Cause of Death: The Police
Despite a number of movements to lessen the effects of racism in America, it is still a hot topic in the news today, especially in light of many recent shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers. Correspondingly, this leads many to questions of whether or not the police can really be trusted to protect our rights, or are they targeting non-whites as the criminals? Today, police brutality against unarmed african americans is an increasing problem in the United States because of racial stigma within police agencies, leading to the disruption of communities nationwide with racial rioting for justice, along with leaving officers in fear for their lives, but there is a solution to this issue which with a …show more content…
A study conducted by Amherst psychology professor Allen Hart concluded that race affects information processing in many areas, such as perception, information storage during memory encoding, and information processing with recall and decision-making. The professor found that our brain is more likely to trust people that look similar to us. This trust comes from the amygdala, which has increased stimulation when seeing a different race. The amygdala is a part of the brain that regulates emotion, assesses trustworthiness, and manages fear, the three things involved in making use of force determinations by law enforcement(Haliburton, 320-334). Based on this study, it makes the shooting of black men by white police officers a little more understandable in the case of the officer. This is by no means an excuse for police to shoot anyone they don’t …show more content…
While these can be expensive, ranging from $800-1200 per camera, they have proven to be highly effective for all departments that have tried these out. The Community Oriented Policing Services(COPS) worked with the Police Executive Research Forum(PERF) to survey and interview roughly 250 police agencies about the use of body cameras on officers. Of these 250, only about 60 actively made use of body cameras. All agencies surveyed had greatly reduced police officer use of force lowered complaint numbers from citizens. They also noted that the cameras work well for evidence documentation on the scene, and prosecutors encourage the use of cameras to help as evidence to further court cases. These are the best option because the cameras can not lie about what happens during a dispute with a civilian. With cameras, there won’t be a question about who did what or had what during the scene. The camera data can be retrieved when a police-involved shooting occurs, or as a way for officer performance to be monitored. In case any complaints come up about an officer, someone in the department can review the tape of the accused officer, and the situation can be resolved. With cameras, police department managers can checkup on officers via the recordings and provide feedback for the officer to improve on. Hopefully, if another person is shot by an officer,
Despite a number of movements to lessen the effects of racism in America, it is still a hot topic in the news today, especially in light of many recent shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers. Correspondingly, this leads many to questions of whether or not the police can really be trusted to protect our rights, or are they targeting non-whites as the criminals? Today, police brutality against unarmed african americans is an increasing problem in the United States because of racial stigma within police agencies, leading to the disruption of communities nationwide with racial rioting for justice, along with leaving officers in fear for their lives, but there is a solution to this issue which with a …show more content…
A study conducted by Amherst psychology professor Allen Hart concluded that race affects information processing in many areas, such as perception, information storage during memory encoding, and information processing with recall and decision-making. The professor found that our brain is more likely to trust people that look similar to us. This trust comes from the amygdala, which has increased stimulation when seeing a different race. The amygdala is a part of the brain that regulates emotion, assesses trustworthiness, and manages fear, the three things involved in making use of force determinations by law enforcement(Haliburton, 320-334). Based on this study, it makes the shooting of black men by white police officers a little more understandable in the case of the officer. This is by no means an excuse for police to shoot anyone they don’t …show more content…
While these can be expensive, ranging from $800-1200 per camera, they have proven to be highly effective for all departments that have tried these out. The Community Oriented Policing Services(COPS) worked with the Police Executive Research Forum(PERF) to survey and interview roughly 250 police agencies about the use of body cameras on officers. Of these 250, only about 60 actively made use of body cameras. All agencies surveyed had greatly reduced police officer use of force lowered complaint numbers from citizens. They also noted that the cameras work well for evidence documentation on the scene, and prosecutors encourage the use of cameras to help as evidence to further court cases. These are the best option because the cameras can not lie about what happens during a dispute with a civilian. With cameras, there won’t be a question about who did what or had what during the scene. The camera data can be retrieved when a police-involved shooting occurs, or as a way for officer performance to be monitored. In case any complaints come up about an officer, someone in the department can review the tape of the accused officer, and the situation can be resolved. With cameras, police department managers can checkup on officers via the recordings and provide feedback for the officer to improve on. Hopefully, if another person is shot by an officer,