Police Brutality
Police brutality is a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer uses an unnecessarily excessive amount of force upon the victim. Police brutality is a hate crime committed by officers who have too much power. Also, most of these police haven’t been held accountable for their actions. It’s sad to say that this is a very familiar topic in America. Race, age, and location are all factors that seem to have an impact on this act of crime.
Police brutality is most often affected by race. But if you stay updated with the news, African Americans seem to be the targets. African Americans make up thirteen percent of the world’s population (“Police Killed At Least 223 Black Americans In The Year After Colin Kaepernick’s
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Mothers of young black teens have to remind their kids how to respond to law enforcement so that they won’t end up another statistic. Is this what America has come to? According to a Guardian study, African American males between the age 15 and 34 consists of more than 15% of deaths caused by the deadly force of police. (“Young black men killed by US police at highest rate in year of 1,134 deaths” 2017). On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Although Zimmerman wasn’t a police officer, he was a neighborhood watch volunteer. So, that’s still considered an authority figure. Zimmerman called the police and stated “This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around”. (“What happened the night Trayvon Martin died” 2012). It’s hard to understand that George Zimmerman knew that Trayvon was up to no good, but it was dark outside. Also, he had on a hood, so how did he see his face? That is what you call profiling. He followed Martin around after the dispatcher demanded him not to do so. But, Zimmerman didn’t listen. After he hung up the call, that is when the two had an altercation. When the case went to trial, George Zimmerman claimed the act was done in self-defense. Later, Zimmerman was found not guilty of all