Michael Hatem
Dr. Kinnison
English 10
February 29, 2016
Who is Worse: Criminals or Police?
Do you think there is still racism in the world even today? Do you think racism has left the United States of America? Even after a being slave free country for more than 150 years? Have you ever thought , based on the color of your skin or what you believe, that you have a higher chance of being jumped, raped, or killed while walking on the street or in your home by another human. Imagine if this human was the person the country looks up at to protect the all neighborhoods and cities of the US. Police in the US are racist and discriminate against minorities. Policemen, especially white, have been notorious for killing African Americans,
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He was deemed not armed and loaded and not dangerous but was shot and killed anyways. This is one of the more extreme cases of police being racist but there is many more small things that account for all the police racism. In Ferguson one and three white males stopped on the street are carrying contraband. One in five black males stopped on the street were carrying contraband. This shows that police are more suspicious with black males rather than white males.
An African American policeman recently let the world know his standings on the racism within the police system, he starts off by saying, " As a kid, I got used to being stopped by the police. I grew up in an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. It was the kind of place where officers routinely roughed up my friends and family for no good reason
I hated the way cops treated me.
But I knew police weren’t all bad. One of my father’s closest friends was a cop. He became a mentor to me and encouraged me to join the force. He told me that I could use the police’s power and resources to help my community." He continues by talking about his experiences in the police force, " So in 1994, I joined the St. Louis Police Department. I quickly realized how naive I’d been. I was floored by the dysfunctional culture I encountered.
I won’t say all, but many of my peers were deeply racist.
One example: A couple of officers ran a Web site called St.
Since the Ferguson Missouri Incident in 2014 America seems to have turned its attention to racial discrimination and abuse by police more than usual, especially in the case of African Americans and Latinos Americans. Police have been shooting unarmed African Americans without just cause. These police are unfairly being let of the hook do to them being law biding officers making their word stronger than others. Law officers have discriminated against many African Americans in the past, but now America seems to see the mistake they have been making for centuries. The racial discrimination has gone on for so long that it’s become a lasting disturbance in Latino and African American culture. “As a kid, I got used to being stopped by the police. I grew up in an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. It was the kind of place where officers routinely roughed up my friends and family for no good reason.” Said Redditt Hudson of The Washington Post (2014). Racism has also
If it is a black person, it is police brutality and they are racist. It has nothing to do with the details of the incident or that they happen to be a criminal. The incident is never looked at and accessed by the facts, the person being stopped did not listen to or obey the police, resisted arrest, and these reasons lead to the shooting. Basically, the root cause of the incident started when the person getting stopped did not obey the
The violence that some officers exude to minorities should only be used in extreme, desperate situations not when a teen steals some cigars or is walking home with a hood on. Besides showing an interest in racial justice and issues of race helps to break down barriers, exposed as false perceived misunderstandings, and shed light on commonly held perceptions of a race-infused
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)
Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict
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.
The history of Police Brutality for minorities; especially people of color has left America wondering have times changed. Police brutality has deemed the opportunity for socioeconomic advancement or access to good and services for many Black/African Americans dating back as far as 1955. The system of Police brutality has affected many realms of society for minorities’ employment and family life. After some scholarly research, police brutality is still prevalent in the Black/African American community; moreover, it comes in many different forms and fashions. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use
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
Racism and police brutality in America” by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson touch upon racism and brutality in America. Their article talks about respecting the cops but they also mention police brutality through stories from people that experienced this. Although Satzewich and Shaffir reached out to people to cops to write about their personal experiences and thoughts about racial profiling, Chaney and Robertson’s article is a stronger source because they used several sources and focus on both sides of the situation.
