Chokehold

her mother married after was an abusive alcoholic who would beat her and my mother when they did a “bad job” of household chores, such as cooking and cleaning. As a young child, my mother remembers seeing her stepfather nearly kill her mother in a chokehold because she did not season his dinner to his tastes. Her mother did not fight back because she believed that it was her duty to “keep her husband happy”. Due to machismo (patriarchal dominance) prevalent in Hispanic culture, her mother…

Throughout the United States, the introduction of body worn cameras ignited an abundance of chaos and controversy in how citizens are approached by police officers. Body cameras can either make or break investigations when trying to manipulate a suspect in seizing contraband, or justifying false allegations. In particular, live video footage tells the truth and further promotes that the police officer is pursuing his or her career with honor, duty, and fidelity. In 2013, a sample of various…

“Shakespeare must be a black girl,” voiced Maya Angelou as she spoke to a crowd of students and professors during a 2013 visit to Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia (Curtis). As a child growing up in rural Arkansas, Angelou became a victim of racism, rape, and abuse at a young age. One of the few places she found solace from these traumas was at her local public library, a safe haven where she read every piece of literature that she could get her hands on. This is how she first discovered…

Justice or Injustice In the criminal justice system there is controversy in law enforcement. Due to the use of searching, detaining, and targeting individual’s criminal actions, the society has struggled with race and gender discrimination. The fourteenth amendment that was approved on July 9, 1868 during the Reconstruction Era was said to have the most difficult, unexpected effects. The fourteenth amendment says “that all persons born in the United States were citizens, and were to be given…

The internet has become a cult that worships eccentricity. Take, for example, the killing of Harambe, a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. After a three-year-old boy got inside the gorilla’s enclosure, zoo officials decided to kill Harambe, fearing for the boy’s life. The controversial decision and odd news story has become the internet’s latest obsession. Through memes like chanting “Dicks out for Harambe,” saying “Harambe died for our sins,” and putting Harambe as a write-in candidate in the US…

shooting of Trayvon Martin, a young and unarmed black male. Since then, the movement has demonstrated against other deaths of many black men believed to have been victims of police brutality. Despite the scrutiny behind police practices such as the chokehold and racial profiling, which are both deemed illegal, the police have not changed these practices and instead made them legal under different names such as the “headlock” and the “drug courier profile”. In response to the Black Lives Matter…

As a black man in today’s society, it is no longer surprising to log on to Twitter and see that another black life has been taken. The issue is that black people are being killed for illegitimate reasons by white people. Furthermore, these same people are getting away with these killings. For instance, the Trayvon Martin case which was one of the most famous recent occurrences of injustice done to a black person. Martin’s death, among many others, started a civil movement within the black…

Say you are approached by a police officer and you are under the impression that nothing is the matter, you haven’t done anything wrong, and therefore no problems should occur. But in a stern, forceful tone the officer accuses you of stealing from the convenience store you just walked out of a block previously. You harmlessly plead your innocence and even show the officer your receipt for the things you bought, but then he gets angry and tells you are under arrest. He then proceeds to throw you…

From the shooting of Edmund Powell on June 1991 to the fatal choke hold that killed Eric Garner on July 17, 2014, police brutality is not an unfamiliar topic to American citizens. It is one of the most contradicting human rights violations in the United States and has been around for decades. The immoderate use of violence in law enforcement by police officers is overwhelming, along with the number of “alleged” crimes by officers swept under the rug. New York City police officer Dennis…

dew dancing with the gentle breeze. It would have made for a breathtaking view had Georgette noticed it. However, this morning her eyes were watching her feet walk as her mind wrestled with reasons for the feeling of apprehension rising like a chokehold from deep within. Arriving at the back of Bus 57 she shook herself like a dog ridding itself of water. Her hand spattered with age spots pulled the worn baseball cap out of her back jean pocket. She released a long deep sigh as she slowly…