Sentenced To 30 Years In Fatal Beating Of Inmate By Benjamin Weiser

I agree with the conviction of the Rikers guard for beating an inmate to death. The article “Ex-Rikers Guard Is Sentenced to 30 Years in Fatal Beating of Inmate” by Benjamin Weiser is a clear demonstration of the consistent abuse that’s taken place over the years not only in public but inside prisons towards people of color. Even though a person is prosecuted for committing crimes, they still have their civil rights that should protect them but when they are taken to these prisons their rights are constantly being violated when they get abused, beaten and mistreated simply because they’re inside these walls where officers are allowed to act this way towards the inmates. The institutional racism in the police department has gotten out of control

An example of how cops automatically make people of color threats and result into murdering them/using physical violence is the act of “stop and frisk” and getting pulled over for license and registration. When the person resists or even when you oblige, it leads to violence because you’re suddenly seen as a threat for “reaching for a weapon” and end up getting killed or hurt. These stops were reasons to target people of color to get searched and questioned without any probable cause until it became illegal (only to stop and frisk). Getting pulled over is still an issue today and every day that passes a black person becomes a statistic due to the culture of violence police have with firearms or the type of weapons that they overuse like tasers and pepper spray or even the excessive physical abuse/ force.“In court, Mr. Schmidt depicted Mr. Spear as a nasty and recalcitrant inmate who had started the physical dispute with Mr. Coll.” (Weiser 2) Victim blaming has become the ultimate solution towards racial profiling. When reasoning why violence had to be used, it’s always because they “reached for a weapon” or “became aggressive” but black people are stereotypically already described and seen as “aggressive” and “angry” which adds on to the prejudice against them. Ultimately the act would be justified because they “deserved it” for acting a certain way that seemed suspicious or threatening and since cops are privileged it’s never seen as an issue and they're always