Root Causes Of Discrimination And Racism In The Baltimore Community

Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, and Tamir Rice – these are just some of the names of the unarmed Black people whose lives were taken by police officers in the last year. The alarming rate at which young Black men and women are being killed is evidence that their lives are not held with high regard. Police brutality against young Black men and women has been perpetrated at alarming rates. Yet, we have not seen much, if any, consequences or responsibility taken by the policemen committing these crimes. Often times, the families of these young men and women who, because of their race, have been killed by police officers have not seen any justice, instead the names of their loved ones go from headlines to outdated hashtags. Not only do young Black men and women face the chance of being criminalized on the street, but also such targeting begins at a young age in institutions that are typically regarded as “safe places”, such as the classroom. We see evidence of this in the way students are racially profiled and in the growing number of protests that are currently being held on college campuses nationwide. While it may seem as though we live in a post racial society, since overt racism, such as legalized segregation, is a thing of the past, institutionalized racism, a system that distributes opportunities based on the racial hierarchy, still remains and is deeply rooted in our education system, which inhibits any potential academic success by restricting resources and criminalizing

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.

As I witnessed the videos and sound recordings of the police killings of these Black youth: Trayvon Martin, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Darnisha Harris, I, too, lost hope for racial equality and developed a fear of law enforcement that still exists to this day. These emotions are quite common amongst Black youth, yet the presence of such is

Race riots are one of the major news items we hear about via the media when a social crisis occurs. The riots in Baltimore, however, were not so much about race, but more about economic and social class separations. The riots began as a peaceful protest amongst the citizens of Baltimore over the death of one of their own, Freddie Gray. Gray was a young, African-American, from a financially lower class area of Baltimore. Unfortunately, he died while in custody of the Baltimore Police. While this is a tragic loss, he was unlawfully detained by the police (Sarlin, 2015) during this ordeal. On the surface, the riots may appear as a cut-and-dry race provoked, once they are looked into further, that is not necessarily the case.

First, it is crucial to note that police brutality is not synonymous to racism against a particular group. However, there is a stigma that police often racially profile a specific African Americans. In February 2015, two cases of police brutality did not involve African Americans; instead the two victims were a Hispanic shot and killed in Washington State and an Indian-American severely paralyzed in Alabama. Even with this considered, of late, a majority of police brutality cases have involved minorities and specifically African American males. Cases such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray have sparked a cultural uprising. These trigger event inspired the protests and riots against police brutality demonstrating collective action and physical violence, but the idea of police brutality is much larger than these individual cases, since it is a reoccurring cycle.

Despite the important racial progresss our society has made since Emmett Till’s death, from the civil rights era, to present increase of police brutality has still left the Black/African American community in shadows of segregation. The second most recent shooting of teenager Michael Brown has left citizens in ongoing battles with law enforcement officers of Ferguson, Missouri. New Statement (2014) reports, Missouri police similarly attempted to retain control of the narrative, claiming Brown had stolen cigars, and then paying for them, and then claiming he was a bad child and attacked the officer who shot him” (New Statement, 21). Brown autopsy reveals he was gun less and shot six times. Police brutality is not solely about Ferguson, Emmett Till, or the civil rights movement, but it is simply about the history of capitalism and police brutality in America and having many forms of it.

The shooting of sparked a nation-wide movement not only demanding justice for Mike Brown, but also protesting the racial discrimination deeply embedded in the criminal justice system as well as various institutions in the larger American society. Furthermore, jfdkjfjdakljk something about international recognition. Similar protests and riots have been springing up in other cities since 1960s, and police killings of unarmed black men happen once every 28 hours (Kahle, 2014). However, Michael Brown’s killing has led to the most sustained uprising against police violence in at least two decades, centered among the African American residents of Ferguson, and has rallied significant nationwide support as well as international attention (Kahle, 2014; Taylor, 2014). The killing of Michael Brown is by no means an isolated event, and presence of racial tensions, especially in the St. Louis area, was already present long before. The large-scale pushback that the killing of Michael Brown has set in motion, then, seems to have been the last straw, prompting the eruption of decades of pent up frustration at a racist and oppressive system. That being said, what are the previous straws that have slowly pushed the black community in Ferguson to the breaking point? What are the factors that have caused these tensions to boil over and erupt into such a large-scale upheaval? This paper will explore some of the

