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Police And People Of Color Essay

915 Words4 Pages

The relationship between police and people of color is complicated on various levels. For many years, these problems have been persistent. Understanding that tension among people of color and police officers has its roots in the history of policing in the USA is the first step in solving the problem. With a long and tumultuous past, the interaction of policing and race is a complicated subject in the US (Davis, 2017). The evolution of American law enforcement to the contemporary police forces influenced by centuries of racial bias has been strongly affected by race. The violence and cruelty of slave patrols and centralized city enforcement were well-known. In this essay, I will discuss the problems that people of color, including teenagers, …show more content…

Racial profiling, the overuse of force, and the absence of transparency in situations of police wrongdoing are a few things that have led to this problem (Davis, 2017). These problems have eroded trust between law enforcement and minority groups, which can make it more challenging for officers to carry out their duties successfully. Due to several high-profile occurrences, the problem has gained attention recently. Even in the absence of concrete proof of criminal conduct, law enforcement agencies may attack or harbor suspicions against someone based on their race, ethnicity, or birth country (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). Due to a lack of diversity, there may be racial bias in police departments and a resulting distrust among law enforcement and people of …show more content…

Rather than targeting people of color for their conduct or activities, the police target them because of their race. Minority groups, especially African Americans, are more prone to have unpleasant contact with law enforcement officers, according to studies that have been conducted repeatedly (Davis, 2017). Several studies indicate that people of color are unfairly affected by police officers, which is a serious problem in policing known as racial profiling. Compared to white Americans, black People had a more than twofold increased risk of being murdered by police. Research shows that black people are more likely to be subjected to police officers using excessive force than other groups (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). The use of fatal force by law enforcement against African Americans has been brought to light by a variety of notable

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The authors suggest that interventions aimed at reducing implicit biases and racial anxiety may be effective in reducing the incidence of police use of force against minority groups. They also emphasize the importance of addressing the connections of race and other social identities in understanding police behavior. As the article that was previously mentioned research has discovered that people of color tend to be “stopped, searched, arrested, and convicted of crimes, even when controlling for factors such as crime rates and other demographic characteristics” more than white individuals (Spencer). This goes on to show the logical reasoning behind the existence and impact of racial profiling and discrimination in the criminal justice system. Much of this information is gathered from academic resources provided on the school library website or from other educational institutes.

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Researchers and Black people are not the only ones who recognize that racial profiling is a problem — even some government organizations do. A page on the National Institute of Justice’s website admits, “people of color are more often stopped than whites” (National Institute of Justice). Clearly, racial profiling by police officers is an existing issue and something must be done to put an end to this horrible practice. Fortunately, there are several methods for how police departments can reduce racial profiling against Black

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James Queally and Joe Mozingo on the article “Feds fault San Francisco police for violence against minorities and recommend 272 reforms” explains how law enforcement is racially biased towards minorities. Queally and Mozingo support their claim by mentioning the rise of police brutality against Blacks and Latinos and describing the type slurs used when law enforcement are referring to minorities amongst their fellow colleague. The authors’ purpose is to show the reader the type of way law enforcement is unfair to people of color and different cultures. The authors write in a serious tone to those seeking to end police brutality.

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Member of diverse ethnic and racial groups, particularly African Americans, believe that they are not treated with respect and believe that there is institutional racism in law enforcement. Institutionalized racism can be harmful to those impacted. For example, the use of pre-employment standardized tests claim that this kind of assessment could be biased toward people of a certain culture, so minorities tend to score lower (p. 48). Racism within law enforcement agencies has been documented for decades.

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We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way

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Throughout history, the failure of the government to protect black people from ruthless enforcement officers, forced blacks to act in their own interests. During the 1930s, the National Negro Congress organized massive rallies against police brutality, the Black Panther was created to stem the tide of police abuse, and in the 1970s the Congress of African Peoples sponsored the “Stop Killer Cops” Campaigns (Fitzgerald, 2007). The list goes on and on of groups and campaigns that African Americans formed to protect themselves from white supremacy and most importantly police brutality. Although some observers claim that racial profiling doesn’t exist, there are an abundance of stories and statistics that document the

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Intro According to USA Today, on average there were 96 cases of a white police officer killing a black person each year between 2006 and 2012(citation). Some might argue that because these victims were black, police officers targeted them. Americans need to dismiss from their minds that race is a determining factor of violence or threats. The media is the main catalyst for implanting race as an issue in Americans minds. The news media is solely responsible for blacks thinking that they are targeted by white police officers.

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This article brought many points into light that many other articles were too sacred to bring up or simply did not want to bring up because the evidence went against their claim. This article talked about how racial profiling is often times misunderstood. To argue his point, he talks about how crime is never evenly distributed in cities and many times the places where there is the most crime is a part of town that lives in poverty. Often times this also means these parts of town are highly diverse. Policemen then, doing their job, watch these parts of town because of the high crime.

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African Americans have always been at odds with any form of law enforcement since the very beginning of time. Judged by their skin color, African Americans have experienced numerous encounters with the police force, some warranted and many unwarranted. As time passes the excessive force being used against African Americans increases and the chances of obtaining justice are slim to none. Police brutality against African Americans has become a paradigm of injustice in America. With 458 deaths by police shooting in the year of 2017, that number has rapidly grown according to a study produced by Vox.

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According to the National Institute of Justice, there is evidence to support the idea that people of color are more likely to get pulled over in a traffic stop than Caucasians. Within the last decade racial profiling has become a very controversial issue. Many incidents involving police shooting people of color has caused individuals to take a stand against racial profiling. There is increasing evidence that law enforcement officials use this practice. Some would argue that it is okay for police to use this tactic as long as it keeps dangerous criminals off the streets.

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In Table 2, they gathered data on racial differences facing the police. One of the questions they asked was “Just your impression, are blacks in your community treated less fairly than whites in dealing with the police, such as traffic incidents?” Table 1 and Table 2 together supported racial splits on their personal thoughts and conflicts with the police. Another one of Weitzer and Tuch findings were that 39% of blacks had unfavorable views about their local police than 12.8% of whites and 30.3% of blacks had unfavorable views of the state police than 7.7% whites (2002). Their findings show that blacks see profiling as more pervasive, with 81.6% of blacks feeling this way versus 60.2% of whites (Weitzer

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One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.

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According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.

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Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer.

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Random sample surveys were conducted in Seattle, Washington by telephone, which asked citizen’s various questions concerning their feelings towards police. These questions included their level of happiness in regards to police problem-solving, their views on police hassling citizens, and if they had ever experienced, or perceived to experience racial profiling or bias by law enforcement (Wu, 2014). Of all the citizens that took part in the survey, 64% of African Americans felt that racial profiling was a problem inside their neighborhoods, 28% of Asians, 20% of whites, and 34% of Hispanics agreed (Wu,

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