“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?” of 2003 and “The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society” of 2000 contain ideas similar to those expressed in “The War on Cops.” The powerful stance Mac Donald takes on certain themes expressed throughout “The War on Cops” direct the reader’s understanding towards the flaws of America’s governmental systems, revealing the backstory and complexity of racism and criminal justice behind our “war on cops.” To begin, Mac Donald notes one of the many shortcomings of the Obama administration, of which she addresses frequently throughout the book. She criticizes the acknowledgements of police racism and the bias in the criminal justice system made by President Barack Obama on national television, stating “In doing so, he …show more content…
Unfortunately, The Obama Administration soon leaves office with the worst race relations our country has faced in decades. The reason being that after failing in foreign and domestic policy, the democratic party needed a rallying point. One of those points was Black Lives Matter, which is and was a cynical effort promoted by self interest of the Democratic party to manipulate inner city blacks and win their support. In turn, votes for a democratic party that has utterly failed to bring any form of change to the impoverished black people of our
Introduction The New Orleans Police Department is an organization that struggled long before Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August of 2005. Many residents feared the department and some would say that “the department was infected by a culture of discrimination, abuse, and lawlessness” (Ramsey, 2015). Beginning in the 1980’s, police brutality became a major issue in the city, which still continues now, almost 12 years later. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it seemed that the situation was only worse.
Buehler, J. W. (2017). Racial/ethnic disparities in the use of lethal force by US police, 2010-2014. American Journal of Public Health, 107 (2), 295-297. In Buehler’s article, he attempts to disprove a study that found no racial disparities in killings that law enforcement were responsible for.
“Circumspect Police Ends the Drop in Crime?” This debate topic speaks about police being less proactive, because of vitriol, and causing an increase in crime rates. This debate topic is not directly related to the book, Ghettoside, but falls into the same bracket. The debate talks about the police becoming less involved because of denunciation, and rates of crimes increasing because of that. Ghettoside talks about the black-on-black homicide rates going up, one reason, because of the ignorance of the police.
This article demonstrates how Bill Bratton, as the Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) from 1994 to 1996, William J. Bratton fought crime throughout the city of Ney York with legendary achievement, leading a national revolution in attitudes toward policing. Bratton adopted a “broken windows”1 community policing strategy of zero tolerance for minor offenses and championed statistical analysis to prevent crimes before they occurred. In the 70s and 80s, as Bratton continued his career in policing, institutional theories seemed dominant. Nixon’s brand of “tough-on-crime” and “law and order” conservatism meant that community relations were largely ignored by police. In 1982, James Wilson sought to re-establish some balance.
This article brought many points into light that many other articles were too sacred to bring up or simply did not want to bring up because the evidence went against their claim. This article talked about how racial profiling is often times misunderstood. To argue his point, he talks about how crime is never evenly distributed in cities and many times the places where there is the most crime is a part of town that lives in poverty. Often times this also means these parts of town are highly diverse. Policemen then, doing their job, watch these parts of town because of the high crime.
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
Ethics and the Evolution of Police Policing in this present day is defined as an individual or group of individual who prevent and detect crime within a community. Policing compares in many ways. They all attempt to provide services, keep the peace and reduce crime. Policing has evolved into something much more than what it used to be. Within this essay are the many different perspectives and how ethics were learned.
And the police are not in our community to promote our welfare, for our security, but they are there to contain us, and brutalize, and murder us. They have orders to do so. Just as the soldiers in Vietnam are ordered to destroy the Vietnamese people, the police in our community couldn't possible be there to protect our property, because we don't own no property. They couldn't possibly be there for the due process of law for the suferees, because the police themselves do not have the due process of law. It is apparent that the police are not there for our communities, but they are there for white business owners, and to see to it that the white, status quo is kept in tact” (Malcolm x network, 2007).
“Slangin’ Rocks” Objective Summary “Slangin’ Rocks” by Robin D.G. Kelley, is an opinion essay about the treatment of “people of color” by United States law enforcement, in a historical and modern sense. The purpose of the essay is to persuade the reader to agree with the belief of the author, that U.S law enforcement treats “people of color” unfairly, and that the system itself needs to be changed. The essay begins with the author describing his own experience with law enforcement, which provides him with credibility on the topic and provides insight into why the essay was written (Kelley 21-23). The author’s personal story provides the reader with a specific example of how “people of color” are treated unfairly by law enforcement, and that
Despite our superiority, America still has a plethora of problems from within, one of them is a corrupted system of law enforcement. Our own law enforcement is one of the factors contributing to America’s downfall. What people think is keeping them safe is really just hurting them behind their backs. A publicist by the name of Shaun King has taken note that so far as of July 17, 2017, 660 people have been killed by police or some type of law enforcement. That would make this year alone to be one of the deadliest years since people had begun tracking this statistic back in 2013.
An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer
Police brutality remains a common yet controversial topic around the world. Police brutality is “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians” (thelawdictionary.org). It’s a topic that segregates communities and makes each other their enemy. Specifically, a white officer has been the enemy of the black community. Unfortunately, the tension between police and blacks grew over the past few decades.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.
Many feel threatened by the police because of their militarization that they have equipped. The novel Black Lives Matter states, “Many argue the militarization of police forces contributes to the sense that police are hostile to residents rather than helpful. This distrust between officers and citizens can go both in directions, worsening the problem”(79). Because of the mistrust between cops and local communities, many people have become scared of the cops or have been harming the lives of police officers thus causing protests against law authority.
Random sample surveys were conducted in Seattle, Washington by telephone, which asked citizen’s various questions concerning their feelings towards police. These questions included their level of happiness in regards to police problem-solving, their views on police hassling citizens, and if they had ever experienced, or perceived to experience racial profiling or bias by law enforcement (Wu, 2014). Of all the citizens that took part in the survey, 64% of African Americans felt that racial profiling was a problem inside their neighborhoods, 28% of Asians, 20% of whites, and 34% of Hispanics agreed (Wu,