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Racism And Injustice

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Introduction
The overarching attempt of this paper is to understand how racism and injustice in policing toward racially marginalized individuals is the result of socially constructed and implicit bias. In order to grasp how bias is a social construction that places marginalized members as victims of law enforcement, rather than as individuals that are given the protection they need, one must understand some key concepts to properly formulate how race is intertwined with negative or positive bias. Police are given powers that operate on the basis of personal discretion, so the reader must ask how we can trust a law enforcement system that trusts specific individuals to not hold biased beliefs; particularly since every individual has some sort …show more content…

Popular biases that exist are shaped by surroundings and socializations that one has been raised in, as discussed earlier. For example, a highly white area may view their counterparts as hostile, dangerous, criminal and concentrated in certain areas in which all crime occurs, and this may result in over policing (Sampson and Raudenbush 2004). This forces typical profiling and generalizations of crime on the basis of no real harm or threat. However, police are an institution that is present to protect “the people”, although “the people” has been subjectively shifted to support the popular belief or ideal while maintaining order (Sampson and Raudenbush 2004). According to a study on views of racism and unjust treatment, the majority of white individuals do not see racism as apart of law enforcement practices and that racism is not an issue within (Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project 2016) . In summary, something that is not universally viewed as a problem, will often be overlooked and …show more content…

The most disturbing research found was that of police circumstance simulation practices. Within this simulation, results measured law enforcement instincts during various intensity scaled situations, including white and black participants. Research found that officers on quick reaction timing saw black individuals as a higher threat and needed higher intensity and force, including weapons, even when simulating the same situation with a white individual. This result shows that race plays a pivotal role in policing response, and is often the first deciding factor for officers in how to respond (Plant and Peruche 2005). This research highlights that in a simulated situation no other factors exist beside internal assumption and reactions to perceived situations. For the same circumstance that the simulation provided for both races, different reactions took place, providing a clear indication that implicit bias is used as a guided predictor for law enforcement before determining how to react to a situation. This simulation further allows researchers to see that within this implicit bias is the ability to distort the actual circumstances and factors visually present, giving the freedom to law enforcement to respond subjectively to high intensity and escalated situations (Plant and Peruche

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Police Brutality is an ongoing problem and existent concern in the United States and should be resolved immediately. Law enforcement must function as an element that consists of organized and civilized officers. The presence of police brutality is becoming more of an issue as society grows. The problem posed by the illegal exercise of police power is an ongoing reality for individuals of a disfavored race, class, or sexual orientation. Police brutality must be stopped so that police do not forget who they are serving – not themselves, but the public.

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Pre-existing beliefs of ethnic minorities from the media, police sub-culture or other micro-level influences mean that ethnic minorities are more likely to be stopped by the police than white people in an occupational culture where targeting is encouraged (see Cashmore, 2001; Bowling et al, 2008). Such targeting mandates are guided by discretion and are likely to become entrenched in the structural policies of the police. It is in such a situation that institutional racism finds its expression. Oakley (1999, p.290) defines the term as ‘the way institutions or organizations may systematically treat, or tend to treat, people differently in respect of "race"’. When such patterns of ill-treatment are repeated continuously, they take on a ‘rule-like status’ and cannot be easily disrupted (see Haney-Lopez 2000, p. 1723).

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