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Police-Public Relations In America

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It is a common belief that the primary duties of the police officers are to serve and protect the public. In fact, it is embedded in our heads as children to remember the special three-digit number, 911, a number that is associated with safety, security, and at times hope. However, what if you find yourself in a position where this three-digit number does not assure your safety and instead you are told to avoid dialing this number in fear of your life, simply because you look different? For many black people, their interactions with police officers is just one of the many aspects in which they find themselves disadvantaged in in America. Tense police-public relations have been a controversial issue that has unfortunately caused greater tensions …show more content…

Aside from these studies, historical facts and events of the 16th century have been seen in connection to the racial and ethnic disparities amongst the trust and confidence Americans give the police. For example, the origins of policing in America can be traced back to its colonial years of the early 1600s (Kappeler, “A Brief History…”). Unlike the formal police forces of today, policing took different forms during its early years. In fact, post-civil war, the “Slave Patrols” of the early 1600s evolved into formal police forces that continued to persecute slaves, regardless of their earned freedom (Kappeler). Namely, racial discrimination and persecution of people of color persisted long after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Kappeler). Aside from the origins of police development, information regarding one of the pivotal moments that began such current, tense relations between black people in America and the police is the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 in the city of Ferguson, Missouri (Chaney, Cassandra, and Davis, “No Justice”). The fatal death of unarmed, black youth caused protests, rioting, and complete social unrest for several days (Chaney, Cassandra, and Davis). Overall, many policy-makers have attempted to resolve this issue by increasing police officer accountability through the use of body-worn-cameras (Kappeler). As these have been recently introduced and not yet adopted by all police forces, it is not sure whether they have proven

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956 Words | 4 Pages

Racism and racial discrimination has been a major issue in the U.S. since the colonial periods, where people have been treated differently only based upon their race. Although the civil rights movement opposed racial discrimination, the act of stereotyping individuals still continues till this day. Racial profiling by law enforcement is commonly defined as a practice that targets people for suspicion of crime based on their race, religion or national origin. A recent case, involving a young black man named Michael Brown is an example of how a police officer may act differently when facing an African American. “Ferguson Grand Jury Evidence Reveals Mistakes, Holes In Investigation” is an article written by Jason Cherkis’s and published on November

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1131 Words | 5 Pages

“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?”

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485 Words | 2 Pages

Brent Staples’s essay is still relevant today because of the fear that lives inside people who don’t understand or accept others, which often leads to authorities abusing their power so that they can feel safe while others live their lives cautiously. This relates to how both African Americans and the police live their lives in fear and with caution. The police fear African Americans due to their own prejudice reasons which causes them to abuse their authority by acting more aggressive which helps themselves feel safer and stronger. This forces African Americans to live their lives with caution and patience because if they don’t, they put themselves at a higher risk of endangering themselves. Brent Staples wrote the article “Black Men in Public

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428 Words | 2 Pages

Addressing police brutality must be done with empathy for and awareness of the plight of the African-American community. Historically speaking, there has not been a period wherein the African-American community was not inhibited by institutionalized barriers. American enslavement provided the foundation for later oppressive provisions that are especially prevalent within inner-city, predominantly Black communities, which, incidentally, many of the prominent instances of police brutality have taken place. Political regimes like the “war on drugs,” “school to prison pipeline,” and mass incarceration criminalize and dehumanize the African-American community, and thus affect the collective mindset of the population. I believe that an imperative first step that has not been taken is acknowledging the effects these may have on the Black community.

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1467 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1491 Words | 6 Pages

Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.

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687 Words | 3 Pages

Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on August 9, 2014 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting prompted protests. When it was announced that Officer Wilson would not be indicted, the announcement set off another wave of protests. Not all police officers are dishonest and abuse their power but It 's obvious that today 's community of people has a suspicion of officers true intentions. The idea of cops and cameras has been around for a while but ever since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown the debate on whether police officers should be required to wear body cameras has been the center of attention.

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1259 Words | 6 Pages

America is a national melting pot. However, the nation is haunted by its evil history of the oppression of an entire race of people, known as American slavery. Even though this systematical form of oppression through slavery has been ridden, racial tensions in the nation are still prominent. Systematic oppression is apparent today through the police force, whose actions at times exhibits racial bias and targeting. Instances of racial hate crimes have occurred on multiple accounts throughout history.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

The Rodney King incident took place 23 years ago, however the issue of police brutality against African American men persists today. Even when verite video that captures the incident from start to finish and audio is heard from both parties, police are continuously let off. Lets take for example the contemporary 2014 incident, in which a police officer placed African American male Eric Garner in, what looked like a chokehold, which ultimately killed him in the streets of New York City – all caught on video by a passerby’s cellphone. After considering everything seen and heard in the video, including Garner claiming 11 times “I can’t breathe”, a jury decided to not indict the officer. The autopsy examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, explaining the death was caused by compression of the neck and chest (Calabresi, 2014).

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3085 Words | 13 Pages

How the news media reports on police shootings can shape public insight and influence policy decisions. Unfortunately, many news outlets often present a biased narrative that portrays law enforcement as either heroic or villainous, depending on one's political views. This dichotomy oversimplifies complex issues and does little to promote understanding or constructive dialogue. It is important to remember that police shootings are just one aspect of a larger problem: systemic racism within law enforcement. While not all officers are racist or biased against certain groups, there is evidence that racial disparities exist in the way law enforcement interacts with different communities.

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450 Words | 2 Pages

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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917 Words | 4 Pages

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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947 Words | 4 Pages

After the results of a poll called “Race and Reality in America,” it is an acknowledgement that we have a race problem. According to the report, a large majority of minorities say that whether an incident in which an unarmed person is harmed or killed by police is videotaped plays a major role in whether or not the police officer or officers are charged for the crime (CNN Wire). A tangible solution, however, is to put body cameras on all cops. Most blacks feel like they are discriminated against when it comes to police brutality, because they are a minority. In our criminal justice system, the disadvantage of being a minority is

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760 Words | 4 Pages

An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer

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1362 Words | 6 Pages

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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