On April 13, I watched the the fourteenth and the last episode, Eyes on the Prize, of the documentary series Back to the Movement with my suitemate who majors in Philosophy and cares about social justice. I chose to watch this episode because it addresses social and civil challenges encountered by the African American community in Florida and Illinois from the mid 1970s to the 80s, the time period my justice portfolio project focuses on. Although the main theme of this episode is not about the police, police presence, especially police brutality, in Florida was an important factor that trigger the post civil rights movement among the Black communities. This later promoted an increase in political engagement of the Black residents in Illinois, and resulted in a victory of justice for the African Americans.
The relationship between the police and the African American
…show more content…
According to the police report at that time, in December of 1979, Arthur was trying to escape an arrest while the motorcycle he was riding slided to the sidewalk and caused his injury; Arthur then forcefully resisted his arrest. In reality, the police officers chased Arthur for he failed to stop for a red light the night he was riding the motorcycle. Arthur was critically injured, not as a result of the motorcycle accident, but of police brutality. He was violently beaten by the police officers after falling from his motorcycle. The incident of Arthur ignited the outrageous and furious feelings within the black communities. It reached the peak when all the charges against the two white police officers, one accused of second-degree murder and one accused of manslaughter, were cleared after a not-guilty verdict was delivered by a group of all-male and all-white