On January 16, 2014, Officer Juventino Castro of Houston Police Department shot and killed a 26-year-old, unarmed, black male by the name of Jordan Baker who was riding his bike through a strip mall where Officer Castro was working an extra job through the Department’s “Extra Employment System.” Although Castro was not on duty, he was still expected to enforce all federal, state, and city laws at the strip mall with approval from the Houston Police Department. Jordan Baker, however, was not breaking any laws or engaged in any unlawful conduct. Officer Castro claims that he confronted Jordan Baker because he looked “suspicious,” but Castro’s basis for claiming that Baker looked “suspicious” was based on Baker’s race and the fact that he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. (Estate of Jordan Baker, by and through Administrator, Janet Baker vs. Juventino Castro, The City of Houston, and RPI Management…
In Staten Island, New York, a black man named Eric Garner was killed by a police officer. Mr. Garner was a 43 years old who was 6 feet and 2 inches tall and weight 395 pounds. He being arrested many times before, because he sold cigarettes with taxes on it. An officer,Justin Damico, who was alone approached Mr. Garner and warned him not to sell cigarettes again. Later in the day officer Damico returned with his partner, Daniel Pantaleo.…
In America, it is evident that race is still an issue; this is seen through many occurrences. One event in particular is the recent story of Matthew Ajibade. The story of Ajibade immediately captured my attention due to the fact he’s a graduate of Parkdale Senior High School, just as I am. Many of my older colleagues recalled stories of him being a lively spirit that everyone loved. Although I did not personally know him, it made me realize that anyone can be affected and harmed.…
On Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 2330 hours while I was sitting stationairy on the unit block of W. Centre St. near the Lyric the COMPLAINANT walked to my patrol car and advised me there is a physical fight in progress in front of the Mexican Bar. I advised the COMPLAINANT I am going there now and told the COMPLAINANT to walk back over to the Mexican Bar so I can get his information. I arrived at the Mexican Bar located at 8. E. Centre St. and activated the emergency lights on my patrol vehicle. I observed two white males yelling at a Hispanic man.…
Officer Hasan is about 30 years of age, and he is a police officer. He is a white man, who is seeking therapy because he accidently killed a black man. One night while riding in a car with Peter, he mistook a statue for a gun. Officer Hasan and Peter got into a small argument and officer Hasan thought Peter was going to shoot him as he reached into his pocket. Afraid for his life, officer Hasan quickly pulled his gun and shot Peter dead.…
At the beginning of this assigned section Coates finds himself with even more answers and questions on the history of violence against black people. Between both the answers and questions he finds a deeper understanding for the limitations of the “The Dream.” He also finds troubling facts about the “comforting” myths about Africa, America and different places. He comes to the realization that American Society has created a dream for him to accept according to his race. This continued discovery of the segregation, continues to explain the danger of being black that he is trying to warn his son about.…
In today’s time the biggest trend watching news or articles online that deal with police brutality, and how the police is abusing their power as an officer. Police are here to protect us and making us feel safe, but the things that are going around the news and article are only making things worse by making the people fear the police. Cops should be trained to handle a response better rather than take their anger out or think that they can do anything just because they work for the law. The good thing is that many people are uniting together to fight over police brutality and making a difference to over throw the ones who abuse their power, letting the better cops who knows when to use their power for good or very difficult situations. Police brutality is become a bigger to the people who don’t…
“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.…
Police Brutality Police officers risk their lives daily to keep our communities safe. These men and women are often in situations where their lives are in danger. Facing dangerous criminals, police sometimes must use force. However some officers use more force than what is needed. Today this issue is debated constantly.…
On October thirteenth Jasmine Rand was a guest speaker, along with four Mount Pleasant Police and Central Michigan University campus officers in Plachta Auditorium. Students were given the opportunity to write questions that Rand and the officers would be asked, however, I didn’t participate due to the high volume of questions that had already been obtained. Because Rand was Michael Brown and Trayvon Martins attorney in their civil rights case this presentation was expected to be about these cases that lead to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, race issues, and police brutality which have greatly affected both African American culture and views of police culture. Although, these expectations were exceeded by touching on Rand 's educational…
The article “Video shows police tackling and beating a black man suspected of stealing a car. It was his” written by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. is written about the arrest of a black college student on October 10th of 2015. The article was published on January 14, 2017. The arrest happened in Evanston, Illinois. Lawrence Crosby was a PhD student in Northwestern University.…
Author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men, Paul Butler is a former federal prosecutor, a current law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and author. He works mostly in the field of race and jury nullification and is a leading scholar in those areas. Born in Chicago on January 15, 1961, Butler knew from a young age he wanted to work in the criminal law field. He graduated from both Yale and Harvard University. He has won the Harry Chapin Media Award, and his writing has been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe.…
The recent events below have led to a series of protests over the past year but recently in the media the public has been advocating for the rights of African Americans in America based off of the neglect of the justice system for these young black men. These situations were all against young black males that had absolutely no reason to be murdered as a means to a solution. As these three situations only stand as representations of the many black male to be victimized by the police system in America it also shows us that although we have made strides in race relations and equality we still have a very long and tiring journey to go to be fully accepted by our fellow counterpart. Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago…
Police brutality and racism seem to be consistently connected to one another. This has become a serious issue in which circumstances have ended violently or even fatally when involving police officers and African American citizens. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that African American people make up only 13.2% of our population. Anyone can become a victim of police brutality, regardless of their race; but statistics show that African American people are being killed by police at more than twice the rate of Caucasian and Hispanic people. It is also considerably more likely for the African American victims in these situations to have been unarmed at their time of death.…
Throughout history, African Americans, as a group, endure various forms of brutality. Long ago in the United States, entire towns would capture innocent African Americans and kill them in mobs. This horrendous act is known as lynching. Now, while African American brutality exists on a smaller scale than it used to, it still occurs in exorbitant amounts. One of the most infamous cases of police brutality against a black person was that of Rodney King.…