Black Police And Racial Profiling
1049 Words
5 Pages
Police brutality occurs when the police use force that exceeds what is necessary to accomplish lawful police practice. In many cases, police brutality comes as a direct result of racial profiling. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of committing a crime or an offense. Racial profiling directly affects African Americans, as they are presumed to be more likely to commit crimes than whites, Asians, or any other race. The recent epidemic of police brutality in the black community is a product of racial profiling. Dating back before the Civil Rights Movement, racial profiling has been a recurring history within the African American community. Within the last decade, police brutality targeted
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Young African American males between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, are killed at a rate of twenty-one times greater than whites of the same age (“11”) . According to police, sixty-seven percent of teens shot dead while resisting arrest were African American (“11”). In most cases of police brutality, police claim that the African American men posed a threat to them thus, giving them probable cause to shoot them. However, according to another report made by the FBI, seventy-one percent of young black men who were shot and killed had no gun or other weapons at the time they were killed (“11”). Police see young black males as second class citizens, lacking education, or knowledge of their rights as citizens. There is a common misconception among police that young black men are violent and pose a threat to their safety. Innocent young black men are often killed by police officers simply because of false accusations. On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer, Darren Wilson (“12”). Michael Brown and his friend were essentially stopped for jaywalking, yet Michael Brown ended up being shot six times. The exact circumstances of the shooting are still uncertain, but the fact that Michael Brown was unarmed at the time of shooting is not. The police released information suggesting that Brown was suspected of robbing a convience store of two handfuls of cigarrillos prior to being stopped by officer Darren Wilson (“12”). In this instance, the officer was never indicted for his act, despite the apparent use of excessive force in the case (“11”). Michael Brown, like many other young African American men, was targeted by the police based on the color of his skin, the clothes he wore, and even the neighborhoods he resided in. Racial profiling and police brutality among the young African American community is still
Young African American males between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, are killed at a rate of twenty-one times greater than whites of the same age (“11”) . According to police, sixty-seven percent of teens shot dead while resisting arrest were African American (“11”). In most cases of police brutality, police claim that the African American men posed a threat to them thus, giving them probable cause to shoot them. However, according to another report made by the FBI, seventy-one percent of young black men who were shot and killed had no gun or other weapons at the time they were killed (“11”). Police see young black males as second class citizens, lacking education, or knowledge of their rights as citizens. There is a common misconception among police that young black men are violent and pose a threat to their safety. Innocent young black men are often killed by police officers simply because of false accusations. On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri by police officer, Darren Wilson (“12”). Michael Brown and his friend were essentially stopped for jaywalking, yet Michael Brown ended up being shot six times. The exact circumstances of the shooting are still uncertain, but the fact that Michael Brown was unarmed at the time of shooting is not. The police released information suggesting that Brown was suspected of robbing a convience store of two handfuls of cigarrillos prior to being stopped by officer Darren Wilson (“12”). In this instance, the officer was never indicted for his act, despite the apparent use of excessive force in the case (“11”). Michael Brown, like many other young African American men, was targeted by the police based on the color of his skin, the clothes he wore, and even the neighborhoods he resided in. Racial profiling and police brutality among the young African American community is still