Sandra Bland, a 28-year woman, dead. Trayvon Martin, an 18 year old boy, dead. Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old male, dead. Tamir Rice, a 12-year old boy, dead.…
There was a history of distrust in this town with such a predominately black community and largely white police force, but this event brought an upheave of anger. Following this event riots broke out in Ferguson. People were attacking police, burning buildings, looting, and chanting “No Justice, No Peace” This event was again a racial divisions between the white population and the black…
On June 14th 2015, New York Times wrote an article Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garner’s Death. This article explained the aftermath of his death a year ago. When I first watched the horrific events on my television, I knew it showed an occurrence that I will not forget. Watching the man getting chokehold to death disgusted me. It made me think about how policemen can even possibly think about performing such actions.…
The Veil and its Horrors The Veil created many terrifying effects in the past years, especially on African Americans such as discrimination. African Americans feared the Veil as it damaged their family and segregated them from others. Du Bois felt the Veil separated Africans Americans and whites primarily hurting African Americans. As Du Bois grew up he noticed another side to the way people viewed him as a person.…
In those cases, rarely was the officer fired, or sentenced to any jail time. Mathematically, in a city with a population of 20,000, if 25% of those people were black, in 48 years, you could eliminate the black population with those…
On March 3, 1991, after a fifteen-minute high-speed car chase, four white police officers brutally beat up an African American named Rodney King, who lay unarmed and helpless on the ground (Davis 67). Bothered by the lights and noise, George Holliday awoke in his nearby apartment and recorded the entire beating on his video camera. The video displayed the officers violently hitting him over fifty times with metallic batons, as well as kicking and shoving him to the rough asphalt. The recording was shown repeatedly on television through news broadcasts, shocking citizens across the nation about the excessive force used by police officers and the underlying motives of racism. Anger among African Americans increased when the trial took place in Simi Valley, California, a predominantly white and conservative suburb.…
Police brutality is becoming a major problem in today’s society. It has been an ongoing issue throughout the world. As society grows, the existence of police brutality become more of an issue. The issue posed by illegal use of power is ongoing reality for people of a disfavored race or sexual orientation. Police brutality remains as one of the most divisive human rights in the world.…
In his essay “For Cops…” Kevin Johnson claims that videos of police officers are placing their actions under new scrutiny and changing the way that claims against officers are played out in court. Police have responded by trying to limit such recordings when they feel that they interfere with police actions. The fear that is most present in law enforcement is that these videos will cause officers to change how they behave in a life or death situation. To combat this, officers are now receiving training to deal with being recorded.…
In 1992 there is yet another civil case involving this police brutality. This case involved Rodney King and the Los Angeles Police Department. The four officers involved in this case beat King for 10 minutes nearly taking his life. The four officers of course did not see their actions as adhering to police brutality which is quite unbelievable. There were four men all beating on one for several minutes, it is clear the man will quickly become defenseless.…
Just as in the Memphis riots police acted irresponsibly and unethically to attack African Americans perhaps based on their political views or downright racism. The actions of the police placed many lives in danger and contradicted their job description as police…
Steven Magee once said, “Corrupt and incompetent police officers have a long history of being protected by their colleagues, police internal affairs and the government”. (Magee) There are as much good police officers as there are corrupt ones. There are as many good people in society as there are bad. There is as much good in society as there is bad.…
Police brutality is a very sensitive and controversial topic of discussion in the United States. Police brutality occurs when an officer uses excessive or unnecessary force when dealing with other people. Police have been under a microscope recently to make sure that their actions are necessary and appropriate for the situation that they are in due to the fact that there has been widespread media coverage of police brutality. This media coverage has allowed people to examine how police officers go about their business and determine whether or not they think that the police officer’s actions are just. Police brutality has been the cause for protest and the formation of movements such as “Black Lives Matter”.…
Since the beginning and the ending of slavery, police brutality has been strongly incorporated in the African American communities. The beatings, shootings, and the result of rioting has been nothing new against African Americans. The term “police brutality” was first used in America as early as 1872 when the Chicago Tribune reported on the beating of a civilian under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station. Police brutality can often be defined as the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. If one thinks of the term “police brutality” in relating to African Americans, what may come to mind is names such as “Rodney King”, “Eric Garner”, “Sandra Bland”, “Freddie Gray”.…
One aspect of police profiling that has received a great deal of attention in the news lately, although it has been a problem for many years, is racial profiling, when a police officer targets people based on their skin color or ethnic background (“Racial Profiling: Definition”). Often, people respond to this through riots, such as in 1992, when Rodney King was beaten down by four police officers. Even though this event was captured on video, the officers involved were acquitted of any wrongdoing. A six-day riot followed, totalling in over one billion dollars in damages. There has also been a number of smaller scale riots and protests recently as a result of racial…
Throughout history, African Americans, as a group, endure various forms of brutality. Long ago in the United States, entire towns would capture innocent African Americans and kill them in mobs. This horrendous act is known as lynching. Now, while African American brutality exists on a smaller scale than it used to, it still occurs in exorbitant amounts. One of the most infamous cases of police brutality against a black person was that of Rodney King.…