Preview

Police Brutality

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1535 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Police Brutality
Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways. Today, police officers use deadly, excessive force that leads to inexcusable assaults, beatings and shootings. This demonstrates the governmentТs role in initiating and prolonging racial suppression and provides the explanation for police brutality to become a federal crime(Black Radical Congress, 3). In history, racist violence, police brutality, has been used to suppress the racial blacks and to preserve power and privileges for the white race. This was done for five primary purposes. First, it has forced black people into slavery or low wage situations. Secondly, to steal land and other resources. A 3-rd was to maintain social control. A fourth purpose was to eliminate conflict in politics, social life, and employment. Lastly, the fifth purpose was to unite white people across the ethnic, class, and gender boundaries. However, after the Emancipation, lynching became a prominent form of violence used against the blacks. The use of lynching was a means of controlling and putting fear into the blacks, making them afraid to go against anything the white man said or authorized.

In the mid 1900’s, race riots and lawful executions began to replace the practice of lynching. This became the new method of social control and white supremacy could be controlled through racial discrimination. Harassment and discrimination are two other forms of violence, they have been practiced for many centuries and are still being practiced today as a means of control.

The practice of police brutality has a strong affect on a main segment of the American population. Those affected are minorities and the elderly causing them to have strong hatred towards the whites in America. Police Brutality is abuse by law enforcement, where a police officer feels that because he/ she has a badge and a gun therefore it puts them above the law and they can use unnecessary force against another individual.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In both sports crowds and lynch mobs, the ‘psychology’ of the groups seems to ensure that the action is carried out with great emotion and loyalty to a cause. For example, in the last decades of the nineteenths century lynching of black people in the Southern states of USA was at an all-time high. Lynching became an institutional method used by white people to terrorise black people to maintain white supremacy. Therefore, it is clear that lynching was carried out as a result of loyalty to a cause and great emotion. This is supported by Blalock’s (1967) power-threat hypothesis which suggests that groups that pose a threat to the majority are more likely to be discriminated against and to be the subject of violent action. Lynching was an extreme form of discrimination, motivated by perceived racial threat. Similarly, Patterson (1999) claims that lynch mobs were more active during the 19th century because it was a time of major social transition, following the collapse of slavery, where the entire community felt at risk. When groups feel at risk, it becomes evolutionarily advantageous to put survival first, and as Ridley (1997) shows that cooperative group defence and antagonism to outsiders go hand in hand. This explains why, when a majority group is more at risk, individual self-interest gives way to ‘group mentality’. Therefore, acts of group display such as lynching are suggested to be the result of…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Police Brutality

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed. But, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not, police brutality should be addressed. The use of excessive force may or may not be large problem, but it should be looked into by both the police and the public.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police brutality has been evident in the United States for decades. The death of minors killed due to this type of crime has risen within the last year. Although black youths in America are far more susceptible to police brutality, mainly because of the characteristics of their skin color, it is important to recognize that not one group should be more empowered than another. Just like every other citizen of the United States, law enforcement officers have to abide by the laws set here in America. Based on the cases in the United States, the police force should enforce the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. constitution to ensure that officers are being punished for committing brutality crimes against citizens.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You’ve heard about it, read about it, and maybe even seen live footage on the news. What is it? Living in the United States, a lot of cases in today’s society are Police Brutality. Police Brutality remains the most critical and divisive human rights violation in the United States of America. We are supposed to trust the police to protect us, not take advantage and abuse the power, we, the people, have invested in them. The immoderate use of police brutality continues because police don’t know how to de-escalate, most cops face no disciplinary threats, and because there are no clear policies on using force. This makes it feasible for officers who do commit brutality and human rights violations to abscond their punishment and repeat their offences.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good 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
  • Good Essays

    Race and Police Brutality

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What causes police brutality, and why are minority citizens the primary victims? The U.S. History Encyclopedia defines police brutality as the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Most brutality began during strikes in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. The strikes involved African Americans speaking out for their rights as citizens of the United States. Police brutality is one of the seven forms of police misconduct, the others being: false arrest, intimidation, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse and police corruption. Reasonable force is any action that is fair, proper, just, moderate or suitable under the circumstances. Some police officers will go beyond reasonable force when they are dealing with African American criminals and that is when it becomes a situation. Another term used when describing policed brutality is deadly force. Deadly force is defined as “when an actor with the purpose of causing, or that the actor should reasonably know creates a substantial risk of causing, death or great bodily harm. Police have a rule they have to follow called the use of force continuum. It sets the level of force considered to be appropriate in direct response to a subject’s behavior. The level of force may still be seen as excessive to bystanders even though it is not. Police brutality occurs for a number of reasons: the most common is racial discrimination. 89% of the people who died in NYPD custody between the years 1990 and 1994 were African American or Hispanic.A study was conducted that proved that minority citizens are stopped by the police more than white citizens but minority driven vehicles are no more likely to have drug paraphernalia than whites’ vehicles. Racial discrimination is the main cause of police brutality.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Police Brutality

