African American Law Enforcement

In the Criminal Justice System of the United States, there has been a disparity affecting African-American communities and minority groups. Minorities perceive themselves as the main targets of police use of force, racial profiling, and a bias culture within law enforcement. The central argument, is that such actions have an impact on the relationship between police officers and the African American community, causing problems in our society. But does history explain why law enforcement has developed a negative relationship with African-Americans? In our democratic era, police officers are considered a walking symbol of safety and protection. The police officer 's authority role, is to “fight crimes, maintain order and provide social services”

The history of the negative relationship with the African-American community and law enforcement can be traced back to the Jim Crow period. Jim Crow laws touched every aspect of social life, from African-Americans not being able to freely use public facilities, Negroes had to sit on the back of the bus and whites sat in the front, could not shake hands with a white male, to whites not entitled to use courtesy when referring to blacks. "Police were used to enforce discriminatory laws, they were entrusted to keep African Americans in their place, and were also known as slave patrols” (Ebooks.2014). In one example, "Negro criminals or suspects, or any Negro who show[ed] signs of insubordination should be punished, and that this is a device for preventing crime and for keeping the Negro in his place" (Skolkick, 2007). This segregation system separated our communities into two categories, blacks and whites. One social movement, that came about during the Jim Crow era in the U.S history, is known as the Montgomery bus boycott, in the 1950 's. An African-American female, Rosa Parks in Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white person; it resulted in her arrest due to misconduct, and it lead to a social movement of the African American community for the abolition of the bus segregation law. The arrest and the prejudice from law enforcement, brings about the policing relation with the public