Preview

Ethnicity and Policing

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
640 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ethnicity and Policing
Ethnicity and the Police Part II
Police Brutality and Corruption: New Orleans Police Department By Brittany Jackson
Staff Writer
BATON ROUGE- New Orleans Police Department is known for its harsh brutality, corruption, discrimination, and deadly force. The issue of citizen complaints has been a controversial concern in New Orleans. The complaints of citizens are generally a racial issue. African American civil groups have commanded civilian evaluation as a way of presenting independent assessments of complaints.
Although the New Orleans courts planned to expurgate police corruption and brutality, the unruly behavior has increased. Over the recent years the New Orleans Police Department had a discreditable record for police brutality and many incidents were reported to the department Internal Affairs Division and the Office of Municipal Investigations. Some officers were charged for using excessive force towards victims, sometimes without adequate cause, and some suspects died while in the custody of police.
The New Orleans Police Department has a history of police brutality cases including the case of Robert Davis. Robert Davis, a retired elementary school teacher and a resident of New Orleans was detained, arrested, and beaten by four white police officers on October 9, 2005 on notion of public intoxication. Davis was 64 years old at the time of the incident and was charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery, and public intimidation which he pled not guilty to all charges. Upon hearing the charges Davis stated, “I haven’t had a drink in twenty five years.” The officers were charged with battery and the use of severe force. All officers were released on bond after making an appearance before the judge, pleading not guilty. African American Police Chief Warren Riley stated that he did not believe race was a issue in the beating. Charges against Davis were dropped in April 2006. Robert Evangelist and Lance Schilling were fired for

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the police force in the Ferguson area, there were “allegations involving use of force that raised questions” (50). Police officers rarely stay in the same department over their career. Therefore, there is almost no familiarity between the officers, and the community they are serving in. Most of the revenue of…

    • 578 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the biggest contributors to the Rodney King incident was an attitude had by a large number of LAPD officers, “who repetitively used excessive force against the public and persistently ignored the written guidelines of the Department regarding force” (Cronkhite, 2013, p. 94). This attitude, also seen as us against them, was ignored by administrators for many years and was the cause of several lawsuits. These officers knew they did not have much to worry about becauseit was very hard department wide to make a complaint and there was no open system with a civilian oversight committee (Cronkhite, 2013). The socio-economic conditions did not help with the above attitude as the area was crime ridden with mostly African-American residents…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Race-based theory plays a major role in predicting substantial and institutionalized discrimination that is always aimed at minorities within the systems of criminal justice. Racial discrimination in the criminal systems is mainly carried out by police, judges in the courts and agencies which carry out corrections in the United States. Evidence of criminal discrimination against African Americans and Hispanics found in the United States highlights some of the discrimination incidences that the minorities go through. Discrimination against minorities is popularly explained as a purpose of little position of their socioeconomic actions rather than indigenous or racial status. There are two race-based conflict theories which address the discrimination…

    • 139 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    With times changing and individuals obtaining more powerful mobile, almost every move a person makes can be recorded or looked back on in some sort of way. With this great power, comes great scrutiny for not only everyday individuals, but for the individuals that protect us day in and day out. Law enforcement has suffered more scrutiny, and has obtained a substantial amount of media coverage over the past few years. This coverage has not been positive, and often highlights the mistakes, and aggressive actions taken by the officers of the law. With the framing of police officers changing from being outstanding citizens who uphold the law, to vicious animals who abuse their power, one begins to question the reasoning for all the brutality.…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bias-Based Policing

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page

    One of the major problems that police deal with is bias-based policing. Bias-based policing is best described as practices that police intentionally use based on ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and sexual orientation. It also includes racial profiling (p.31). In my opinion, this problem will always be around, because there will always be at least one bad police officer. In order for us to minimize this problem, police officers should interact with the people in the community more. If the police made relationships with people of all races, it would make it easier for the community to trust law…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations of ethnic differences both in offending and in victimisation.…

    • 804 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In any field where your job is to provide a service to the public, it is important to have a basic understanding of the people you serve. The same is true for those who work in law enforcement, but because of the nature of their duties, it is an issue for serious concern. The multicultural shift in America means that there is more representation of various minority groups, all of whom have differing historic relations with those in law enforcement, and often times an unfavorable one. Whether these groups are newly represented in American society or have been part of the society for generations, most often there is a history of unfair or unequal treatment under the law that is difficult for parties on both sides of the issue to overcome. This lies at the core of the problems with police-community relations (PCR). In order to serve the public to the best of their abilities, those who 've taken the oath to do so need involvement from the community they represent, a community that seems to be ever…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police officers who participated in using excessive force, many times did not face any consequences, and when they did, their charges were very minimal. In his article titled, “Must We Live With Police Brutality,” David Jones uses insight from the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, Sheldon Leffler. Leffler states, that “’the department has perpetuated a police culture in which officers may be emboldened to conduct themselves in a manner that runs contrary to ... the law.’” (Jones 9). Police officers are supposed to be trusted authority figures that help protect people and enforce laws, instead of hurting people and acting as if they are above the law. Police officers, however, were not the ones who were protecting themselves from the consequences. It was those who oversaw the police departments and the local government who over protected these police officers. In the case mentioned above of the Haitian immigrant who fell victim of police brutality, the mayor of New York City, at the time, as well as the police commissioner turned a blind eye to how often police were using excessive force and unneeded brutality. Jones continues to explain how higher ups in the government and police force seemed to encourage officers to release anger and hate onto people who break the law (Jones 9). This attitude gives the idea that using force and viciousness is necessary to keep crime rates down, which is not…

