African American Cops Analysis

The article “Do American cops have a race problem? Or a class problem?” written by Damon Linker in 2015, identifies why there seems to be a high number of African Americans being fatally shot. In just over seven months over 500 people have been killed at the hands of the police. To put all this into context in the United Kingdom the police have killed 52 people since the year 1900. The U.K. is not drastically less prone to violent crimes, however it is a much smaller country. He himself states he lives in an upper - middle - class suburb of Philadelphia, and has never witnessed any type of violent crime. He goes on by stating all of his friends who have lived all over the country also have never been exposed to such crimes. The key variable

Cops have one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs out there. They should have the full respect of the American public, and as of now that is not happening. When you look at the statistics of who is being shot, yes, African Americans do make up a larger portion of that. However, people should not jump to the conclusion that cops are racist. As said before, most of the shootings happen in the inner city and blacks make up the majority of the people there. We should not blame the police officers or the African American community though; instead, blame the United States government for doing little to help the impoverished people. If the government would go into the inner cities and help the people get on their feet. There wouldn 't be young kids running the streets - they would have jobs, therefore less time and energy to get into trouble, and an education to help them get out of their impoverished neighborhoods. So, I vehemently agree with Linker, that the main reason for all the shootings are the socioeconomic climate of the inner cities. Yes, there are probably some racist cops but the notion that cops as a whole are targeting minorities is completely bogus. And recently, African American leaders such as Al Sharpton have been feeding the black community with ridiculous claims that they are being targeted by officers. This propaganda has lead to an increase in officers being shot, the day I happened to be writing this, an officer with kids was shot and killed by a black man. So I strongly agree with the author when he reveals it is a social problem not a race problem. Police Officers have a very difficult job and we should all be grateful that there are people who are willing to put their life on the line for the greater good of