather or not the shooting was done due to racism. These conflicts affect the communities the shootings happen in and can draw national attention like in the police shoot death of Sylville Smith. One resolution that will help to eliminate racism within the police force and stop the misconception that most police shooting happen due to racism, is …show more content…
At this point no immediate details of the shooting death of Smith had been released. No one within the community seemed to support the officer.
The conflict is that Black lives matter, news outlets, and the community of Milwaukee automatically assumed that the shooting death of Smith was due to racism. This sparked several riots and put police lives at risk. Several shootings were brought to national attention that involved a black subject being shot before Smith was shot. One reason for the focus to be mainly on shooting death of black subjects is due to the news only covering stories on shooting deaths of black subjects. Another issue is that the community misconception that officers shoots black subject out of racism. This misconception is due to a long history of racism within the United States. Another huge issue that arises is when a police shooting is investigated and finds that a police shooting is due to racism. Washington State University conducted a study using a high-definition video and attempted to create varies scenarios that an officer would have to choose on rather or not to use deadly force. The officer was given a real gun and simulation rounds. The video can be manipulated at any time to change between the officer using deadly force or non-deadly force. There were several surprising facts that came from this study. Officers took
Police brutality and office involved shootings have sparked national debate and created a strain between police officers and citizens. Recently, there have been more home videos that display acts of aggression by police officers. These police officers often use excessive forces or a condescending tone towards people of color which is why there needs to be a better way to mend police and civilian relationship. People should be able to trust the police in their communities rather than fear them.
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)
“Most officers involved in these killings are hardly indicted, much less convicted, for excessive use of force. The criminal justice system’s high volume of contact with people of colour”. (Burton, 2015). This is a major cause of African-Americans’ unequal proportion of deadly police encounters, as well as of larger perceptions of prejudice in the black communities. “Black lives matter” has become the accumulating social movement to bring light to the inequality and unjustifiable act and the legal system is failing to up hold the citizens right and the basic
policies that are currently in place to reduce tension between police officers and the minority groups that they serveLaw enforcement officers and the community have been disconnected. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police who here to protect and serve our communities. When Ferguson, Missouri exploded after the police shot an unarmed black teenager, the tension between the community and its protectors was laid bare. Ferguson is not the first and certainly not the last community forced to bridge that chasm. In South Carolina a policeman shot an unarmed black male who was stopped for a seat belt violation. The cop asked the male for ID, who then reached under his seat to retrieve his wallet, but was shot in the leg by the cop before he could take out his ID. When the body cam video was reviewed it shows that the trigger happy cop probably was in fear of his life, however it is also obvious that the cop shouldn’t have felt threaten as the behavior of the black male involved nothing unusual. Many would say if the driver was white the cop would have not reacted the way he did.
Now that we have established what deadly force is and what the law states, let’s move on to the investigation that ensues after the fact. Let’s look into how the investigative process works for this type of incident and how the public views the use of deadly force. The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin outlines six investigative elements in a case of deadly force; The Investigators, The Crime Scene, The Involved Officers, The Civilian Witnesses, The Criminal Justice Authorities and The Media. All of these play a pivotal role in deciphering a particular case of deadly force. This process could take months or years to sort out. I will tell you about the steps of the process but keep in mind, that while the slow wheels of justice are turning, the officer is dealing with his emotions, his family’s response and most likely the public’s response due to the media coverage. Whatever the outcome, no doubt this will have an effect on the individual officer for the rest of their life.
In light of the recent spate of police-involved homicides of suspects who may or may not have put the lives of the police involved in fear for their safety and well-being, this paper seeks to examine the use of deadly force by police officers in the line of duty. The training involved in using one’s service weapon in situations that call for a determination of the use of force will be explored, as will the rules, regulations, and extenuating circumstances that lead to the firing of a service weapon in the line of duty, resulting in the death of a suspect. The Supreme Court cases that have led to and/or upheld laws allowing a broader interpretation of what is considered justifiable use of deadly force will be briefly examined. Additionally, the use of non-lethal weapons, such as Tasers, by police forces and how the availability of these weapons influences the rate of deadly force will be inspected. Finally, an elucidation of the various perceptions of the general public of the police after use of deadly force is used within their communities will be addressed.
Another factor in conflicts with this nation’s police force is the differences in races between American neighborhoods and their police force. In order to reduce the presence of racism in law enforcement, the race and ethnicities of the police force must be representative of the population they are responsible
Over the past decade, police brutality has covered major headlines because officers have acted out in ways that have made citizens question their motives. Things such as unjustified shootings, deadly chokings, and rough treatment have all added to the constant problem of police brutality in the black community. Annoyingly, the police officers responsible for the killings and abuse are not held for long before they are discharged to their normal routines. Since many people believe that the issues of police brutality is based on race, officers should be held accountable for their misconduct. Accountability will permit officers to treat all with equality; therefore using the appropriate amount of force on everyone. Often cops are indicted in less than 1% of killings, but the indictment rate for citizens is 90% which is a major problem. If someone does wrong they should suffer the consequence no matter who they are. As a result of misconduct officers tend be mistrusted by their communities. Deaths in the black community often stems from police officers using excessive force such as assaults, beating and shootings.
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
Days following the shooting, with pressure rising from black activists and the general community, an FBI investigation into the events was launched. Its unconvincing conclusion
The Investigation concluded that Officer Wilson was within his rights to fire shots at Brown as self-defense. The world was shocked after the court’s ruling. Yet again, the Black community were in awe as another unfair ruling was made. People began to get furious with the law in the disbelief as to why these White men were getting away with murder. And as we see before, rioters took their anger and frustration out on the city, bringing more damagers to a city who were already suffering and trying to rebuild from the last rioting damages. From here, the Black Lives Matter community began to come worrisome as the Black Community lost case after case. Their protest did not have an impact on the judicial system. Many felt as if defeat was taking over due to justice not being
What is police brutality and why is it important right now? Police brutality is the use of excessive force carried out by a law enforcement official. Lately, various incidents of police brutality have surfaced in the news, but this is nothing new. Past incidents including the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri brought serious social issues to the frontlines. Michael Brown was an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by a white male. Other incidents include the death of Eric Garner. A man who was accused of selling individual cigarettes and later on died due to a chokehold, the officer who killed him was also white. These events have even led to vigilantism. One of the most recent incidents of retaliation took place in Dallas, Texas. Micah Johnson, a former soldier, opened fire at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest and killed five Dallas police officers. He was quoted saying that he "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers". There is racial reconciliation between law enforcement and the black community. Although these are only a few incidents there a plenty more and there will be even more if something isn’t done about it. Cases such as these shed light on serious social issues we need to combat. This proposal review will discuss the rift between the police and community, how to improve community relations, how to improve departmental practices and procedures as well as how these can’t turn into effective solutions.
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.
This is a huge problem today because many black people are shot by cops and many people think the police force are racists. The police are earning a bad reputation in the USA but sometimes it is not all the police fault. Sometimes, the people that the police shot maybe doing something wrong and the police isn't able to control them and they accidentally shoot them.
Police brutality is a problem in our society mainly because there are police officers that are getting away with not only physically hurting innocent people, but murder as well. In the past year, there have been between 865-939 cases of people being shot and/or killed by cops (Calacal 1). Racial profiling is one of the main factors in this problem. African Americans and Latinos are the people we see being abused by police on the daily. So far this year, 215 African-Americans and 94 Latinos have been killed by police. Data shows that a black person is 3 times more likely to be killed by a police than a white person. Several officers