Police Brutality In The 20th Century

Decent Essays
Centuries ago, dating back to the 1950’s, African-Americans were treated unfairly yet unhuman. All due to the color of their skin. During the segregation era, blacks were beaten, hosed, hung, flung to the ground, majority of them killed with no motive. Now, the reasoning behind so many killings were not for bad reasons, thousands just wanted to be discerned, to vote, to be educated, and to be treated equal. The men put in place to protect the community and citizens at this time were in the police for all the wrong reasons. During this time, their main job was to torture these blacks to keep the society pure, free from color and to let those of the other race know that they did not belong there.
In 2015 alone, the statistics of police brutality

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Decade of Decadence: Racial Divide and Police Brutality in the 80s The early to mid-1980s were a time of relative political and social stability in the United States. A handful of laws promoting equality were enacted, such as Wisconsin outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the Supreme Court’s ruling outlawing sexual harassment in the workplace (Dreier, 2015). While war raged on in other parts of the world, the majority of U.S. citizens lived in relative comfort and satisfaction. Still struggling, however, was the U.S.’ African American population.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    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.…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Since January 1st of last year, 1,502 people were shot and killed by a police officer on duty in America. Of those deaths, 381 were African American. Although that number doesn’t seem very large at first glance, the African American population only makes up 13% of the overall U.S population, making this statistic quite alarming (Lowery, 2016). Police brutality towards African American’s has been a prevalent issue in recent years, which in-turn has created a movement referred to as Black Lives Matter. The message behind Black Lives Matter is that every person deserves equal rights and treatment, no matter their skin color or race.…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Frederick Douglass and many African-Americans today believe that the killing of a black person is not treated as a crime in the criminal justice system. During Fredrick Douglass Era colored people were getting killed all the time and we are not investigated for the atrocities they committed. Similarly, recent years the American public has seen countless deaths of unarmed African americans like Freddy Gray and Michael Brown killed by caucasian police officers go unpunished .In today’s society an increasing amount of African Americans believe the lives of black males are not valued in the American criminal justice system due to the growing amount of police officers have not been indicted for the murders they committed. The American criminal justice system has shown the black community that it values police officers more than black lives.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police Brutality, what sort of thoughts and feelings do you get when you hear those words? Can you believe those to words shake an entire community. To me, those are two words that shouldn’t even be uttered in the same sentence but here we are; he we are in America, the home of the free, yet we’re still fighting for our freedom. Being an African American in America isn’t easy, especially when those who are here to help us, harm us. Especially when our voices haven’t been heard, after decades.…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    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.…

    • 1924 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Allan Geary Mr.Murphy 7 January, 2015 Police Brutality in America In result of the recent events and heavy media coverage like the case of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the controversy of excessive force and police brutality has become more renown than ever before. The use of excessive force by police officers has been growing despite the protection offered in the Constitution for citizens against such drastic measures. The term “Police Brutality” and what it encompases appears to have a varying definition with the justice system. Police Brutality is formally defined as the “wanton use of excessive force, usually physical, but also common in forms of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer.”…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Black Lives Matter” Movement & Police Brutality As much as the subjects of “Black Lives Matter” and police brutality are getting stale and cliché, unfortunately it is still an issue that will not be corrected by hushed complaints and sweeping under the rug. However, this problem is not brand new; it has only escalated. Racial discrimination began in the times of slavery and has been an issue since—well forever. The discrimination has been toughest on minorities—like the African-American community. Along with the racial discrimination from society itself, some police and law enforcement figures have often abused their power and taken advantage of their place in the majority race.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When you think about it this has been a problem since the 1900 and it is still continues today and if we don’t stop it now than it's just going to get worst and worst for mankind. Then I think that police brutality is one out of 10 bad things that goes on in the United States and it might be a problem in other countries. Like In the book the night it was about Jews in the struggle to survive. I can honestly say as a black man it is very hard to stay alive in such a cruel world.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Police Brutality in America has become a new plague, it has infiltrated our country, and has exposed a dark side of the justice system. Thousands of cases involving police brutality are reported yearly, and thousands of incidents go unreported as well. Incidents of police brutality go unreported because of fear. The American justice system is being ran by fear, causing uncertainty for citizens of America. The terrifying idea of waking up to a news report stating that a person has died at the hands of a police officer for no logical or specified reason has become a reality in modern day America.…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For over three hundred years, law enforcement departments in the U.S. have been targeting male African Americans. In many cases, the officers of the law use dishonest tactics in order to make false arrests, but it does not stop there, they often murder innocent people. It is a common event nowadays; you can see it in mass media: “another African American got killed by the police.” It happens over, and over. Furthermore, those tactics are not random acts committed by officers alone; in several instances, these acts are protected by their superiors.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Police brutality has been a problem for over a century, but it’s always been over looked by the American justice system. According to Mintpress news a Minneapolis newspaper article states “So far in 2015, U.S. police killed 776 people, 161 of whom were completely unarmed at the time of their death.” In the 2012 case of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo CNN news states that “Judge John P. O’Donnell decided that Brelo was not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the 2012 deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams following a 22-mile car chase.” Looking at this verdict a lot feel that Brelo should have been found guilty, but in my opinion all the officers who fired their guns that day should be found guilty in the…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout African American history “…whites have…always applied various forms of coercion ranging from …torture…lynching…slave codes, black codes, and Jim Crow laws” to police black people into obedience (Davenport, et al. 155). Policing black people in this violent manner allowed for their exploitation at the hands of white people. Any act of rebellion or protest would have been put to a stop through harsh, violent, and sometimes deadly tactics. The act of over policing African Americans in order to uphold the status quo is still in place today and has led to the issue of police brutality. Because police brutality is an issue that African Americans have faced for a long time, the #BlackLivesMatter movement arose not only as a response to recent events but as a stance against the years of injustice imposed upon black…

    • 2226 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Also, Americans often argue whether police brutality is targeting blacks or is the media just covering more on blacks then other Americans. Lastly, question and concern have been brought up on how to prevent police brutality significantly. Furthermore, Police brutality is racially motivated which can be prevented using non-lethal weapons such as Tasers and body cameras. Also, the government should be giving…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The literature on the topic of police brutality encompasses various areas ranging from police-suspect interactions to the bias attitudes developed by particular communities in response to police brutality. There are four areas of literature to be reviewed pertaining most to my topic. First, the literature proposes how the identities of an individual affect their opinions of law enforcement, which formulates their response to interactions with the police. Next, I will examine literature surrounding social policing ecology or the tendencies of the police. Subsequently, I will explore federal government laws and policies the directly affect law enforcement conduct.…

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays