Police Brutality

Police Brutality

Abstract

Police brutality, especially against African Americans, has happened in the most inhumane way. Although the police have been reported to have cases of harassing US citizens of different gender and race, the intensity of the brutality against members of the African American community is severe enough to warrant external intervention. The cases recorded against blacks are murder, manslaughter, harassment, beatings, abduction, and other forms of unlawful police actions. In some of the extreme cases, the police have been caught selling drugs to in the African American neighborhoods along with other criminal activities. Individual cases against African American individuals such as the recent case of George Floyd, who was executed in the daylight the police have cost the country massive resources after protests turn violent. Also, peace becomes a problem when the white and black populations are showing open hatred and contempt for each other.

Introduction

The police in the United States have been in the records and news for the wrong reasons. This has been a result of the unwarranted use of excessive force on unarmed citizens, which is illegal as per the constitution. Brutality by the police has been ranging from mayhem, assault to battery. Murder and torture are the latest crimes committed by the police against innocent citizens, which have attracted public outcry. Besides, the police have been reported intimidating and using verbal abuse against civilians. This paper seeks to explore police brutality in the US as far as its causes and effects and concerned.

Methods

This research entailed questions that were posed to six random individuals. The questions were:

1. Do you feel safe under the protection fob United States law enforcement?
2. Do African Americans deserve a particular treatment that the police treated them? Explain?

• Do you think police brutality is associated with racism? Yes or no? Explain.

1. Do you think that the police who participated in the act of police brutality deserved more strict penalties? Explain why.

Results

The answers to the questions were as follows:

10. Do you feel safe under the protection of United States law enforcement? Rate on a scale of one through 10. 10 indicating the safest.

A: 10 yes, of course, I’ve been helped by a police officer several times, and they’ve always treated me so kindly.

B: To be honest, I’m not sure anymore. I used to be able to trust them, but after what has been going on to the world these days, I don’t feel safe anymore. I would rate it a six.

C: I would give it a nine because I never really have any problem with them

D: One, because I’ve always seen videos on social media where a police officer is treating people unequally based on skin color.

E: A two, cops are treating people unequally this day I am African American it scares me sometimes just to go to the grocery store I feel like they could misunderstand me with something

F: A five, I’ve never really experienced anything that from them plus one time they helped me fix my tire.

1. Do African Americans deserve a particular treatment that the police treated them? Explain

A: I’ve seen cases where African Americans been mistreated. Most of them don’t even deserve a particular kind of treatment. Therefore, I do not think that they deserve it at all.

B: I’ve seen several incidents that were cops had homes many African American citizens just by the assumptions like George Floyd he did not deserve what the police did to him at all, and it’s making me feel sick in my stomach.

C: Not all cops are wrong, but some of them are, and for sure, they have been treated people of color differently, and it shouldn’t be that way people should be treated equally.

D: No, not at all, because nobody deserves to get killed or hurt by just the assumption, nor they deserve to get killed for doing nothing.

E: No they don’t deserve to Living with the fear in their own Country

F: No, they don’t not at all. Because it’s just not right.

• Do you think please brutality is associated with racism? Yes or no explain.

A: I love to think that it’s not, but by the way, it is right now, yes. I’ve seen a white kid shoot up a middle school and still living in jail somewhere, but an African American lady got killed in her own home because the cops showed up at the wrong house.

B: Yes, if it’s not racism, then what is it? When white people commit a crime Killed many innocent children, they consider them as sick person. But when African American committed a crime they deserve death penalty.

C: Like I said not all cops are bad but I believe some of them are and I don’t think please brutality is associated with racism it is a matter of the wrong place in a wrong time.

D: It could be, if you look into police brutality history it shows that many Africans Americans have been killed or hurt by police more than white people.

E: Yes, I am a social media person not a news person and sometimes so media showing things that news didn’t show I’ve seen a video where a cop was telling that “we only kill black people” and this is very sad to hear

F: Yes, It is a form of racism because they’re not treating people equally as we can see today.

1. Do you think please who purchase repeated in the act of police brutality deserve more strict penalties?

A: We already have laws for that don’t need to change it

B: Yes absolutely

C: What we have right now is should be tough enough on them

E: Yes. Of course

F: Yes

Discussion

History shows that the police have been having cases of brutality against the public regardless of the race, class, gender or religion. However, there has been also cases that the poor have been intimidated by the police. For instance, in the 19^th and 20^th century, the poor white working class population living in the Northern cities complained against police harassment (Leonard Moore, 2020). During the same time, there were outcries from the Jewish population who had moved to Eastern and Southern Europe about having biased police torturing them without cause. In the same way, Italian immigrants were abused by the police during 1920s under the guise of cracking down organized crime which was becoming a menace in Chicago and New York (Leonard Moore, 2020). Latinos are not left out of this because in 1943, they faced hostilities from the police and in 1969, the police raided a gay bar suspected to be a criminal hideout and flushed out the revelers using extralegal means (Leonard Moore, 2020). This later became the reason for the antipolice harassment on gays and lesbians.

