Psychological Consequences Of Police Violence

In 2015, nearly one thousand, one hundred and thirty-four African Americans were killed from the result of police violence. Police brutality is the use of excessive force used by law enforcement. It creates negative consequences like the distrust of police officers, creation of hostility between police and ethnic groups, and psychological effects on the victims. The birth of this term can be coined before the Civil Rights Movement with beatings, unwarranted arrests, and the deaths of protestors. One of the biggest problems with this issue is how the law system has and will not taking responsibility for these deaths and injuries and how little has been done to prevent the use of unnecessary action. Police who use this excessive force need to …show more content…
Andrea L. Dennis states that, “children of color are more likely to become actual victims of police violence than white children, and the children of color are more likely to be exposed to police violence…” (819). Like in the first example, those generations who teach younger ones to be careful around the police have suffered the resentment and being attentive have done so for their whole life. This stress can change the psychological factors of taking risks, causing depression and/or anxiety. The high levels of suspicion also cause one to not expand the interaction of other peoples, limiting friends and family; the high suspicion might also lead to one developing schizophrenia. In a study on those who are most effected by police brutality, it showed that mainly black and Hispanics tend to be victims of excessive force from police. It is also projected that the prejudice in law enforcement causes cynicism and disappointment among young minorities (Ehrenfreund and Guo). Racism is a major factor within police brutality, there should be no prejudices within law enforcement. As it is seen, racism causes officers to be more forceful to those of a different race causing minorities to have reservations when interacting with law enforcement. Rachel Nuwer argues that “[b]ecause our brain naturally makes sense of the world by grouping things …show more content…
Imagine the United States free from discrimination, where no one dies just because of the color of their skin, where mothers lose their sons just because they are playing like every kid does, where police do not use: batons, pepper spray, water hoses, stun guns, and dogs that are trained to attack. Instead we live in a country where these things happen on a regular basis, but this can change with sensitivity training of law enforcement, police having more of a positive interaction with America’s youth and being more responsible with the weapons that they are armed with, and with the nation accepting that all races