`` Some Thoughts On Mercy ``

A police force is defined as an organized body of people, given power by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. However, amid controversial relations between police and civilians in today’s society, many often question whether or not the police force’s purpose is actually fulfilled in reality. Since 2015, police have killed 964 people in the U.S. And although composing only 13% of the population, Black people constituted 25% of those killed by police (242, mappingpoliceviolenc.com). These killings are often identified as police brutality: unreasonable and excessive use of force used to accomplish a lawful police purpose. By its definition, police brutality contradicts the purpose and abuses the power that police officers have. Police brutality is a rising, yet unsolved issue that remains relevant in today’s society. Increased tensions between the African American community and police officers continue to affect the interaction with one another. When police officers are not representative or have a relationship with the people they are supposed to protect, cultural differences and racial tensions create a bias that targets and automatically views these communities as dangerous. These circumstances are the foundation to why to police brutality is still a trending manifestation in black communities.

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)

Brent Staples’ essay, “When the Paranoids Turn Out to be Right,” acknowledges the issues of racism and racial profiling committed by police. In “Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun,” Geoffrey Canada also expresses views on this issue when he asserts that police fail to protect and serve individuals in poor neighborhoods. Staples contends, “Among the day-to-day acts of discrimination that shadow African Americans, none are more stressful or dangerous than those committed by police, some of whom treat black people as criminals until proved otherwise.” (Staples. 380) Although statistics show that the looming presence of narcotics and violence is more prevalent in urban neighborhoods, police should apply the same effort to protect individuals in these

There are always two sides to an argument, but different people have different opinions on which side is right and wrong; as a result, we can compare a debate or argument as of a coin, due to the fact that it has two sides. When it comes to the topic of judicial system in America, most of us will readily agree that it needs to be reformed. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of who will step forward and make changes to the court system. Whereas some are convinced that no one is going to do anything about it, others maintain that the government will be the savior by making the changes. In the introduction of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice And Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson -an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law- Stevenson emphasizes that people are not being treated fairly in the judicial system of America. The book was written to give readers a close up look on mass incarceration and extreme punishment given in America. Convincing the readers is not easy, except if the author uses strategic techniques such as ethos, pathos, and logos. It is even more tough if the topic is sensitive and debatable as this one. Stevenson used these three techniques in a variety of different ways to convince the readers.

Ever since the case of Trayvon Martin being shot in 2013, dozens and dozens of cases of injustice have been brought up to the eyes of the media and the law. Lately, the majority of those cases have been about police brutality, and it’s taken such a strong effect on the public that movements have been born out of it, such as the BlackLivesMatter movement. The situation has reached a point to where President Obama stepped out and addressed the issue at hand. The central issue here isn’t only the barbaric tactics that law enforcement resorts to, but the fact that the power police officers have as enforcers of the law is and has been abused over and over.

Historically there has been conflict between the american police force and members of minority groups. In recent years this conflict has moved into the eye of the public, through the media attention given to events like Ferguson. Outrage and unrest ensued and the backlash from these events were felt all over the US if not internationally. The result of these events lead to politicians and the police pledging reforms to improve the relations between law enforcement and members of minority groups. However many still believe that nothing has changed and that law enforcement is still more likely to use excessive force when dealing with members of those minority groups. Research has started to be conducted on this issue and many try to find solutions. This paper will provide a literary review of the current literature regarding this topic and will further provide some ways in which the relationship between law enforcement and the public can be improved.

Police Brutality against African American people has begun to take a toll on our communities. African American communities cannot even trust the police, because of the way they are being treated unfairly by a police officers of them distract or their state. Which is why the police are being coming more advanced in technology, but still fail to use their powers as an officer correctly. This cause the police officers are using misconduct against African American people when confronted by them. This research leads me to conclude that the police department of many states across the United States becomes more corrupted every day because of the lack of order in our police departments. In this essay, I will argue that the policing between black

One of the most polarizing policy issues in the United States is the process of using race, ethnicity, and/or national origin by law enforcement as a chief predictor of criminal behavior. In the presence of social media and modern technological innovation, there has been increased documentation on the very problematic ways in which police officers use their position of authority against minorities. The countless cases of murder and police brutality have prompted national dialogue regarding to what extent race should be used in methods of policing. Against a troubled backdrop of incessant clashes with minorities and law enforcement, navigating the situation requires a degree of care that does not diminish the

Police brutality against African Americans has become a hot topic in the media. Police brutality is when excessive force is used when it is unnecessary. During the civil rights movement, African American men and women fought for and gained their rights. They may have believed that their suffering had ended there but there is still a long way to go. In Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he writes about how African Americans are being treated by police and the court system. He describes it as “ grossly unjust treatment” (paragraph 6). Today it is three times more likely for a black person to be killed than a white person. One out of three of the black people killed by police were armed and suspected to have committed an actual crime

