Examples Of Racism In The Criminal Justice System

There are numerous issues that deal with the American criminal justice system, but the two I found most prominant that occur on a daily basis is the abuse from police officers and clear racism shown by the American criminal justice system. To begin, racism as we know is a prejudice directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In the criminal justice system African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a higher more aggressive way, than say someone who is caucasian and committed the same exact crime. Racism is more often than not, the motive for official misconduct. There are examples of racism from every known region in the United States, spanning across centuries from slavery to

Although we hope our Police force will use their powers for good, but sometimes police misconduct can occur. Often, the police are under great pressure to act as quick as possible, espcially in a murder case and if the murder victime is white, a child, police officer, or prominent. For example, In the 1990’s the case of Rodney King, that not only shows a racist issue within the criminal justice system, but also the issue with abuse from police officers, but changed the country’s views on the LA police force. Twenty- Seven years ago,Rodney King was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police officers. King was intoxicated while driving and the police had caught him speeding, and initally he tried running away from the police, only to be followed by multiple police and a helicopter. The officers then proceeded to drag King out of his car and brutally beat him.This brutality was the first caught on tape by a bystander, the video had shown the officers tazing, kicking, and hitting Rodney with thier batons a little over 53 times. Witnesses had claimed that King was cooperative and never resisted the officers. The video had gone viral of the abuse and after the case being aquitted by an all white jury, the outcome of these actions resulted in what we know as the L.A riots. Another example of police brutality involving an African American, was a case that happened recently on August

According to californiainnocentproject.org, former Chicago police commander Jon Burge was arrested on a federal obstruction of justice and perjury charges for allegedly lying about whether or not he and his officers under his demand participated in physical abuse and torture of suspects in police custody dating back all the way to the 1980’s. Burge had participated in torture and physical abuse of persons in police custody on more than one occasion. Burge did this to obtain confessions and knew that his detectives were also resulting to torture and physical abuse to get answers from people in police custody. To arise a confession out of a suspect, Burge and his other officers would place plastic bags over the individuals head until he or she had lost consciousness. Years later, Burge was finally fired by the police department and was eventually convicted in federal court for perjurty connected to a civil law suit connected to the city. More often than not, in police brutality or police misconduct, the abuse is more subtle than a torturing aspect. Sometimes, the officers will simply push limits and boundaries in order to recieve a statement from a witness. Similar to prosecutors, officers of the law are assigned the task of making sure our society is as safe as it can be. Occasionally, their determination to keep the city safe can sometimes lead them to crossing the line and abuse the power of their badge.