Despite the various events of police brutality, no single group has been discriminated upon like the African Americans, raising questions of racism and movements against the people of color (Leonard Moore, 2020). One of the biggest causes of the harassment and brutality by the police against the African American members is the racial discrimination, with the notion being held by some of the white police officers. Also, the general public have the culture of discriminating against African Americans because they found it like that. Their parents were discriminating and hating African Americans for no reason, simply because of the colored skin. The examples of discrimination stories of African Americans are shocking. For instance, the story of Keith Bush, an American teenager of an African American decent suffered the best part of his life under the police. Keith was arrested for a murder charge that he did not commit and even after denying he had not done it, nobody believed him and the police implicated him (Worden, 2019). Despite his plea for his case to be reconsidered, the district attorney prosecuting his case was biased and never wanted to hear about the cry of the young man. Keith even tried hiring a private investigator who administered a lie detector and the results showed that he was not guilty of the murder. The same results were submitted to the police but were rejected. He called for the second suspect in the murder story to also be investigated but the police pinned down on Keith Bush until he was given a life sentence. After spending 44 years of his life in prison, it was later discovered that the young man was innocent. He was released after living a horrible life in prison for these whooping 44 years for wrong conviction (Worden, 2019).

The discrimination against African Americans has a long history. Jack Johnson, a famous boxing legend who rose to fame during the time when America was radically divided into a land whites and colored people experienced unwarranted discrimination that led to the end of his life and career. The white Americans could not bear seeing a black American holding the heavy weight title (a belt that was believed to be the preserve of white boxers) especially after beating a white opponent (Holmes, 2020). A retired white boxer had to be recalled to try and pick the title from Johnson in a fight that was titled “the fight of the century”. This was not about boxing as a sport nor about the spirit of competitiveness but it was about widespread racial rivalry and hatred for the African Americans. Jack Johnson’s people never wanted to see him in the company of white friends. However, the boxer never wanted to acknowledge the reality of racial bias and went ahead to marry two white women. In the fight, he won, shuttering the voice of the whites. However, he did not want to see such situations of hatred (Worden, 2019). It is those same events that have led to today’s police brutality and hatred against the African Americans.

The case of George Floyd, a man who was murdered in open day light by a white police who was given the defense and protection by his fellow white police officers from Minneapolis as he was killing Floyd is a reflection of the current situation. The American whites are the ones who bear this notion that African Americans are thieves and this was what made the white store owner call the police on claims that George Floyd was suspiciously robbing him. This hatred has been there from the history of the United States since when the African Americans were mere slaves, working in the plantations.

The great migration is one of the biggest cause of police brutality on African Americans. The African Americans were living majorly in the areas of the south. After the World War II ended, there were changes in the society that also allowed African Americans to move towards the Northern and Western areas. These areas were majorly inhabited by the white people who saw the migration of African Americans from the south as a threat to their security, resources and social space. They united to repel and rebel the great migration. However, they could do nothing much to stop it and therefore the police were being used as instruments of racial bias against the African Americans. The white inhabitants of the North and South started taking their fellow citizens of African Americans decent as criminals and thus the police were majorly being used as a tool to intimidate the African American population. The case resulted to the police claiming that they were protecting the white Americans from the African Americans, which raised a lot of questions but mostly resulted into a racial bias (Holmes, 2020).

The effects of police brutality on African Americans is that the mission of the police has been turned into protecting the white Americans against their African American brothers. Beatings were common and excessive use of force especially by the white police against the African Americans. The police became complicit in criminal activities around the African Americans neighborhoods such as burglaries, smuggling of guns, drug dealing, and protection schemes, meant to tarnish of African Americans. From the mid-1980, African Americans came up with ways to liberate their community from the white attack. The civil rights movements rose up and became famous for fighting for the rights of the African Americans. People such as Martin Luther King Jr. lost their lives in the process. However, the biggest effect has been the loss of lives and property during confrontational protests that take place after murders are carried out t by the police against the civilians.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the cause of police brutality is majorly associated with racial bias. African Americans have been the biggest victims of police harassment and injustice as the white population cheers the latter. The society has therefore been divided into white and black sections which has caused the suffering of many. The great migration was one of the major causes of police brutality especially against African Americans. The white population the move by the African Americans to move from the South into the North and West, areas greatly inhabited by the white majority. Confrontations resulted, although the police were the tool of the white population against their black brothers. The individual cases of discrimination touching on Jack Johnson, Keith Bush, Martin Luther King and George Floyd are just a tip of the iceberg on what African Americans have gone through. Massive destruction of property has resulted during protests and thousands of lives lost in the process.

References

Holmes, M. D. (2020). Minority threat and police brutality: Determinants of civil rights criminal complaints in US municipalities. Criminology, 38 (2), 343-368.

Police brutality in the United States retrieved on 16^th June 2020 from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580.

Worden, R. E. (2019). The ‘causes’ of police brutality: theory and evidence on police use of force. Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice, 149-204.