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Racial inequality in law enforcement
Racial inequality in law enforcement
Racial inequality in law enforcement
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Most people wake up and never think about being murdered by someone they once loved. Tracy Allen most likely thought the same way until one fatal night Garland Allen, her ex-husband and the father of her two children, took her life. In this episode of Cold Justice, Kelly Siegler and Yolanda McClary uncover how the crime was solved, the typology of the crime and the motivation for the crime. As Wolf (2014) wrote in the episode, on May 18, 2001 in Altus, Oklahoma was the last time anyone saw or heard from 27-year-old Tracy Allen.
Keeps a kid from running for office” (P. 3). Overall, Spence concludes with the argument that the city of Baltimore are using its police officer as a toll of social control. That from police stops majority occurring in Western and the Central Districts affecting the poorest black neighbourhoods “is producing and reproducing a population that has no functional purpose other than to be policed” (p.3). This is not just occurring in Baltimore either. “Seeing police violence as simply an expression of racism omits this crucial component.
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.
In This American Life’s series, Cops See it Differently: Act One, Ira Glass narrates particular circumstances outlining the existing tensions between the Milwaukee Police Department and the Black community. He began his first segment by telling Lisa Mahone’s story of an officer that displayed unwarranted aggressive tactics towards her and her family during a routine traffic stop. The story gained national attention, and opposing opinions to whether the officer’s actions or Lisa’s behavior were more justified. Lisa’s story begs the question: who holds the police accountable for mistreatment of the law and the citizens he or she serves?
The battle of Midway (1942) was fought between Japan and America during WWII. The Americans, following many defeats delivered by the elite if not legendary Japanese fleet managed to break the Japanese code and score an upset victory at Midway. The battle of Midway destroyed the Japanese Combined fleet. Japan lost Four aircraft carries, that was around half of all carriers Japan had in operation at the time. Also the pilots and aircraft Japan lost was tremendous: 248 aircraft were destroyed.
According to chapter five in “Cop in the Hood” written by Peter Moskos, he points out various reason how 911 is a joke and how calling 911 is not any help to the community. Whenever there is a drug incident in the community the patrol officers totally ignore the situation. And even if the patrol officer does address the situation the patrol officer never handle the drug dealers correctly. For instance, Moskos mentioned that a resident of the neighborhood saw three youth out on a late school night doing what seemed to be suspicious business on the corner and which lead the resident to call 911 on the youths. When 911 arrived at the scene, they instantly began to harass the three young men.
When it comes to the topic of police reform, many agree that our country is long overdue for it, however the questions is how exactly do we, as a nation, go about changing one of the most rigid power structures that exist in the country. While some believe that reform must come from within the individually flawed police departments, others argue that the entire criminal justice system needs an overhaul. An analysis of Ta-Nehisi Coates essay “The Myth of Police Reform” reveals that the complex issues of police shootings of minors (especially African Americans) and how difficult it may be to change these problems. In “The Myth of Police Reform” the author exemplifies the use of logos, ethos and pathos therefore making the argument effective.
The Michael Brown murder by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri brought attention back to racial discrimination throughout the United States. Anger has been directed towards police officers and court judges by many unhappy citizens. I chose this crime related article because all the sudden I see things about police brutality on the media, which I am not use to seeing. I am interested in reading the author's opinion on the matter, as well as trying to form my own. These stories are causing me to see that the police force, the ones supposedly responsible for my safety, becoming the ones doing all the harming.
As a result police officers have become a major key in the arrests of many people of color. Alexander explains how police will stop and search people of color who are “suspected” of containing drugs or who look “suspicions.” Police officers are actually encouraged in their training to use racial profiling and when a person files a complaint the Courts always take the side of the police officer. As stated by Alexander, “The dirty little secret of policing is that the Supreme Court has actually granted the police license to discriminate” (130). Many would argue that police officers and the justice system are fair and that they don’t discriminate and that one does have a fair trial in court from all the lies the media and television shows feeds the people about the justice system and police force.
The report notes that these officers had inadequate training, supervision, and accountability mechanisms. Officers at the department are never held accountable, therefore they feel as though they could act in any way, with no regard to the individual or the impact it has on the community. In response to these findings, the DOJ issued a series of recommendations to help reform the department in hopes of rebuilding the trust within the community. Some of the recommendations include: implementing bias-free policing practices, enhancing officer training and supervision, improving accountability measures for officer misconduct, and restructuring the municipal court system to prioritize fairness and justice. This report paints a clear image of the systematic racial bias and institutional failures within the Ferguson Police Department.
In “An American Dilemma”, Gunnar Myrdal calls attention to discrimination plaguing law enforcement and justice systems in the South during the mid 20th century. Although his volumes of work were written nearly twenty years prior to the A.C. Hall case, Myrdal highlights troubling patterns of law enforcement and criminal justice that clearly manifest in A.C. Hall’s death and the incident’s aftermath. Myrdal unpacks how southern law enforcement conditions are rooted in the disenfranchisement of black communities, with far reaching consequences for not only the political climate of the region, but also for the trends of justice served to black defendants and plaintiffs. In many areas of the south, local governments employed judges, prosecuting attorneys, court officials, and high ranking police officers based on local elections (rather than appointments) and this practice led to low professional standards among these positions.
Assurance in equal justice remains as an overwhelming political principle of American culture. Yet withstanding unbelief exists among numerous racial and ethnic minorities. Their doubt comes as no surprise, given a past filled with differential treatment in the arrangement of criminal equity, an issue particularly clear in police misconduct. Researchers have investigated police responses to racial and ethnic minorities for quite some time, offering sufficient confirmation of minority burden on account of police. These examinations raise doubt about different police techniques of coercive control, maybe none more so than police brutality.
Keisha Blain in “Violence in Minneapolis is rooted in the history of racist policing in America” elaborates upon the governmental condonement of police brutality on black Americans and its effects. Like redlining, state-sanctioned violence from police officers against the African American community has shaped the history of U.S. cities. Police failed to punish white residents, inflicting harm on their black counterparts, and as a result, many black people were lynched, and their killers were never brought to justice. Police are far more likely to arrest and fatally shoot black people in comparison to those who are white, and they rarely receive any reprimand for their actions. The death rate of Black Americans at the hands of police today, is almost the same as what it once was during the lynchings a century ago (Blain, 2020).
In addition, adversaries claim that violence used by the police promotes violence in the community. As a result of escalated brutality, it is critical for police departments to gain the support of citizens to alter their perception of specialized police units. Nevertheless, with increased violence throughout the United States, it is crucial
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.