They might assume someone was shot or killed by a police officer becauses of racism. Many times that is not the case. On August 9, 2014, eighteen year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Wilson a white Ferguson Police officer (“Ferguson Protests: What we know about...”). This caused many riots throughout the country. The problem though is that some people were protesting because they thought that there was racism involved in the shooting (The 2014 Ferguson protests over the Michael Brown …”). There has been many different eyewitness accounts of the shooting. Some people think the Officer Wilson shooting an unarmed teenager is an example of police brutality, but what some people don’t know is what happened leading up to shooting. Brown and a friend of his were caught on camera stealing alcohol from a local liquor store. They were then walking down the middle of the street at midnight with the stolen goods when Officer Wilson showed up and asked them to move out of the middle of the road. Wilson sees that the two men looked like the suspects for the store robbery and stops his car to block the road. When Wilson starts talking to the men, Brown tries to take Wilson’s gun from him and fires two shots into the police vehicle. Then Brown starts running the other direction, taunting the officer, as Wilson pursues him. When Brown stops running he turns around and starts charging Officer Wilson. Wilson fired multiple fatal shots at Brown, killing him. The events from the shooting prove that there was no racism involved at all in Officer Wilson’s decision to fire his gun at
A 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, a black driver by Jason Stockley a former white officer from St Louis resulted in a massive violent protest this September when Stockley was announced innocent and murder charges were dropped. The fact that victim was black caused such a massive outrage in the St. Louis city. Would the city respond the same however if the victim was white? It turns out no. In Fresno California unarmed Dylan Noble was shot by police. Officers had received a report of a man carrying a rifle but really just found noble speeding in his pickup truck. When he was pulled over at a gas station Noble got out of the truck and was acting suspicious.
To prove his case, the author cites various statistics and incidents that demonstrate that these incidents are not accidents but manifestations of a larger problem. Granderson quotes CNN poll statistics that state that almost half of the white respondent in the poll affirmatively stated that none or almost none of the police in their neighborhoods are not prejudiced against African Americans. Contrastingly, only thirty-five percent of non-whites are of this opinion. Additionally, Granderson relates his own experiences with racial profiling (Granderson,
CHICAGO- Since our social media has been shedding more and more light on police brutality, the kind people of the Windy City shared their feelings and experiences about their unkind law enforcement. Those feelings and experiences shared were negative, and expressed with fear and dissatisfaction. These same feelings that have persisted throughout the years and especially today. These Chicagoans also express their agreement with Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Amanuel, and his idea of recruiting more minorities for law enforcement.
This reaction paper is based on a black police officer, Edward Raymond serving in the N.Y.P.D. whom from an early age had a rough upcoming. Being part of the minority Raymond experienced firsthand the difficulties growing up with gang violence around him, drug selling and even frequent killings. Although being around all these activities Raymond never chose to partake in any of them but rather focused on working and attending school. Raymond at his young age was described as having a powerful, rigid sense of morality, despite the fact of always talking about the troubles of gang violence and drugs, he was frequently stopped by the police at least once a week.
In many cases law enforcement likes to do justify many of their wrongdoings on the hunch that he was “just doing his job” in the instance of killing or brutality injuring an innocent man or child for being somewhere at the wrong place or time can be validated with a simple statement (Kiely 209). Similar to when Paul was once telling Quinn “It’s harder to be a cop here now than it used to be” (Kiely 167). Nostalgically thinking back on time when Whites made up majority of the town's population and minorities precisely made up a unreasonably small fraction less than half thus implying that because there are more minority races particularly African Americans taking occupancy, the town has become more prone to violence, stealing, and other crimes . According to The New York Times, “In 15 high-profile cases involving deaths of Blacks, one officer faces prison time” (Lee). Implicating that only one officer out of 15 cases was convicted for the crime he committed and the others were given a leave of absences from duty. For the families of those who didn’t receive rightful justice they were granted payouts to pay for funeral expenses leaving the officer able to walk away scot free acquitted of all charges. However, thankfully the family does walk away with a hefty amount of money but, at the expense of their love one’s life. Racism within law enforcement takes so many innocent lives each year on account of just because of race alone regardless if a crime was committed or not. However, society as well is a major component revolved around