Raising Community Awareness Report

Raising Community Awareness regarding our Criminal System Flaws It was the winter of 2012 when Trayvon Martin was shot in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer, who assumed he was endangering his neighborhood because of the way he was dressed. The jury found the volunteer innocent after he killed the teenager because he felt he was in danger. It happens over and over again. I remember hanging out with my friends, all us African American teenagers and being afraid because we all were wearing hoodies since it was cold, wondering what if it happen to us. Like in the video “I am Sean Bell” from filmmaker Stacey Muhammad, police shot Sean Bell in his car while he was unarmed .The video captures the feeling of frustration of African …show more content…
For instance, in the case of Eric Garner, also in New York City, the police wrestled him to the ground while using excessive force causing his death, despite his pleas for air. He was unarmed and the policemen in his case were acquitted. Also, Michael Brown, another unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, died in a fatal police shooting. Because of that officer’s non-indictment, a growing number of Americans are outraged and demanding change. (“Black Lives Matter”, excerpt from the executive summary of The Sentencing Project’s 2015 report) Similarly, people reaction was to protest in the streets, chanting, carrying signs and resisting arrest. As a result, the divide among white police and minority groups continue to …show more content…
In the video “I am Sean Bell”, Stacy Muhammad calls upon the youth to demand justice. Children as well as adults often wonder, how they can let the police walk away without being held accountable. Currently, organizations such as “Black Lives Matter”, are educating and politically getting involved in raising awareness of the bias in our criminal system and the need for change. The article “Black Lives Matter: Executive summary,” presents four features of our justice system that require immediate attention in order to make positive reforms. First, policies such as “stop and frisk” have an impact primarily in men of color, since it is applied based in the way they look. Second, racial disparities during traffic stops, were police show bias by acting harshly and forcefully against minorities. Third, underfunded indigent defense and treatment programs. Finally, criminal convictions are more common for minorities, which it makes it more difficult to find employment and apply for public housing once they are out of prison. In this regard, improvement has been made in some states such as judges in Dorchester, Massachusetts, who have worked with police and prosecutors to develop guidelines in order to reduce racial imbalance for people arrested for drug crimes in a school zone. In Illinois, the expansion of alternative