extensively analyzes more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times from 1981 to 1991. The incidents include but are not limited to those defined as "police brutality". Lawrence reveals the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and allow police to define most use-of-force incidents, which occur in far greater numbers than are reported, she says. Lawrence explores the dilemma of obtaining critical media perspectives on policing policies. She examines the factors that made the coverage of the Rodney King beating so significant, particularly after the incident was captured on video.…
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…
Ferguson was a quiet town until saturday, August 9, 2014, when Michael was said to have reached for officer Darren Wilson’s firearm. The case went on for two months and 27 days before the jury came to the decision of Darren Wilson not guilty. This opposition created many riots in Ferguson, which were not peaceful, “Buildings were set on fire, and looting was reported in several businesses”(NYT). This shows us that the people of Ferguson disagree with the decision of the jury.…
In recent news, there has been much talk about the Ferguson racial issues. Ferguson, Missouri has become infamous for its recent riots and protests. An African American teenager named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer. What happened on the night of August 1st is Officer Wilson was notified of a robbery and pursued Brown in his vehicle. Wilson came across Brown and was able to stop him with his car. There was a confrontation that Wilson allegedly fear for his safety and felt the need to discharge his firearm. After and foot chase, the police officer took down Brown with a fatal shot. The after math of this caused many protests and riot among the black community. Many people claim that the officer did not need to shoot the teen. The court decided that Officer Wilson was not guilty and caused an uproar within the Ferguson community. The author of the recent article attempts to explain the cultural differences between their white and black community and why these mistakes could be made. The main problem here is that the white and black communities simply do not understand each other. In the author attempt to prove this, he analyzed a series of tests to explain why many people can be confused in interracial issues. When people before the test claimed that they “do not see color”, it proved to be wrong. In fact, when a child is born, at about three months of age they understand the concept of race and they will prefer to be around their own race. This is means that there is still a form of racism. We cannot deny the facts that human beings have different cultures and unique trends within each race. Having said this, it also does not mean that noticing these things make certain people racist. The problem occurs here when a certain racial group tries to say that they are above another group. Profiling is the main way this is done in the instance like the shooting in the…
Racial tensions in the United States has been has major problem for the last few years. The multiple cases of police officers shooting African Americans have only increased these tensions. One of these cases that fueled the flames is the incident that happen back in 2013, when Officer Kerrick shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell. The actions of Officer Kerrick were wrong since he acted more in fear than any actual proof that Ferrell was going to harm…
In today’s society, many things are developing and changing, such as strategies in law enforcement, as well as what is important to cover on media and whether it is the full story or not to gain more popularity on that broadcast. There has been an uprise in the amount of cases involving police officers shooting someone without probable cause, physically assaulting someone, etc. that is being presented on the news. One such cases was the Michael Brown case.…
In the past year there have been multiple cases of “racial discrimination” against the police, these cases have been associated with police brutality. Segregation and racial prejudice was a large part of the history in the United States but not in a positive way. Many Americans are not proud of the way the African Americans were treated by their fellow citizens. Prejudice and racial discrimination are prevalent today in both the same and different ways as when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought against it. In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” he uses periodic sentences, syntax, diction, and allusions to write about his beliefs about the immense struggles African Americans experienced to gain their rights, how he…
In addition, Martin Luther King Jr. had numerous hopes in what he wanted to accomplish. Martin Luther King Jr. used the strategy of fighting in a peaceful way to seek equality and challenge the unjust authorities (King, Martin Luther, Jr. 9). MLK suggested that the best way to end with segregation was under nonviolent protests. Government was holding a ironic position by proclaiming segregation as unconstitutional but allowing other states to practice it (Parel, “Civil Disobedience”). As an activist against segregation, King wanted to culminate segregation in every corner of the country; which was a problem that was generating unemployment (“Martin Luther King, Jr.”). Even though people were…
In March of 1991 an African American man probably in his mid to late forties was almost beaten to death and it was caught on camera. As he was driving down the road at a high rate of speed and intoxicated he was spotted by a California Highway patrol officer. As the officer followed him the decisions was made to pull the suspect over. The highway patrolman turned his flashing lights on followed by his blaring siren. The signal was given for the man to pull over; however, with him being out on patrol and being afraid of being sent back to prison he decided to make a run for it. What should have been a simple DUI and driving over the speed limit turned into one of the nation's most controversial police brutality cases ever. It sparked riots and the killing of over 50 people and millions of dollars in property…
What should society do when the people that are supposed to be protecting them turn into the people that they need protecting from? Police brutality has become a major issue in today's society and has become a major point within today’s media. As stated by Lauren Fox, “The deaths of black men at the hands of police have been thrust into the national spotlight” (Fox). Police brutality is classified as an officer applying excessive and/or unneeded force to the innocent for no apparent reason. Through police brutality many innocent people have died and lots have not gotten the justice that the truly deserved. Police brutality has torn families apart and left them with a wound that they are unable to fix.With…
Our topic is on police brutality. This has been an ongoing problem in our society for many years now. Many people believe that police officers do use excessive force when patrolling on the streets with civilians. The main social problem for our topic relates to the use of excessive force. Excessive force can cost local communities millions of dollars due to legal damages. Most civilians now do believe that all police officers are bad due to all of the drama that has been occurring throughout these last few years. People believe that the main reason why this excessive force takes place is because of racism. Dudek talked about a situation that took place in Ferguson, MO. He stated, “The killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO,…
What happened 52 years ago? What was going on 52 years ago? Segregation, Inequality and The Civil Rights Movement. 52 years ago on August 28th 1963 Martin Luther King Jr made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He did not change everything, but he changed a lot. Although some people believe equality is acquired, in reality it has not been achieved according to Martin Luther King Jr's dream. This is evident due to Martin's figurative language, diction, and effective lines.…
Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and Freddie Gray are just a few of the names that in the past year have intruded our lives and made themselves known with a commanding presence. With a certain ease, their stories made waves across the country resulting in a mass migration of people to whatever side suited their opinions; the police or the ‘victims’. The ‘sudden’ uptick in racially charged police shootings highlights the problem with society exquisitely! Upon hearing an iota of detail, one side of a story, we jump to conclusions about what happened. But, why is it a problem that we do that? Well, for starters, the victims in these police shooting cases often get the ‘spotlight’ first. This allows for them, or those…
This is a country where many unarmed civilians have suffered injuries or been killed at the hands of police officers. Drastic changes are needed to solve the issue of police brutality. Such excessive force by police officers is very disturbing to the community. People around the country are fighting for a country where law enforcement treats all communities with dignity, employs restraint on the power police officers, and only use the necessary force to maintain the community’s safety. Over the years there have many cases involving police brutality such as the cases of Rodney King, Timothy Thomas, and Eric Garner. Many people feel that nothing has changed with the issue of police brutality since juries still acquitted police officers, cops get their jobs back, and brutality happens again. But change has occurred and some things have become better as a result of it being publicized and causing public outrage.…
Segregation of black ethnicities does not exist in the sense of being a legally enforced and mandated system by official governments, since South Africa had repealed all laws regarding apartheid back in 1991. But segregation does exist as a form of mentality or subconsciousness. For instance, in the city of Chicago, the area is still divided into several isolated neighborhoods, for Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and lesbians and gays. And the community of African American is clustered in the southern part of the city, and is oftentimes associated with violence, disorder, and public insecurity, and white people especially wouldn’t want to be in African American neighborhoods. In South Africa where apartheid has been outlawed for a decade,…