Police brutality has been the most prominent form of racism captured by the media and since the 1992 Los Angeles Riots protesting the death of Rodney King, it still dominates headlines. After more than two decades later, the number of innocent, and unarmed black American deaths have only increased along with the acquisition of the police accountable. According to “More Than 250 Black People Were Killed By Police In 2016,” Julia Craven states that “34 percent of the unarmed people killed in 2016 were black males.” This is unreasonable because according to the same article, “black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population.” The numbers are disproportionate enough to show that there is a clear target against blacks. This statistic of black males compared to their white counterparts also show a significant disparity as statistics John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille provide in “Excessive or reasonable force by police? Research on law enforcement and racial conflict,” clearly state that unarmed blacks were killed at twice the rate of whites with “31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males.” There is clear cut evidence of racial profiling in policing as blacks who make up a only a small amount of the U.S. population are killed at a much higher rate than whites who make up a majority of the population. This is obvious discriminatory intent by the hands of the police,

Current socio-political controversy in America has hit an all-time high. Our country is divided regarding topics such as immigration, minimum wage, healthcare, and foreign affairs. These problems desperately need a solution, however, because of the variety of opinions as to how we should solve these, solutions that satisfy everyone have been nearly impossible to come by. One of the most prominent issues in our country that has been increasingly problematic is racial profiling. Racial profiling is seen throughout America at places like airports and on the highways. Multiple ethnic groups have been affected by this ‘strategy,’ such as Muslims and Latinos. One of the most subjected groups to racial profiling and arguably one of the most outspoken have been African Americans. The divide between African Americans and police officers has been continuously rising in the last decade, as many have spoken out regarding the unfair treatment of blacks by law enforcement. In the last decade alone, there have been far too many instances in which a black citizen’s life has been claimed by the hands of a police officer, such as in the case of the killings of Philando Castile and Michael Brown. The public response to these killings have been outrage and angst against police officers. Believing race was a factor, the public began to voice their opinions and protest the seemingly unfair treatment towards black individuals by police officers. This has only increased the tension between the two groups, as there are often racial profiling accusations toward police officers who pull over black drivers. The best way to approach a solution is to first look at the history of the problem and its contribution to the current situation. I believe the unfair treatment and racial violence towards blacks that occurred in American history has contributed to the rising tension between blacks and police officers, resulting in the current racial divide and constant confrontations between the two groups. The best example of this can be seen in the issue of racial profiling, in which the two groups’ perception of one another has been hostile and unwelcoming.

Racism is alive and well in America today. It’s not as known as slavery was but it’s still here, it’s just in a different state than slavery was. Now in American an African American man can’t even look at a police officer without going into a defensive state of mind because a black man is far more likely to get shot by a police officer than a white man. (Norman 1) What makes it even worse is that when the people want justice for the crime in place which is usually murder, the justice system gives them minimal sentences or no convictions at all. So how do you think that looks on law enforcement and the way African Americans look at law enforcement? I wouldn’t want any type of law enforcement near me if I thought that I was going to be shot or killed. In 2015 alone, there was an estimate, every nine days there was an unarmed black man being shot by a police.

In recent years’ police departments around the country have been brought into the public eye. Due to their actions towards African Americans many have become suspicious about the criminal justice system and the amount of trust that can be bestow upon them. The public has only focused on police but fail to realize that this goes deeper into the system itself. There have been many court cases where African Americans have received harsher punishments than Whites for very similar crimes. This shows that it may not only be one part of the system that are treating African Americans badly. There are multiple areas that misuse their power against them and this didn’t just start to occur recently this had been occurring for years.

Ever since the late 1700s, when all racial groups started to assimilate into the dominant culture in the United States, the tension between the police and this diversified population has largely been held in check, with a few incidents happening every now and then as a result of racial conflicts (Datesman, Crandall, and Kearny 180). However, in the past few years, the tension between police officers and the black community has become strained due to several high-profile incidents of fatal shootings by police. The acquittals of the police officers involved ultimately added fuel to this heated debate over abuse and misconduct of police (Wexler). To tackle the long-standing

For decades, America’s attention has been turned to the deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement. The roots of the outrage & unrest that often follow such killings go back much, much, much further. It is very obvious that there is a difficult relationship between law enforcement & the communities we are sworn to serve and protect. There are tons of studies proving police are implicitly biased against African Americans. Racism in law enforcement has had disastrous effects on society as evidenced by recent cases in the U.S.