The number of shootings involving law enforcement officers and unarmed African American men has increased in the United States in recent months to the point where there is social unrest in one particular community: the African-American community. Groups such as Black Lives Matter have been created in the recent past to create tranquility between the police and the people of the Unites States. If media accounts of these incidents are accurate and these recent trends are taken together, the country is on the tipping point of a deadly unprecedented racial divide. It is safe to say that the majority of Americans would agree that the Civil Rights Movement achieved many of its goals, most would also agree that racism and racial profiling …show more content…
Although the numbers have kept increasing, there had been eight confirmed law enforcement officers that were killed during separate shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, LA. These shootings were committed by African American assailants who were angry with the treatment of the African American community by law enforcement. What was ironic about the Castile shooting was that the police officer who shot him arrested him before for mistaken identity for an armed robbery while he was wrongfully booked to a Minnesota county jail. Despite the details about Castile’s tragic death are unclear, what is known for certain is that four days after his release, the exact same police officer saw Castile driving with a broken tail light and the at the next traffic light, the officer stopped, shot, and killed him while it was aired live for the world to see on Facebook by his girlfriend. These shootings in particular sparked nationwide protests and tension and hostility between law enforcement and the people of the
Regardless of the decisions made by the courts and the evidence available to the public, it is easy to blame the situation at hand on racism. However, according to the statistics relayed on The Juvenile and Criminal-Justice Center website, the stance leaning towards law enforcement bias towards black men, does not hold. These reports state that police killed 123 blacks. On the other hand, these reports also published that the same group of offenders killed 326 whites. That being said, what about the Michael Brown case has elicited such a violent and nation-wide response?
After conducting my research, I will analyze the officer involved shooting incident that occurred in Nashville a little over forty days ago between Officer Joshua Lippert and Jocques Clemmons (Cardenas, Alund, & Sawyer, 2017). On February 10, 2017 at approximately thirteen hundred hours Officer Joshua Lippert was involved in a shooting that took the life of Jocques Clemmons (Cardenas, Alund, & Sawyer, 2017). Initially we will examine the facts of the incident provided to the media followed by the public’s response. The initial circumstances released to the public regarding the incident were Officer Lippert initiated a traffic stop on Clemmons’ vehicle for failing to observe a posted stop sign (Cardenas, Alund, & Sawyer, 2017).
Ever since the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin, more shootings and deaths has occurred. Cases such as the Eric Garner case, Akai Gurley case, and John Crawford case has caused outrage from the African American community and Black Lives Matter movement. In order to combat the shootings and deaths of the people in the African American community, people have marched against police brutality in order to make a change in the world. Brad Knickerbocker, staff writer of csmonitor, states that: “Thousands of Americans marched and rallied in New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and other cities around the country Saturday, voting with their feet against police brutality – specifically in response to recent police killings in Cleveland, New York, and Ferguson, Missouri, that have wracked a nation still dealing with issues involving racial mistrust and mistreatment of black people at the hands of white police officers” (Knickerbocker). Due to many events that have occurred against black people, “thousands of Americans” marched and fight against police brutality.
Reid, 36 was shot seven times when pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, resulting in his death. Verdict for the two police officers: No indictment. Police are not being held accountable for their wrongful crimes and abuse of authority towards blacks. According to Mapping Police Violence, only 3 out of the 210 killings of unarmed black people resulted in officers being charged with a crime. This shows justice is not being served for people of
The Plague of the United States era, society is insistently assured by police and their apologist, is not the extensive abuse and other frequent misconduct by law enforcements officers, but the expanding “disrespect for authority” that is being encouraged by “liberals” and those more extensive individuals called “libertarians” The widespread media coverage of police brutality has become too common within our societies everyday life, thus causing destruction of the communities trust. Savage treatment is continually afflicted among African Americans as a replacement form of punishment. A substantial number of casualties of police brutality are African Americans, for instance during August 9th within a house of Brooklyn, an African American
Hypotheses In light of a recent police officer involved shooting in Chicago, a Chicago police officer (white officer), was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a black teenager. There has been numerous police involved shootings in the U.S. in this past year, and the Chicago incident is not the first or last. Race baiting has become a hot topic and has gone viral around the nation. It is evident that the practice of the use of force is widely talked about in social media, and law enforcement leaders are aware that they must educate and train their officers regarding such usage.
It seems like all you see on TV today is about police and Racial Profiling. Police have always been accused of racial profiling but now that social media and the media is involved it has added fire into the pot that has led to law enforcement to have a bad name which is not fair to all the cop there who don’t do racial profiling. The media and social media have gather the attention of everyone with the black lives matter movement the black live matter movement started when an officer shot and killed a black male and has continue and has kept growing every since. for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of
In this article, Staples discusses the treatment of African Americans by U.S. police, emphasizing the history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment. Staples focuses mainly on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. who got arrested in his home located in Cambridge, Massachusetts which relvealed the sharp racial divide over what police could do to innocent black people. Robert goes on to explain that the racial underpinnings cause the majoritity of the public to favor law enforcement as a slutionto crime. Robert claims the political support for U.S. legal discrimination leads the people against minorities in criminal penalties over small crimes which usually are nonviolent offenses. I will use this academic article to support my conclusion
Every week there is a different story about an unarmed African American being shot to death by a white police officer. African Americans are twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with the police opposed as white people. According to a Guardian investigation which found 102 of 464 people killed so far this year in incidents with law enforcement officers were unarmed and not carrying weapons. When will it stop ? An analysis of public records, local news report and Guardians reporting found that 32% of African Americans killed by police in 2015 were unarmed as were 25% of Hispanics and Latino Americans, compared with 15% of White Americans killed.
So far in the year of 2015, 66 unarmed African Americans have been killed by police authorities. Ever since the death Michael Brown in August 2014, the world has become much more aware of police brutality. According to wisegeek.org, police brutality is “a form of police misconduct in which officers engage in an excessive use of force.” Police brutality against African Americans is an issue that has been causing a lot of controversy in the past year. This issue needs much more awareness than ever before, since there have been many startling cases during and after the Ferguson protest.
As a result, the “BlackLivesMatters” movement has been brought to attention because of all black people that have died due to the actions of police by the mainstream. However, police brutality isn't just a problem for one individual ethnicity. Providing that, police departments are dissolving claims of brutality out of hand, the statistics are from self-reporting, or the issue begins from not following department policy (Small-Jordan, 2015). As a consequence, police brutality in America has reached such a turning point that society has reached an “us against them” attitude with criminals targeting officers and law enforcement. Also, the constant media coverage has impacted society and resulted in the need for reform or laws to minimize police brutality.
Racial Profiling and the disproportionate use of police force are controversial political issues. Debates on racial bias in policing continue to reverberate across the country making headlines, aside from the importance of the debate on racial profiling and police use of force, such events create intergroup conflict, foreground stereotypes and trigger discriminatory responses. A serious issue in today’s society is the rising tension between the police force and the community which has developed through racial profiling and police brutality. In New York City, the controversial “stop, question, and frisk” policy was endorsed by some as essential for reducing crime rates (MacDonald 2001) and challenged by others as racially biased with a heavy burden placed on affected individuals and communities (Fagan et al. 2010).
Since Dr. King’s time, racial tensions have risen tremendously in the United States. Everyday there are new headlines about protests and all the violence that occurs with it. In Although we have come a long way since when racism was a major everyday situation, Americans have yet to learn their lessons. Today, there are protest groups such as those for the Black Lives Matters movement that have been using violence to express themselves. The destruction done by protesters include cities being ruined where people of both color and white skin have been dying due.
In the United States, law enforcement continues to reform. Criticism is escalating to the belief that “policing [is] not [adapting] to best fulfill its duties to the public (Gale, part of Cengage Group).” Police reform is addressing issues through “gradual and radical methods (Gale, part of Cengage Group).” As a result, police and other law enforcement continue to experience retaliation with Black Lives Matter protests, including “Defunding the Police” and concerns with racial injustices. With notable police brutality, law enforcement is being placed under public scrutiny.
If police misconduct is not addressed and the issues involving black males being shot by police doesn’t diminish—there will be detrimental consequences. Police reform and quick transparency measures must be put into play when it comes to policing practices. If black males, young and old continue to die by the hands of police officers the entire nation risks detrimental civil distress that will more likely lead to civil-eruptions. We are risking a race war. President Obama had proposed reimbursing police departments who partially covered the implementation of Body Cameras.