More handpicked essays just for you.
Racism in law enforcement
Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
Race discrimination in the police force
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
On August 9, 2014, an 18 year old named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. From this event sprang countless protests, all stemming from the fact that Michael Brown was African American and that he was killed by a police officer (Sokhi-Bulley). As the protests progressed, the demonstrations were met by increasing police resistance, bringing a growing sense of rage and conflict against the law enforcement of the town as well as the country. Overall, the community of Ferguson, Missouri, has a major problem of police brutality, likely originating from a sense of deep seeded racism within the force as well as the nation’s society. While this may appear to be a straightforward issue, there are many different angles and opinions on the Ferguson debate coming from a wide variety of sources.
The Central Park jogger case set a record for brutality-it was a violent rape in which the victim was also badly beaten. She was hospitalized for a lengthy amount of time. The five teenagers were black, ranging from the ages 14 to 16 years of age, the victim was white. Some say that things began to go wrong right there-that the race factor trumped a search for the truth. All of the boys made statements to the police.
Ava DuVernay suggests Slavery’s NOT Dead in 13th The recently released Netflix original documentary 13th identifies the issue of race in America and how the government instills fear in the nation in order to provide justice for the people by enforcing a ‘War on Crime.’ This tactic was Nixon’s way of incarcerating blacks during his presidency. Many of the elections beginning with President Truman’s era were a long list of former Presidents that used crime as a platform. Whoever was ‘tougher’ on crime would win the election.
Images and video of Eric Garner’s murder by police generated outrage and protests across the nation. Many wept for the loss of this innocent, but for Black America, it was just another offense in a long series of transgressions against the black body. To them, the pain was familiar—they had known it by many names: slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration. Police brutality was nothing new. This situation was different, however.
The documentary film, The Central Park Five, demonstrate the result of people's tendencies to generalize individuals due to their racial group and their economic standing. In this case, five teenage boys were wilding in central park accompanying a group of other boys but the five boys were arrested and then later was suspected of another crime that also takes place at the park that night. They were accused rape of a woman jogging in the park and they gave false confessions to those claims. Come the time of the court hearing, these five teenage boys were already known to the public as a dangerous group. They were found guilty of a crime that they did not commit.
In a viewpoint by Nicole Flatow titled “History Indicates Varied Results in Improving Police Brutality in America,” She believes that there has been little reforms regarding police brutality. Nicole argues for years, America has barely made any effort on improving the use of force by police officers. For example, victims such as Rodney King and Amadou Diallo, led to some reforms, but did not solve the violence of police brutality. With the beating of Rodney King that was captured on camera, it sparked massive outrage that led to a riot when the police officers received no charges. Because of the riots, it created a momentum for a reform of the police.
They were associated with gangs and were out in Central Park when the crime occurred, and that was good enough for most to believe they must have been responsible. The brutal nature of the attack influenced public demand for justice, which pressured the legal system to solve the crime as quickly as possible. The media's portrayal of the case, focusing on grisly details and dehumanizing the suspects, only intensified the city's motivation to send the accused to jail. When the boys were found to have confessed, even though these confessions were made by youths who were simply frightened and trying to please the investigators, the evidence was considered sufficient for a guilty verdict. The documentary therefore shows how systemic racism in both the justice system and amongst the American public encouraged a verdict that should never have occurred.
The administration in the story is dishonest and unconcerned with the concerns of the underprivileged areas. The police are violent and utilize force to maintain public order. This serves as a sharp reminder of the current instances of police brutality and excessive use of force against individuals of color. Black individuals continue to be disproportionately impacted by police brutality and are more likely to become its victims. The connection of racism, classism, and sexism is also explored in the book.
These pieces of evidence reflect how a public figure and the media such as the then-running mayor Ed Koch of New York, speaking out about this cause can easily persuade the public’s opinion as this puts pressure on the police and DA to solve the case leading to why they would get wrongfully imprisoned. This evidence also expresses the media viewings of the Central Park Five as they were portrayed as “monsters” and “not a child” even though they were all between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. The Central Park Five were pressured by unlawful tactics done by police that eventually led to their wrongful conviction and the media and public figures painted them as horrible monsters which put pressure on the police to solve the case. Wrongful imprisonment is an issue as innocent people are losing years of their lives for a crime they didn’t commit. As more and more cases of wrongful imprisonment are brought to light, our justice system is being held accountable, which is important as if these cases weren’t brought to light, the justice system could easily make mistakes without
“Over the last 500 years people of different race, especially African Americans, have encountered a pattern of state sanctioned violence and civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered and executed private persons, and brutally repressed struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination. (Sundiata,1)”. Because of this African Americans began to fight back against the beating of their race with riots. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and more recently the Black Life Matters movement have placed emphasis on shedding light on how people are being treated and what can be done to get rectify everything that is wrong with how our government and police
The Central Park Five is a documentary film that was produced by Ken Burns in the year of 2012. This documentary tells the story of five black teenage boys whose lives were changed forever when they were falsely convicted and imprisoned for brutally beating and raping a woman jogging in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989. By creating this film, the filmmakers allowed the young men to share with the public their own accounts of that horrific night. The film exposed not only police intimidation, but the lack of evidence used to convict the five boys. Through blurbs of different newscast shown in the documentary, the viewer was also able to get a glimpse of how the crime brought about a cultural diversity causing extreme violence to erupt
The four police officers were found not guilty. (Singelman et al. 1997). Many people will never be able to understand what it feels like to be a minority within society, and every race will experience injustice in different forms. In the African American community, someone is 46.6% more likely to be stopped by, or watched closely by Police, whereas 9.6% of whites will encounter this issue (Brunson,
From Ferguson to Tulsa to Baton Rouge, there have been countless cases of police brutality towards African-American men, women, and children. Murderers never receiving their justice, given paid time off and being cleared of charges. Families living in fear, left torn apart at the hands of people who took an oath to serve and protect. We see people of all races standing together in protest of something we know to be wrong, advocating for much needed social change.
This will show how police brutality has affected black communities and how African American communities’ have responded to it with movements and protest, and how they try to overcome
According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved.
