Police Brutality In Formation By Trayvon Martin

Today’s topic: Police Brutality

“Yall haters corny with that illuminati mess, paparazzi catch my fly and my cocky dress. I’m so reckless when I rock my Givenchy dress. I’m so possessive so I rock his Roc necklaces. My daddy alabama, momma louisiana. You mix that negro with that creole make a texas bama. I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros. I like my negro nose with jackson five nostrils. Made all this money but they never take the country out me. I got hot sauce in my bag swag.” (Heal 1). The paragraph above contains lyrics found in pop icon’s Beyonce song, ‘Formation’. Formation is a song that represents the strength of the african american community and plays a great notion in addressing issues such as black lives matter, police

Being an adolescent, who is in fact african american writing this essay, of course the first case which caught my attention was the 2012 Trayvon Martin case. Note, Trayvon was not killed by a member of law enforcement, rather, he was killed by a vigilante. But although Trayvon was not killed by a member of law enforcement this stirred up attention across america especially in the african american community concerning the law and members of its enforcement (judges, lawyers, police officers etc.) Following Trayvon’s death, deaths of other african americans by police officers started receiving national attention. Deaths of victims such as Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and others were being talked about nationwide following the death of Trayvon. Members of the african american community and many others were outraged and wanted answers as well as

“Frequent exposure to media reports of police abuse or corruption is a strong predictor of perceptions of misconduct and supports the belief that is common.” (France-Respers 1). But unfortunately, it also brings me disheartened feelings. Recently, I was on twitter and I stumbled across a video of a young white male who was roughly about twenty to twenty-five years of age who was being handled so aggressively by about six officers while he was NOT resisting. The act itself is disappointing but more importantly I was bothered by the fact that there are many white individuals who fall victim to acts of police brutality but they don’t receive as much attention because they are not minorities (especially as much as african americans and latino’s do). “Deaths of whites at the hands of law enforcement typically receive less attention, even when the case is shrouded in controversy.” (Richardson, 1). This is an issue as a nation, we are fighting for unity among us all so I find it particularly odd that I never hear cases of police brutality against white individuals on the news, but constantly I come across one’s relating to african americans. All cases of police brutality are wrong despite color, race and ethnicity and we all deserve the right to raise awareness of this growing issue! Police