Examples Of Police Brutality In America

Police Brutality in America and the 1990s
The legal system in the United States has been broken since it’s inception, disproportionately attacking, and punishing anyone who is not white. As the country grew, improving, growing prosperous, the broken system continued its work. One result of this broken system is police brutality, and overstepping of police power. In fact, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, of the black people questioned, 70% said they felt they were unfairly treated when dealing with police. This cannot be a coincidence. This has been a problem since the beginning of law enforcement in this country. The incidents of police brutality today and the devaluation of African American lives is related to previous cases

Clearly, this is a case of corruption, and a ploy to fill prisons. The officers know they did something wrong if a citizen’s complaint would stop the charges in their tracks. These laws continually held African-Americans from gaining a solid footing in society. The “Separate but Equal” motto held by the U.S government after Jim Crow Laws were enforced, led African-Americans to have an immense socio-economic disadvantage compared to even the poorest of white people in the United States. The system continually left African-Americans and other minorities in the dust. (Harrington) The gap only got wider as time went on, making it harder and harder for other black people to catch on, eventually sticking many black people in a hole of poverty and fear. In his 1962 book, The Other America Michael Harrington states: “To live in Harlem is to be a Negro; to be a Negro is to participate in a culture of fear and poverty that goes far deeper than any law for or against discrimination.” (Harrington) The author does a haphazard job at relating to African-Americans whilst he travels in Harlem, but he discovers the gist of being poor and Black in

Amadou Diallo was an immigrant from Guinea, Africa. The Amadou Diallo case was one of the most popularized unarmed shootings of the time. It is also a case showing how officers are often not held accountable to murders they commit, as if they are above the law. As stated previously, Amadou was an immigrant from Guinea. He lived in NYC, and was 23 when killed in February 1999. Diallo was shot at 41 times by four plainclothes officers. The officers began shooting when Diallo reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet-which they thought was a gun. (Thompson) All four officers were charged with second degree murder, and all four officers were acquitted. The reaction to the verdict was not volatile, and there were small demonstrations in Albany at the courthouse, and the Bronx, where he was shot. On the night of the acquittal, Diallo’s parents, as well as Reverend Al Sharpton pleaded for calm-which is not unfamiliar in these cases. (McFadden) Senator Bill Bradley stated in reaction to the case ''I think that it shows that when racial profiling seeps so deeply into somebody's mind, a wallet in the hand of a white man looks like a wallet, but a wallet in the hand of a black man looks like a gun.''