“I turn on the news each night and what do I see again and again? African Americans alleged to be killing, raping, mugging, stabbing, gangbanging, looting, rioting, selling drugs, pimping, ho-ing, having to many babies, dropping babies from tenement windows, fatherless, penniless, and Godless” (Moore 59). The media has devoted too much time and space perpetuating these negative views of African Americans and far too little time describing the background problems of African-American communities. “What is not a crisis is not usually reported and what is not or cannot be made visual is often not televised” (Racist America 154). The news media respond quickly and with keen interest to the conflicts and controversies of racial stories. For the most part, “they disregard the problems that seep beneath the surface until they erupt in the hot steam that is the live news story, ‘The suspect is a black male’ we’ve all seen it” (Racist America 154). The media has not studied important events in the African-American community today. Issues such as urbanization, education, and poverty, just to name a few that have and will continue to have a

a few years now, police brutality has become an extremely controversial topic and has raised many debates and questions about law enforcement and civilians. Police brutality has been common for decades. However after the death of African Americans such as Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile, many other African Americans have rose up in protest and anger. The anger stems from these men dying at the hands of police which the civilians believe they died from situation that should have been handled differently. Cases like these have caused a major divide with African Americans and law enforcement. Many people wonder where the relationship between the two went wrong and how police brutality became such a big issue that seems impossible

17 year old african american boy Trayvon Martin was going into a 7 Eleven to get a snack before he flew back home. He walked out of the store and was being stalked by a strange man who turned out to be a volunteer cop. The cop had then told the station that there was suspicious juvenile. The police said not to pursue but he did anyways. He then shot Trayvon in the chest instantly killing him. This was not the only occasion that a police officer beat up an african american for no reason at all. Police brutality towards african americans in america needs to end. Excessive police brutality towards african americans is an issue/ongoing problem that needs to be addressed because it is unjust. Readers can expect to learn the cause and reason why this happens.

On August 14, 2014, the infamous case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, took place. A police officer shot an unarmed black teenager after an incident which was clouded in unclear details. At first, no one really knew whether the officer had been in the right to shoot Brown, or what the circumstances were for either side of the incident. However, eventually, the details started to not matter. The events around Michael Brown’s case became the spark that ignited a nationwide movement to fight against police brutality towards minorities, specifically African Americans. Protesters of police violence toward minorities created a phrase that was used all over the country after Brown’s death: “hands up, don’t shoot”. Many have used the events behind Brown’s death as a springboard to consider what makes a criminal. One side of the issue claims that race directly affects criminality, while others believe class to be the cause of criminality.

Studies show that law enforcement including “Police officers, security guards, and self-appointed vigilantes extra judicially killed at least 313 African Americans in 2012…” (Hudson) Meaning a black person was killed every 28 hours by law enforcement. Seeing that there have been numbers of cases dealing with police brutality a report called “Operation Ghetto Storm” was released by antiracist organization Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Police brutality comes from other forms of oppression that African Americans face. No matter what the situation is blacks will always think they’re going to be treated differently. Such as, African Americans using and selling drugs at the same rate as whites but they are five times more likely to be arrested or incarcerated for drugs than whites. Of the 313 African Americans killed in 2012 most were between the ages of 22 and 31 and a significant portion of those people suffered from mental health issues or were heavily medicated. Other studies showed that “43% of the shootings occurred after an incident of racial profiling.” (Hudson) because law enforcement believed they saw that person looking or behaving suspiciously mostly because of the color of their skin. Using what’s happening in Baltimore as of present day as an example, there are many riots and protest going because of the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Gray died a week later after being taken into police custody for the possession of a switchblade. Stories are still unclear about how Gray had a serious spinal cord and neck injury that lead to his death but there is only one witness whose story could help the police give Freddie Gray’s family closure. Another inmate whose name has yet to be released was also getting transported in the same van that Gray was in. He told investigators that it sounded as if Gray was “intentionally” trying to hurt himself. As of May

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding 3 recent national events going on dealing with black males being innocently murdered. The Males murdered where Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Gardener all three unarmed and killed by the police. Trayvon Martin, a Miami native, was visiting his father in Sanford. That evening, Martin walked out to the nearby 7-Eleven to get

On August 9th, 2014 , Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a police officer in a St. Louis, Missouri, suburb. Following the shooting, the largely populated black city of Ferguson erupted into protests, forcing the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to make an investigation into the incident. Law enforcement nowadays has become a major problem lately, they have been arresting and murdering hundreds of black people, for crimes if a white person did, will receive different treatment. And, when black people are taken to court they are receiving unfair sentences because of racial profiling . Although much has changed in the United States over the past 60 years, this country’s legal system has failed at providing justice for