Police Brutality And Racism Essay Example

Police officers’ number one job is to protect and serve citizens. But, in the United States, the police force is getting away with murder. Police brutality is the excessive and/or fatal force used by police on civilians. It violates human rights and is an extreme example of the abuse of power of law enforcement. In the United States, police brutality is a huge issue. In 2020, there were 1,021 fatal shootings. During the first three months of 2021, there have been 213 people who have been killed (https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/). Police brutality should never be justified. There is a difference between a person and an officer being a threat. Police brutality is a systemically racist issue that should be discussed more and addressed effectively to help stop it. 

Although police officers should be held accountable for their excessive actions, others disagree by saying the amount of force is lawful and situationally correct. For example, some groups of people say police officers don’t need extra training to learn how to behave better in dangerous situations. They believe that “Virtually every newsworthy police shooting results in an outcry for “better police training”; when the fact is, cops in America are almost trained to death. A huge part of the law enforcement budget is spent on training,...”. Additionally, they feel that individuals are giving cops the wrong message and are overdramatic. “What is happening today that should shock everyone is the unprovoked assassination of police officers by people with a perceived grievance". Similarly, they seem to think that people hate cops for no reason. They feel that “There is a growing anti-cop campaign in [The U.S] that unfairly labels all police officers racists, crooks and murderers”. While some people do hate cops, most people don’t actually think that all cops are bad people and murderers. Knowing how systemically racist the justice system is, people give cops a hard time because they still choose to work for that broken system because of the racial inequality. The public's perceptions of police violence in the United States vary, but there are significant differences in the targets of police brutality based on race.

African-Americans suffer the most from police brutality in America. The concept of equality requires law enforcement to protect all citizens; however, this is not always the case. According to the article “Reducing Police Brutality in African American Communities: Potential Roles for Social Workers in Congregations” Betty L. Wilson and Terry A. Wolfer, “In the last decade, the United States has witnessed a string of police killings of unarmed African Americans—with the deaths...being only the tip of the iceberg” (1). Police officers play a critical role in upholding racial inequality between people of color. In some cases, partial force is necessary, but there should be no reason to use excessive force on a person. Police aren’t even supposed to kill people who are guilty of a crime. Following up with statistics, “Research shows that African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately subject to racial profiling, stop and frisk, and police brutality” (2). Police officers have the right to use force to defend themselves, but using unreasonable force is entirely insufficient. African Americans are twice as likely to be killed in the hands of the police than white people (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/).

The only reasonable explanation for that is systemic racism. Moreover, police brutality leads to “Racial trauma” that “can be severely distressing and lead to a range of adverse mental health outcomes such as anxiety, hypervigilance, nightmares, depression, and avoidance/numbing” 3). African Americans are the biggest targets of police brutality, which makes them vulnerable in the hands of law enforcement. This brings many to question whether police work is meant to protect or hurt people. It is shameful that African Americans are the ones who suffer the most from police violence. 

It’s not just African Americans that suffer the most from police brutality. Other people of color do as well. As stated by Kristin Nicole Dukes in her research analysis “What Social Science Research Says about Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences”, the “Disproportionate use of force toward racial and ethnic minorities ranges on a continuum from low levels of nonlethal force to highest levels of lethal force. In the United States, people of color are more likely to experience both threats of...all levels of nonlethal force in interactions with police” (3). Racism is a concern that has existed throughout history that has now become a significant concern in our society. Individuals and their relatives have suffered injustice as a result of this. It is horrible to see this injustice occurring to many people of color. It is clear that “Blacks and other ethnic minorities, refugees, and migrants experience a disproportionate level of force compared to Whites” (2), even though some people chose not to believe that. It can be so frustrating to hear people say that white people suffer from just as much violence from the police. There are statistics everywhere that say people of color fall under more brutality from law enforcement. This shouldn’t be a competition; instead, people need to work together to help stop the hate and racism. Stereotypes are another main issue with justifying police brutality. People that have “a negative, racial stereotype-filled message about a victim, similar to information frequently released about racial and ethnic minority victims of police violence, can significantly sway not only how the victim is perceived, but also how the shooter is perceived” (#3, 7). It’s ridiculous how racial stereotypes affect if a policeman is guilty of a crime or not. Context should be the only type of clue to determine that. People of color have been specifically targeted by police and suffer more violence than white people. This is unjustified and officers need to be held responsible for their excessive actions. 

A good form of fixing the communication problem of police brutality has been social media protesting. There is a movement called BLM (Black Lives Matter) that supports the cause of stopping police violence and addressing that African Americans need justice and help. Countering the movement, some support the slogan “White lives matter”, which indicates that African Americans are not suffering from cop violence and that their lives don’t matter. “Many hate groups began to utilize the #whitelivesmatter hashtag to counter the impact of the #blacklivesmatter hashtag. tag. In response, millions of K-POP (Korean Pop) fans flooded the #whitelivesmatter hashtag with K-POP music videos and images to help bury their message” (#2, 3). Social media is a good form of protesting because no one is at risk of being taken into custody or hurt by the police. When it comes to public safety emergencies, the internet can help spread updates quickly to community members. Luckily technology is becoming more advanced, so that has “made this issue more visible to the general public and thus undeniable” (#1, 3). Social media has become a critical part of sharing news about police brutality. It is a faster way to spread messages than through people. Technical innovations have “exposed injustice, forcing police brutality into broader public consciousness” (#1, 3). Everyone wants information to be handed out accurately. Some of the most powerful sites to look for information on are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Although there is a lot of misinformation, it is usually clearly incorrect. It is helpful to know where to look.

Why should there be assistance in preventing police brutality? The short answer is that it has been going on for far too long. African Americans and other people of color have been treated unfairly by white people for centuries. Finding solvencies to big issues like this can be difficult, but little steps can be taken to ensure a safer environment. The biggest solution would be training the officers for more years. To show that this works, let’s take Germany and Japan for example. It takes two years of training to be a police officer in both of these countries. (http://eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/WallStJ.AsianUSPoliceWalkDiffJan89.pdf, 

In 2018, there had been about 11 fatal police brutality incidences in Germany and 2 in Japan (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06/05/policekillings/). Looking at the US, it takes about 6 months to become an officer. In 2019, there were about 1,099 killings. What’s even worse is that in 2013-2020, about 98.3% of officers were not held accountable for their actions (https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/). Now of course there are outliers, but the point is that the United States needs to uphold more training for police officers to help retain fatal occurrences. 

To summarize, police brutality should be a subject that is discussed more and addressed more effectively to help stop it. In the United States, police brutality that is focused on racial profiling has caused too much damage. The government should prioritize resolving this violence so that there is less injury and death in society. The reader should be left feeling unsatisfied about the systemic racism in the police force and influenced to help or spread the word on police brutality.