The Significance Of Police Brutality In Dear Martin

Braydon Benninger

Mr. Scott

ENG 1D

Thursday, June 9, 2023

Police Brutality in Dear Martin

The police are great workers and are here to help the community . But, maybe they are not the most reliable people as shown in the novel Dear Martin. by Nic Stone, Justyce and the black community are terrified and scared of the police. This is because the police always have a bad opinion of the black community. As shown in the novel, the police always wrongfully assault black people just because they look suspicious. The biggest concern is with police brutality, as Justice has to learn how to live in a community where he can be wrongfully assaulted or killed by a police officer at any moment. Police brutality is an aggressive, over the top way

When police see a black person walking down the street with their hood up, they always think that they are suspicious. At the beginning of the novel in chapter 1, Justyce sees his ex-girlfriend Melo getting into a car. It is stated that Melo was extremely drunk. Justyce goes up and tries to help her out a little. Then a police cruiser pulled up behind the car. The officer jumps out and starts accusing Justyce that he is trying to attack Melo instead of helping her out. The officer grabs him, pulls him out of the car and throws Justyce to the ground near the police cruiser. He put handcuffs on his hands so tightly that his hands started to hurt. Justyce tries to say “officer, this is a big misunderstanding” (stone 7) but the officer slaps him in the face and tells him to shut up. The officer says, “I knew you were up to no good when I saw you walking down the street with your hood up”(stone 8). This statement tells us that the officer was following and spying on Justyce the whole time, just because Justyce looked suspicious and he had his hood up. The officer does not let justice speak, he spits at Justice's face multiple times. Justyce looks at the officer's badge and sees that his name is Officer. Castillo. Officer Castillo's action between Justyce was unacceptable and extremely inappropriate. Justyce is a good kid and he was never expecting to deal with a situation like this. Officer Castillo sees Justyce as an black teenager who is a criminal and is going to commit a crime. Justyce’s wrist continues to hurt and he never forgets the time when he was arrested for no reason. If officer Castillo saw a white man walking on the sidewalk with his hood up, Castillo might not care and would just keep driving. This story tells us how Police see the black community as a bunch of criminals and always think they are up to no good. Another time in the novel when a kid justyce gets