Stephon Clark Research Paper

Studies have shown that an officer is more likely to even just pull over a person of color in higher-crime neighborhoods. In the cities San Francisco, Ferguson, Chicago, Greensboro, New York, and Maricopa, it is found that police officers tend to target individuals who are African American to pull over, but in all of these cities it is found that the white counterparts have a significantly higher rate of holding contraband--goods that have been imported or exported illegally--in their vehicles (Makarechi 1). A law enforcement officer’s decision making can also be influenced by the number of bystanders present. An officer is also more likely to apply force to his/her suspect when in an unnerving setting. For example, an officer will be more on edge when in an alley at night than he/she will be on the side of a highway at

Over the years, there have been numerous cases of African-American men being shot and killed by white police officers. According to many of these police officers, it was just a rapid decision to pull the trigger. Correspondingly, implicit biases have resulted in these ideologies, making African-American men seem more violent than white men. In fact, there are many studies that demonstrate how police officers are affected by implicit biases. For example, a study had college students play a computer game where the objective was to shoot dangerous armed

Christopher Matthewson also known as “Big Six”, “the Christian gentlemen”, “Matty”, and “Gentleman’s Hurler” played Major League Baseball and was a right handed pitcher and played seventeen seasons with the New York Giants. He was voted the most dominant pitcher in the history of baseball and is ranked in the top ten in many key pitching groups, including wins, shutouts, and ERA, if taking 19th century pitchers statistics into account. Otherwise Matthewson and Walter Johnson would hold the distinction of being the only two pitchers placed in the top ten in both career wins and ERA. In 1936 Christopher got called to be into the Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame, as one of its first couple players. (Wikipedia)

For example, 76% of crime report in local news stations in Chicago depicted a black perpetrator for their leading stories (Entman, 1990). This coverage works to provide stereotypes on the assumption of black people as dangerous, sub-human, and inherently criminal. Moreover, in comparison to white criminals who were not shown in holding or mug shots, black criminals are frequently shown handcuffed in police holding (Entman, 1990) The association of black people with symbols of menace increases the apprehensive and negative beliefs required for systemic racism (Entman, 1990). As a result of extensive circulation of negative stereotypes, it becomes imbedded in the social psyche that violence and discrimination are reasonable merits to be employed against these people as they are seen as a threat to social stability. In effect, there is little accountability for violence against blacks by members of law enforcement and many officers are not indicted for the murder of blacks, or else face menial sentences (Chancey& Robertson, 2015). The underlying attitude of disregard towards black lives enables institutionalized racism, which is transferred to the general public, and is justified by the negative stereotypes fabricated by the ruling white class (Chancey& Robertson, 2015). For example, from “January 1

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

Robert Davis was an African American man. He was not a “thug,” he was not a “drunk,” he was a retired school teacher from New Orleans who was in his sixties. He was brutally attacked by three police officers. He suffered a broken nose and other broken bones in his face. The incident was recorded and went viral. Davis was arrested but faced no charges. Three police officers were charged but only two went to trial. In the end, two of the police officers were fired — the third never made it to trial because he had committed suicide. Davis was compensated for the assault.

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.

Jamar clark African American, 24 years old was shot by the minneapolis police on november 15 2015. Two officers were involved Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, protestants of black life matters and other institutions that support civil rights are unsatisfied because no charges were pressed against the two officer. In my opinion the death of Jamar Clark is not justified with enough evidence that proves the innocence of the officers.

In the year 2018, there are still numerous signs of racial bias that’s evident throughout the criminal justice system. The way in which policing tries to serve and protect the major population is sometimes seen being done in discriminating ways. Racial profiling is another key contributor to racial bias throughout America especially towards African Americans. African Americans are noticeably given harsher sentences than whites in situations where the offense was the same for both. There are deviant and corrupt agents throughout much of the criminal justice system and it still hasn’t been addressed properly in a way that everyone starts to understand the negative impacts that are being done together. Some police officers may feel the need to

Implicit biases can lead to race-based policing even without making a conscious decision to do so. Evidence proves that African Americans and Latinos are stopped for traffic offenses more frequently than Whites even though they do not commit more traffic offenses than Whites. (Richardson, 2015) One study revealed that police “officers were more likely to see weapons in the hands of unarmed Black individuals than in the hands of unarmed White individuals as a result of implicit bias” (Richardson). These discoveries mirror studies indicating that racial biases lead people to interpret the actions of Black individuals more suspiciously than they would interpret the same actions if they were performed by White individuals. (Richardson)

The presence of implicit bias in the police department can further be manifested from the fact that during the years 2007-2011 police shot around 104 people out of which 11 deaths could not be justified even by the officials of the police department themselves. Further aggravating the gravity of the situation is the fact that eight out of these 11 unjustified deaths that took place were of unarmed black people depicting the state of implicit bias in the police

In the article, “Shooting of Philando Castile”, on Wikapedia.org, Officer Jeronimo Yanez comes face to face with his own implicit bias when pulling over African American, Philando Castile and his passenger when believed to be matching the description of a local robbery occurring moments before. Officer Jeronimo Yanez made a personal discretion on the African American when suspecting he was reaching for a gun when asked to pull out his license and registration. Officer Jeronimo was alerted “Castile told the officer he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in his pants pocket” (“Shooting of Philando Castile”). Officer Jeronimo Yanez takes it upon himself to follow through and shoot Philando when fearing he was reaching to pull out a gun, ultimately resulting in the fatal injury of Philando Castile. Suddenly, implicit bias clouded Officer Yanez discretion leading him to make a split decision. In this case, and in an overall aspect in the criminal justice system and it is an individual’s moral responsibility to take control and either except the bias or take an alternative route and do something about it rather than ignore

Garfield, is an American comic character created by Jim Davis in 1978. It tells the story of a cat named Garfield, his owner Jon and their dog named Odie. I all started in 1970 when the comic artist Jim Davis decided to take a troll of the comic books in order to introduce a new, interesting and relatable character and he realized that dogs were doing great but there were no cats at that time. Davis figured that as he grew up on a farm with 25 cats, he could come up with a strip based on cats. He then continued to create a strip with a cat as its main character and thus created Garfield.

These days, police are often stereotyped as aggressive, corrupt beings. The growing hatred for police officers widens the divide between citizens and law enforcement, causing tension and intensely aggressive feelings on both ends. The recent shootings of young African-American men have also added to the societal hatred of law enforcement. Through media exposure, these shootings have been portrayed as cruel, often times revealing the victim to be an unarmed man.

Racial Bias are a direct correlation to police violence against African Americans, stereotypes perpetuated by social constructions and media representation along with individual prejudice help by police officers view African Americans as a threat especially African American men. Police trust this ideology of “threat” to assist in their use of excessive force against African Americans to comply. (Tyler, 2011; Tyler et al., 2015, Skinner, Haas,2016).