    • 1976 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rodney King Analysis

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The officers at the did not know that an innocent bystander was recording the entire thing. By the next day the film was sold to the local news and was broadcasting nationwide. Everything was exaggerated by the media, to the point that political leaders were getting involved in support of Rodney King. The cops were charged of being guilty of civial rights violations, all other charges were drop. A riot broke out, so they called for a second trial and found Officer Powell and Officer Koon guilty but Officer Briseno and Wind were clear of all charges again. After the riots they also gave Rodney $3.8 million in a civial case. The Rodney King case is a start of policy bruitality and a classic in that area. Another case where the police were found innoncent was with Abner Louima, he was a 30 year old man haitian immigrant with no criminal record. In front od a night club in Brooklynn, New York on August 09, 1997. Abner was arrested after the police broke up a fight. They were on the way to station where Officer Schwarz, Wiese, and Volpe punched, kicked, and beat Abner with the police radio. After arrvivng to the station, the penetrated him anally with a wooden brrom stick and then rammed it in his mouth breaking his teeth in the process. After attacking him for three hours they left him suffering with a punctured colon, bladder, and with broken…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lawful contact goes hand in hand with the definition of “reasonable” because the term is what gives the law enforcement officer the leverage to act upon the person in question. In other words, there has to be a reason why the officer stops the individual in the first place. Now, the problem here is, and it happens in many occasions, that if the officer thinks they have “reasonable suspicion” there is possibility that the officer will go out of his or her own way to find permissible cause to investigate further. For example, if the person makes a wrong turn or any minor traffic violation they could have the green light to proceed.…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the history of the United States, the ranks of police officers have been dominated by white males. As a result, the underrepresentation of minorities and women has long been a problem in policing. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act made discriminating against any individual based upon their color, sex, religion or national origin illegal, thus paving the way for more minorities and women to become police officers. Before the implementation and enforcement of these acts, it was extremely difficult for minorities and women to get a job in policing. Experts in the field of law enforcement maintain that diversity in…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Brutality Essay

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Of course, the disparity in how people are treated by the police is based on their race. It is shameful, It is deadly.” These people will suffer from this if this isn’t resolved. Many false arrests have been made, innocent people are doing time in prison. Police officers need to be equal with anyone regardless of how they look. Many things can be done to prevent situations like these from happening. Police officers can be trained for a longer period of time, to help them better connect with people and not use excessive force. All of this can be solved simply with the help of people. Civilians have to stand up for each other and protest against this issue. A good solution to this problem is requiring all police officers to wear a body cameras in order to capture and record every incident that a police officer responds to. This will help the civilian and the police officer defend themselves in a court of law. There is nothing more credible than having a video as evidence in a court. Many police officers that have been charged with police brutality in the past have either just been laid off of work for some time. Police officers need to be fired from their job just like anyone else would be fired if done the wrong…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The charges were then dropped when all the information about him stealing turned out to be false (Winsor). However, not all racial profiling cases turn out like this, other cases sometimes end lethal. Due to racial profiling and police brutality by the police, there has been a negative impact on Latino and African Americans in urban neighborhoods. When growing up in an urban neighborhood, people are raised with the sense that police officers are bad guys and are often out to hurt or steal from them. No one really knows what started this stigma but it has remained throughout many years. Those people are often minorities and they strongly believe in…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police brutality has been occurring for many years. In the case of Rodney King videotape recorded by a bystander captured five officers attacking King with batons more than 50 times as he struggled on the ground outside his car. The recording immediately sparked outrage among people. The anger became more intense when the officers who assaulted King were acquitted by a jury the following year. The acquittal…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police Brutality

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages

    There is not a day that goes by that somewhere in the United States that an innocent civilian gets beaten from a police officer for no apparent reason. Sometimes the reason is because a police officer is racist. Racism, discrimination, and police brutality all go hand in hand because police officers usually do not go around beating civilians up for no reason. Usually the motive is because they are racist. The most major race that was affected by police brutality seems to be Caucasian people but according to the “NAACP, they say that between 1976 and 1987, officers killed about 1,800 blacks and 3,000 whites. Since blacks comprise approximately 12% of the general population, the data suggest that blacks are about three times more likely to be killed by officers than whites”. These appalling numbers are probably on the rise.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics