Black men in particular were and still are portrayed as overly aggressive and hypersexual. In Native Son, the main character, Bigger, was described in the newspapers as a “negro rapist and killer” (Wright 256). Although Bigger did kill Mary Dalton, he did not rape her. Law enforcement and the media had no evidence what so ever that Bigger had raped Mary, they pinned that crime of him because of the stereotypes of black men in that society. An officer with these negative perceptions of people of color instilled in their mind, they feel the need to abuse their power to remind themselves that they are the ones that should be feared. But in reality, it shows how the police officers are the ones that are …show more content…
In 2014 Eric Gardner was put into an illegal choke hold by a NYPD officer, after refusing his arrest. He said multiple times that he couldn’t breathe, but the officer continued to keep him in a choke hold. He fatally died and the police officer was not indicted. Like the incident of Rodney King, Gardner’s incident was caught on video tape by a bystander. Black Lives Matter protest went on in New York after the non-indictment of the police officer. Many Americans did not understand why the police officer was not indicted, since the choke hold that killed Gardner was illegal and the incident had been caught on