On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25 year old man, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department possessing what the police alleged was an illegal switchblade. While being transported in a police van. Gray fell into a coma and was taken to a hospital. Gray died on April 19, 2015, his death was because of a spinal cord injury. On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of the incident.
Racism and racial discrimination has been a major issue in the U.S. since the colonial periods, where people have been treated differently only based upon their race. Although the civil rights movement opposed racial discrimination, the act of stereotyping individuals still continues till this day. Racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, religion or national origin. A recent case, involving a young black man named Michael Brown is an example of how a police officer may act differently when facing an African American. “Ferguson Grand Jury Evidence Reveals Mistakes, Holes In Investigation” is an article written by Jason Cherkis’s and published on November
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 Whole System Failed Trayvon Martin The American journalist Charles Blow in his scandal article The Whole System Failed Trayvon Martin illuminated such deep problems of current society as the credibility of self-defense, the imperfection of the U.S. criminal justice system, criticism of gun culture, and race relationships. This paper focuses on the Trayvon Martin case and explores the stereotypes that created the motive for the homicide. The Trayvon Martin case caused a substantial public interest in racial profiling. According to Charles Blow’s words: “the system failed him when the neighborhood watchman grafted on stereotypes the moment he saw him, ascribing motive and behavior and intent and criminal history to a boy who was just walking home (n.d.).
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.
In everyday news, you hear of white men shooting and murdering people with a darker skin color. For example, the Laquan McDonald case proves racism and lynchings are still present in today’s society. Teenage Laquan McDonald was walking away when suddenly Officer Jason Van Dyke (a white man) started firing multiple shots at him. Laquan McDonald had no reason to be
In recent news we have seen massive riots following the killings of African American men by caucasian police officers. These all follow after one of the most prominent not guilty verdicts of the 21st century on the Rodney King beating. With these riots we see the words of Teju Cole begin to take life.
Recent events surrounding the shootings of several unarmed, young black males have sparked political and social outrage across America (Boswell, 2014). Regardless of whether the shootings of Dontre Hamilton and Michael Brown, were justified, the way in which the white police officers who shot Hamilton and Brown described these young men raises curiosity and warrants analysis. On April 30th, 2014, 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton was shot 14 times by Christopher Manney (Hayes, 2014). Manney argued that it was impossible for one man to restrain Hamilton, as he was extremely strong and muscular. In actuality, Hamilton was 5’7”, mentally ill, 169 pounds, and overweight.
In the story an African American boy was falsely accused of a crime, which resulted in him beaten to the brink of death by a police officer. The book exposes all view points of this issue, the victim and his family’s standpoint, the officer’s situation and also a white kid’s perspective. (All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kelly, 2015)
Currently, the U.S. has accumulated roughly one trillion dollars worth of debt from student loans. (cite) But, what if student debt was forgiven overnight? Now if student debt was eliminated all at once it would be an enormous expense for private lenders and the federal government. Yet, people continually suggest the dissolution of student loans with a one-time payment plan from the government.
The death toll among these police brutality victims is extremely alarming. Every year police in the United States kill hundreds of people—461 in 2013, according to incomplete FBI statistics based on self-reporting from local law enforcement agencies, and more than 1,000 in 2014 according to Champion, which combs through media reports. The fatal shooting in August of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in an interaction that began over jaywalking propelled the issue of police violence and excessive force into the national news cycle. The police response to subsequent protests similarly propelled the issue of militarized police into the national news cycle (Champion,
some of the police department they still classifying people by there skin color 、 B.The shooting of Michael Brown occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson 28, a white Ferguson police officer. He was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, Aug 10, 2015 B. Some group of people always had a bad attitude towards other race (the old racist stereotype) exist majority in specific state
When a police officer shoots a young black unarmed man in the streets, than does not face indicement, anger in the city is ineventable. But is Rioting wrong? Protests and Riots began a day after a fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Many that were unsettled by the shooting sparked vigorous debates in the United States, about the relationship between the law enforcement and African Americans, and about the use-of-force doctrine in Missouri and nationwide. A St. Louis grand jury decided not to indict officer Wilson, and he was discharged of criminal wrongdoing by the United States Department of Justice.
The study of racism has a profound potential to become an ambiguous sociological endeavor. Incidentally, accounting for the multitude of factors which encompass this subject appear to make it the very heart of the matter and consequently the most time consuming. Although, it is my belief that all three of the main sociological theories (Functionalism, Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interactionism) should be integrated in order to achieve a legitimate and quantifiable outcome, for obvious reasons the “Conflict Theory” logically renders the best possible method to obtain a valid micro analysis of specific agents in this case. The oxford dictionary defines racism as being: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior; a belief that all members of each race possesses characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer