Police Brutality & Role of Race
- http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/07/opinions/arnold-police-shootings/
- http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/the-real-story-of-race-and-police-killings/
- http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/police_brutality_and_misconduct/index.html
- http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29070325/denver-police-union-files-lawsuit-over-body-camera
As we progress through the 21st century, we are discovering cures and answers to questions that have been plaguing mankind for centuries. We can cure diseases that killed many before, we can go space and back with ease, and we can create objects out of nothing with 3D Printing. Although as we learn why Mars is devoid of life, we continue to experience some social problems that seem incurable. Anyone who has turned on the news in the past year, and even longer, they will see cases of race violence between whites and blacks. Even more so, law enforcement has become entangled in multiple incidents of brutality and violent handling of suspects. It would seem in a world where you can be cured of severe illnesses, that for some people, those meant to protect you are your deadliest enemies.
Many people have seen these incidents, and in most cases, the camera recording showing the struggle and aftermath. As someone who wishes to pursue a career in law enforcement, and also come from a long line of police officers at all levels of the law,it would appear that I would have some biases in this matter. Although, I can say truthfully that in many cases, I am disgusted and disturbed by the actions on the part of the officer on scene. Likewise, many people in the minority population of America are calling race as the major motivator for these incidents. From the statistics, presented in all three of the first articles, African Americans are indeed at larger risk for violent handling. This is the second major point of discussion; whether to blame the racist officer or the thug black kid. These two sides are the splitting line in almost all the discussions on the issue, and it would appear there is little room allowed for another party's point of view.
Anyone who reads into these incidents, looks through the reports and articles, comes out with more questions than answers. It seems that the articles both inform and inflate people's opinions, and thus deepen the argument. Therefore, I pose some questions to you, now infected with the same virus, following these readings. What do you think of these incidents, who seems to be the aggressor mostly? Is there any side present other than the police's or suspect's? What steps should be taken to curb this issue, should body cams (like those in the fourth article) be implemented? Finally, if this problem persists, do you think that people other than African Americans could become victims?
Possibly the main problem between both sides is the mistrust between the two races. Not only are white people traditionally seen as "afraid" of black people, black people traditionally distrust white people because of their racist tendencies. With pop culture nowadays and the aggressive tone of some urban music I am sure white people tend to assume that back people are naturally aggressive and "up to no good." I think the problem is the misunderstanding between the two races. To end this issue it just nasty have time and sensitivity training to not always hold black people to this up to no good standard.
ReplyDeleteThe issue of police brutality specifically against African American people has been debated for a long time now. There have been riots just because of these incidents, such as the LA riots after Rodney King's death, or the Ferguson riots after Michael Brown's death. Honestly, I think there is fault on both sides of this issue. Perhaps police officers are using excess force when performing arrests, but perhaps the people that are against these officers are inflating the fact that the people who are being arrested are black, when that simply was a coincidence. When talking about who the aggressor is in these cases, the only thing that I can say for sure is that who the main aggressor is changes on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, the officer legitimately did have racist tendencies, and would act particularly harsh against a black suspect, while in other cases, the officer was actually defending them self against an aggressor who just happened to be black. I definitely do think that there are outside factors that is affecting this idea that police officers are especially harsh against black suspects. First of all, the media is the biggest offender of exploiting this issue. Every day, we hear about the violent arrest or death of a black suspect at the hand of a Caucasian officer, and are given grim details about what the officer had done. Do you think this particular attention to detal is just a coincidence? These grim details are clearly meant to further boil this issue of racial police violence even further, driving controversy about the issue even farther. Whenever you hear about a white suspect being violently arrested or killed by a police officer, it's almost treated like an everyday event that shouldn't be thought about, while arrests or deaths of black suspects are blown up extremely quickly, and treated like a systematic racial predjudice by officers, even though it most likely isn't this. The best way to curb this issue I would think would probably be some form of body cameras on all officers. Although this issue may seem a little harsh for the officers, I don't think that the side opposing the officers would be satisfied with any other form of evidence that the officers aren't racially driven in their arrests. If this problem persists, I honestly don't think that anything would be different than it already is. I don't think that these officers are racially inclined in any form of systematic way, it's just the cases where the officers are actually racially inclined in their arrests that makes the situation seem much worse than it actually is.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Riley when she talks about mistrust from both sides. I think the one thing that is ruling over America right now and that is not being talked about is fear! Fear is controlling how people are living there lives and the actions they take in order to make sure they make it home safe each in ever night. Whites are scared of African Americans and African Americans are scared of whites. The problem obviously is categorized very much, but fear still exists there. I believe in each situation both parties are at fault. However, each case is different in their own right even though they are all connected to the police brutality problem plaguing this nation. We must be able to separate these issues and analyze them each for their own issue to see who is at fault instead of having a racial blame game.
ReplyDeleteRiley makes a good point about mistrust between races. this creates a tension between them and a line where there is a "them" and "us" culture. We need to stop allowing ourselves to separate ourselves from each other and realize that we are all the same and skin color is just a pigment. I think that our society today and the culture people are raised up in contributes to the longevity of racial stereotypes and leads to judgments. People today are so quick to judge others based on their appearances and snap judgments that they often make huge mistakes as can be seen in these examples that involve the police.
ReplyDeleteRiley makes a good point about mistrust between races. this creates a tension between them and a line where there is a "them" and "us" culture. We need to stop allowing ourselves to separate ourselves from each other and realize that we are all the same and skin color is just a pigment. I think that our society today and the culture people are raised up in contributes to the longevity of racial stereotypes and leads to judgments. People today are so quick to judge others based on their appearances and snap judgments that they often make huge mistakes as can be seen in these examples that involve the police.
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