Why Police Killings of Unarmed African American Citizens Are Increasing
Police officers in America kill hundreds of persons each year. They may be all for different reasons but there has been a recent trend of killing unarmed African American citizens. African American citizens meaning men, women and children. One of the most controversial cases was African American teenager eighteen-year-old Micheal Brown, who was killed by police officer on August 9th,2014. There were several shots fired by the officer, while Brown was allegedly facing him with his hands raised in a sign of submission, resulting in Brown falling face-down to the ground, dying from his wounds, some 20-30 feet away from the site of the initial struggle. It was later determined …show more content…
Most times police officers are placed on paid administration leave and they’re never brought to justice for what they’ve done. For instance, in the article “The Micheal Brown Legacy: Police Brutality and Minority Prosecution” it stated that “the St. Louis county prosecutor announced that the Ferguson grand jury decided not in indict Officer Wilson.” How can this seem fair to his family? Some may say that justice is served but not in the favour of what citizens may have wanted. When police officers are not indicted for their misconduct it sparks protests by citizens and activists’ groups such as “Black Live Matter.” When there is no justice for these cases this is why it continues to increase in the American society today, because police officers know that there are no serious consequences for their actions and are protected by their fellow police officers. Also, what contributes to the lack of justice is the lack of accountability. Police killings are recorded but not when police officers use excessive force to do so. For example, University of South Carolina criminologist Geoff Alpert, who has long studied police use of deadly force, said the FBI 's limited database underscores a gaping hole in the nation 's understanding of how often local police take a life on America 's streets — and under what circumstances. ' ' There is no national database for this type of information, and that is so crazy," said Alpert. "We 've been trying for years, but nobody wanted to fund it and the (police) departments didn 't want it. They were concerned with their image and liability. They don 't want to bother with it (2014). ' ' Police officers are able to move on with their lives, but what about the families and communities of the
Police officers in America kill hundreds of persons each year. They may be all for different reasons but there has been a recent trend of killing unarmed African American citizens. African American citizens meaning men, women and children. One of the most controversial cases was African American teenager eighteen-year-old Micheal Brown, who was killed by police officer on August 9th,2014. There were several shots fired by the officer, while Brown was allegedly facing him with his hands raised in a sign of submission, resulting in Brown falling face-down to the ground, dying from his wounds, some 20-30 feet away from the site of the initial struggle. It was later determined …show more content…
Most times police officers are placed on paid administration leave and they’re never brought to justice for what they’ve done. For instance, in the article “The Micheal Brown Legacy: Police Brutality and Minority Prosecution” it stated that “the St. Louis county prosecutor announced that the Ferguson grand jury decided not in indict Officer Wilson.” How can this seem fair to his family? Some may say that justice is served but not in the favour of what citizens may have wanted. When police officers are not indicted for their misconduct it sparks protests by citizens and activists’ groups such as “Black Live Matter.” When there is no justice for these cases this is why it continues to increase in the American society today, because police officers know that there are no serious consequences for their actions and are protected by their fellow police officers. Also, what contributes to the lack of justice is the lack of accountability. Police killings are recorded but not when police officers use excessive force to do so. For example, University of South Carolina criminologist Geoff Alpert, who has long studied police use of deadly force, said the FBI 's limited database underscores a gaping hole in the nation 's understanding of how often local police take a life on America 's streets — and under what circumstances. ' ' There is no national database for this type of information, and that is so crazy," said Alpert. "We 've been trying for years, but nobody wanted to fund it and the (police) departments didn 't want it. They were concerned with their image and liability. They don 't want to bother with it (2014). ' ' Police officers are able to move on with their lives, but what about the families and communities of the