Examples Of Police Brutality

Police Brutality in the Modern Age Currently, there is a constant stream of reported police brutality in the news. Not only a constant stream, but a consistent stream. Since the revolution of modern smartphones, it appears police cannot escape the watchful eye of social media. As a matter of fact, in 2015 alone 1146 people were killed by police. Furthermore, there is an increasingly apparent systematic prejudice and predilect towards killing black Americans (Swaine et al.). According to The Guardian, in 2015 you were 2.6 times as likely to be killed by a police officer as a black man than as a white man, and almost six times as likely to be killed compared to an Asian American (Swaine et al.). This shows that there is a fundamental problem

America has had a dark past, specifically when it comes to white versus black America. In the academic article “Redesigning Racial caste in America bias Mass Incarceration”, author Gilda Graff highlights this, by pointing out specific instances and reactions of whites to the civil rights movement that have led to what we see now (2-3). Specifically, she mentions how as America’s crack down on crimes, has led to a disproportionate increase in the incarceration of African Americans. An example she gives is the war on drugs, which was a large part of Regan’s Presidency, yet most people at the time felt drug issues were not of great importance; instead the war on drugs served as a way to address the white community’s concerns about race (3-4). The result of targeting crimes that disproportionately affect blacks is a law enforcement agency that becomes warry of black Americans. Justice may be blind, but police men are not and as time passes they notice the pattern and act

For one, black youth are more often treated and seen as adults than people of other races at their age. This results in force typically saved only for adults being used on Black teenagers. One study mentioned in the article, “Black and Blue: Exploring Racial Bias and Law Enforcement in the Killings of Unarmed Black Male Civilians” states that both civilian and police officer participants seem to see black males as about 4.5 years older than they are (Hall, Hall, and Perry 2). Another stereotype, and one that I touched on before is that police often see whites as innocent and blacks as a criminal. As police of the past have been trained to arrest more blacks, they pass this predisposition to the next generation. Subconsciously, a pattern emerges and instinctively police become irrational, and when you’re in a high stakes job like a police officer, you often rely on your