Summary Of The Sociological Inquiry By J. Scott Carter

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)

With so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. The issues surrounding the topic of race is like the two faces of the same coin as there are usually two sides that we have to consider: reality and media portrayals. The reality side of situations is always there at the time, but it is so subtly hidden from society that nobody understands it unless they witness it firsthand and with the media spreading filtered information, it becomes even harder for us to identify the key issue; this is especially the case when dealing with the police and racial profiling. If you turn on the news and flip to a channel where it is reporting on the police and their arrests, you will most likely see more arrests pertaining to minorities than other ethnicities. In the news, we can often see a misrepresentation of ethnic minorities, usually African-Americans, being arrested when compared to others and this has caused problems around societies countless times. For this essay topic, I will be discussing the different issues surrounding race within the parameters of criminal justice and inequality; furthermore I will be

Over the last two years in the United States the African-American people have been fighting a war within our own backyards. The Washington Post reports that since January 2015, the police have shot and killed over 175 young black men ranging from ages 18-29; 24 of them were unarmed. On the flip side 172 young white men were killed, only 18 being unarmed. With these statistics there are similarities in the numbers but, blacks were killed at rates disproportional to their percentage of U.S population (1.Washington Post). Of all unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015. With 40% being black men make up just 6% of the nation’s populations. In the wake of the killings of Mike Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and many more the world has been made more publicly aware of injustices black people have to handle when dealing with law enforcement. Crime in the black community is nothing new in the black community or should I say black on black crime. There is a bad stereotype that has been put on black people since slavery times that I believe has help fueled the violence between the police and my people.

Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years, there has been a history of tension and conflict between the police and minority communities in the United States. In principle, the police exist to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of race or ethnic background, yet police departments across the country have been repeatedly accused of targeting and harassing racial minorities, and of failing to root out racist attitudes and practices within their ranks. In recent years, high profile cases such as the beating of Rodney King in Los Angles and the assault on Abner Louima in New York have only served to heighten concerns over the mistreatment of minorities by the police, resulting in widespread calls for major legal and institutional reforms. The recent shootings of Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Terrance Crutcher underscore the danger Black men and boys face when they cross paths with law enforcement officers. In the absence of a coordinated national strategy, state and local police departments have largely been left to develop their own solutions to the problems of policing minority communities and improving cultural sensitivity amongst their officers. Many departments have sought to reform recruitment and selection policies in the hope of attracting greater numbers of minority applicants, while others have instituted diversity training and education programs aimed at improving police understanding of minority cultures and communities. To date, however, these efforts have yielded mixed results. Some departments have achieved notable successes, but on the whole, relations between the police and minority communities across the country remain strained. of cultural diversity and the police.

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

The police violence cases have gained popularity in the recent years with some of the community members terming the scenarios as post-racial experiences (Gilmore, 2004). Arguments have been established suggesting that the society lives or exists in two nations. One of the nations is perceived to consist of the blacks and the rest being the whites. The various views concerning the citizens in the US contributed to the members of the community initiating a program to assist in curbing injustices existing concerning the racial differences. The directive of this report is to identify the issues contributing to the increased racial segregation and police brutality in the society.

Lee sigelamn,George Washington University,Susan Welch Pennsylvania state university, Timothy Bledsoe, Wayne State university, Michael Combs, University of Nebraska. “Police Brutality and public perceptions on racial Discrimination: A tale of two beatings”.

"Relations between the police and minority groups are a continuing problem in many multiracial societies. Surveys consistently document racial differences in perceptions of the police, with minorities more likely than whites to harbor negative views." (Weitzer and Tuch, Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct, 2004)

African Americans, Whites, and Hispanics often perceive American social institutions, including the criminal justice system in starkly different terms. Research has shown that race is one of the most salient predictors of attitudes toward the police and other criminal justice institutions: African Americans are more likely than whites to express dissatisfaction with various aspects of policing. Whites tend to hold a favorable opinion of the police, favor aggressive law enforcement, and are skeptical of criticisms of the police. African Americans and Hispanics, however, are more included to viewing the police as contributing to their subordination through both legal and extralegal practices, as frequently involved in mistreatment of minority citizens. Their position increases the chance that they will see police misconduct as both a general problem and one that particularly afflicts Hispanics and African Americans. The reality is that most African Americans and Hispanics, like many Whites, want law enforcement amplified, though they want it achieved in a fashion that reduces abuses. (Weitzer & Tuch, Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct, 2004)

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

Sigelman, L., Welch, S., Bledsoe, T., & Combs, M., (1997, December). Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Tale of Two Beatings. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 777-791.

In the article “Minority Threat and Police Brutality: Determinants of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints in U.S. Municipalities” Malcolm Holmes argues that “It is hardly surprising that many minority citizens distrust the criminal justice system, just as many criminal justice agents distrust them and that nowhere is that tension more apparent than in the relations between minorities and the police” (Holmes 2000, p. 1). The unjustified shootings, severe beatings, and rough treatment have all contributed to the present problem of police brutality in the U.S. Most of these incidents stay un-reported or un-

The author argues that black citizens are more likely to perceive police as racially biased for both of the police organizations – the city police and the highway patrol police. The data for this study are taken from North Carolina Highway Traffic study of 2920 black and white licensed drivers. The findings from the study conclude that on average black trust the city police and the highway police less than do whites. Three percent of blacks compared to one percent of whites reported about the disrespectful treatments by the local police in the last year. Blacks reported more disrespectful treatment by the highway patrol police officers and the local police officers when compared to white counterparts. In terms of vicarious experience, 3 percent of blacks compared to 2 percent of whites reported hearing stories of disrespectful treatment and police bias from their family members and friends. Eighty-one percent of blacks versus only 33 percent of whites perceived police as racially biased in their report. Therefore majority of the African American citizens believed that the police are racially biased against them. They also reported about their lower levels of trust in police across the city (local) and the state police because of their negative and vicarious experiences with the police. The paper concludes by stating that police organizations need to monitor the policing practices in order to bring back trust from the African American citizens and to build an unbiased and fair policing system across the country (Warren, 2010). This paper is particularly relevant to my paper because it is a major paradigm of inequality of race and criminal justice system, which include

As my point of discussion, I chose to review the concept of ethnicity and policing, therefore, I chose to review the journal article “Racism and Police Brutality in America” by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson (2013). The initial concept of the article was to identify he changes that have been made in law enforcement since the Rodney King incident of 1991. Additionally, a consensus of how law enforcement is view by the community was to be gauged from the findings of the investigation.

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.