Andrew Faubel
Final Project
English 1520
24 August 2015
Police Brutality in the United States Imagine that you are driving down the highway, probably on your way back home from a long day at work. There aren’t many cars on the road, so you decide to speed up in order to get home faster. While speeding, you’re also most likely on the lookout for police officers, making sure they don’t catch you breaking the law. I feel that this is a fairly common occurrence for many Americans. Speeding isn’t that harsh of a crime, everyone does it, but you are still worried of possibly being pulled over and given a ticket. Now unless you were committing a much harsher crime than speeding, you might not have any reason to fear the police. Their job is to protect …show more content…
Despite how far we have come as a country, and the laws that we have passed that guarantee equality for all, racism still exists today. A majority of incidents of police brutality occur in the south, a notoriously racist part of the country. No police officer is going to admit that they have prejudices against a certain race, but when they interact with people they dislike, there is more the chance of the altercation becoming violent. What I think the problem currently is that news networks and the media seem to make each incident of police brutality on a person of color into a hate crime. Because of the way the media reports these incidents, it causes uproar in those communities, and in return, creates an overall strong dislike for the police. The African-American community feels that they are a target, and that they must do something in order to protect themselves, because they cannot count on the police to do it for them. Police brutality happens no matter what race is involved, but the media seems to exclusively report on incidents that they know will cause uproar. After Ferguson, a movement started in the country called “Black Lives Matter.” They have organized in many cities and peacefully protested their anger towards the police. In my mind, however, this is taking a step back from the issue. Racism is not the issue at hand, it is the constant abuse of power and excessive force used by individuals not fit to wear a police officer’s uniform. Despite what the media may tell you, African-Americans are not exclusive victims of excessive police force. It can be any person, of any race, and of any
Final Project
English 1520
24 August 2015
Police Brutality in the United States Imagine that you are driving down the highway, probably on your way back home from a long day at work. There aren’t many cars on the road, so you decide to speed up in order to get home faster. While speeding, you’re also most likely on the lookout for police officers, making sure they don’t catch you breaking the law. I feel that this is a fairly common occurrence for many Americans. Speeding isn’t that harsh of a crime, everyone does it, but you are still worried of possibly being pulled over and given a ticket. Now unless you were committing a much harsher crime than speeding, you might not have any reason to fear the police. Their job is to protect …show more content…
Despite how far we have come as a country, and the laws that we have passed that guarantee equality for all, racism still exists today. A majority of incidents of police brutality occur in the south, a notoriously racist part of the country. No police officer is going to admit that they have prejudices against a certain race, but when they interact with people they dislike, there is more the chance of the altercation becoming violent. What I think the problem currently is that news networks and the media seem to make each incident of police brutality on a person of color into a hate crime. Because of the way the media reports these incidents, it causes uproar in those communities, and in return, creates an overall strong dislike for the police. The African-American community feels that they are a target, and that they must do something in order to protect themselves, because they cannot count on the police to do it for them. Police brutality happens no matter what race is involved, but the media seems to exclusively report on incidents that they know will cause uproar. After Ferguson, a movement started in the country called “Black Lives Matter.” They have organized in many cities and peacefully protested their anger towards the police. In my mind, however, this is taking a step back from the issue. Racism is not the issue at hand, it is the constant abuse of power and excessive force used by individuals not fit to wear a police officer’s uniform. Despite what the media may tell you, African-Americans are not exclusive victims of excessive police force. It can be any person, of any race, and of any