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Key Issues/Main Ideas: In my essay about Police Brutality I will discuss many different topics and key issues. I plan on discussing all of these topics in detail in the essay but for this proposal I will briefly describe my key issues and main ideas. To begin my essay, I will give the definition of Police brutality. Many people have an unclear idea as what Police brutality really means. Then I will talk about the civil rights movement and police brutality, which will include the riots in Birmingham Alabama. Rodney King will be next and how this incident opened the eyes of main stream Americans that police officers are not always right. I think it is also a vital part of this essay to include the causes and triggers of police brutality. Next I will go into racial and ethnic minorities and discuss how police brutality targets people of minority race and/or the ethnically diverse. Then I will discuss the repercussions of the corrupt police on the rest of the police force including an interview I will have with a police officer on his views and opinions on this subject. In the last few paragraphs I plan on explaining local police brutality cases and prove that police brutality happens with our own local police right here in Denver. Lastly I will give information on a particular organization that specializes in giving support to surviving victims of police brutality dealing with mental or physical damage due to Police brutality. After obtaining…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police brutality and racial profiling has been the talk of the century. Dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, minorities have been treated as inferiors to the white race; even post Civil Rights Movement, minorities have yet to be treated as complete equals in the United States of America. In the past decade, police brutality and racial profiling have made the front page of many news articles and news channels. Law enforcement officers should incorporate using their non-lethal weapons; after all, it is unnecessary to kill someone in order to subdue them when a non-lethal weapon is available.…

    • 2189 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Police brutality is the excessive use of violence against people in different areas of the United States by police. Police brutality is something that is talked about a lot by different people: people of different races, genders, and age groups. This is a big problem that is happening in the United States and has been happening for a while now. There has been many issues of police brutality in the past few years. Police brutality issues seem to happen the most within the African American community because there seems to be more deaths under police surveillance in the African American community. There has also been a number of people in the African American community that have been victims of police brutality such as Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and many others. According to statistics…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freddie Gray Case Study

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the year’s police brutality, false arrests, excessive force, and unjustified use of power has continued to affect our legal systems. The Freddie Gray case is not the first case that has caused controversy here in the United States. All though George Zimmerman, was not a police officer, people felt that justice was not served during the Trayvon Martin case. This was also a case that caused what people like to refer to as a “race war.” Many believe that a lot of deaths, harassment, and brutality happen to those of a darker skin completion due to racism. The Washington posts have released data stating that police officers kill more whites then blacks, but minority deaths generate more…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Police Brutality

    • 3329 Words
    • 14 Pages

    In recent years, police actions, particularly police abuse, has come into view of a wide, public and critical eye. While citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that they must also keep a watchful eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve. This paper will discuss the types of police abuse prevalent today, including the use of firearms and receipt of private information. I will also discuss what and how citizens' rights are taken advantage of by police. For these problems, solutions will be discussed, focusing on political reform, education, and citizen review boards.…

    • 3329 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Brutality Report

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Police brutality is a horrible situation that has seemed to stay consistant throughout the years. But at the same time it is also very confusing. A lot of times it is minorities that are involved in police brutality which is a sad situation. It is sad because it creates the question of whether it is becuase of their color, or because they deserve it. Many think that these situations are cruel and racist.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Police Brutality Cases

    • 2232 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Police brutality is a major and colossal problem that plagues the United States on a daily basis. Not only does it affect the citizens and people that the cases happen to, but it affects their family when he or she is put into the Criminal Justice system. The headlines in the news that grab the most attention is for police brutality and how much punishment was afflicted on the suspect before he or she stopped resisting to the police officer. In a study regarding police brutality cases conducted by researchers, most of the officers reports about the situations that happened and the suspects were totally opposite (Evaluation of Use of Force, July 2010). Claims of police brutality sometimes exist to get some free benefits from society without needing to work. There comes a time when police are subjected to unnecessary backlash and insults…

    • 2232 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Brutality

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mass media has followed the events of police brutality, and their unrighteous killings which consequently have caused the nation to question the police.Many americans feel the treated by the police As of yesterday the law of integrity and social justice reform has been officially passed.The law is implicated throughout all states in the united states.After recent events concerning the black lives matter movement Obama thought it was pivotal to make one last assertion to the movement during his last days of the presidency.Congress had an early morning session for the reform discussion .The session began with many disputes arguing on the new reform longevity wise and cost wise.The new reform is about retraining police officers to create a better…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The nation’s press heralded these incidents as an end of the Negro’s reliance on nonviolence as a means of achieving freedom. Articles appeared on "The Plot to Get Whitey," and, "Must Negroes fight back?" and one had the impression that a serious movement was underway to lead the Negro to freedom through the use of violence.…

    • 3539 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays