There is a one in three chance that a black man in America will be incarcerated during his lifetime. Given the recent decision by a grand jury not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of 18 year-old Michael Brown, I decided to research some of the most common racial issues found in law enforcement. In this paper I will argue that our system of law enforcement and criminal justice is systemically racialized and disproportionately targets and disadvantages black men. The racism found within law enforcement is a result of continued racism throughout our society. Michael Brown’s case is useful in exposing these injustices, and hopefully the Ferguson decision will spark concrete change in our views of race and our system of law enforcement
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In the 1990s in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, “40 to 50 percent of black males between the ages of 18 and 35 were either in prison, jail, on probation or parole, or there was a warrant for their arrest. William Chambliss, a former professor at George Washington University, conducted a study for several years of the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) of Washington, D.C. Chambliss observed that the RDU patrolled heavily black neighborhoods constantly, especially looking for cars with young black men inside them. Young black men driving cars assumed to be favored by drug dealers such as Honda Accords and BMWs were nearly always stopped. Police officers would see a “suspicious car” and look to see if it had any minor violations like a broken taillight in order to justify the stop. Chambliss reported that officers told him that at times they would stop a car and break a taillight as they approached the car. Chambliss’s work also indicated that search warrants were carried out differently in black communities compared to whit ones. For example, officers were much more likely to enter the apartment of a black man with guns drawn. Chambliss argues that racism is institutionalized through the extensive surveillance of black communities. In these communities police officers define social problems such as crime in general, most specifically drug use, as a …show more content…
Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department have begun their own investigation on the history of discriminatory use of force in Ferguson, and the FBI opened a civil rights inquiry into the shooting on August 11. Holder cited the “deep mistrust” between police officers and citizens as the primary reason for the investigation. The investigation will go beyond the death of Michael Brown and will “analyze police use of force, traffic stops, searches and the treatment of detainees.” In St. Louis County and Ferguson, like many other places in America, state statistics have shows that blacks are more likely to be pulled over and arrested for traffic violations than whites. The Justice Department will also investigate whether Officer Wilson used unreasonable force, but building a case against him will be difficult because prosecutors would have to prove that Wilson intended from the beginning to violate Brown’s constitutional
In the 1990s in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, “40 to 50 percent of black males between the ages of 18 and 35 were either in prison, jail, on probation or parole, or there was a warrant for their arrest. William Chambliss, a former professor at George Washington University, conducted a study for several years of the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) of Washington, D.C. Chambliss observed that the RDU patrolled heavily black neighborhoods constantly, especially looking for cars with young black men inside them. Young black men driving cars assumed to be favored by drug dealers such as Honda Accords and BMWs were nearly always stopped. Police officers would see a “suspicious car” and look to see if it had any minor violations like a broken taillight in order to justify the stop. Chambliss reported that officers told him that at times they would stop a car and break a taillight as they approached the car. Chambliss’s work also indicated that search warrants were carried out differently in black communities compared to whit ones. For example, officers were much more likely to enter the apartment of a black man with guns drawn. Chambliss argues that racism is institutionalized through the extensive surveillance of black communities. In these communities police officers define social problems such as crime in general, most specifically drug use, as a …show more content…
Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department have begun their own investigation on the history of discriminatory use of force in Ferguson, and the FBI opened a civil rights inquiry into the shooting on August 11. Holder cited the “deep mistrust” between police officers and citizens as the primary reason for the investigation. The investigation will go beyond the death of Michael Brown and will “analyze police use of force, traffic stops, searches and the treatment of detainees.” In St. Louis County and Ferguson, like many other places in America, state statistics have shows that blacks are more likely to be pulled over and arrested for traffic violations than whites. The Justice Department will also investigate whether Officer Wilson used unreasonable force, but building a case against him will be difficult because prosecutors would have to prove that Wilson intended from the beginning to violate Brown’s constitutional