Police Brutality Essay Example

One of the most eye-awakening events in 2020 was the death of George Floyd and many other black lives. These deaths happened at the hands of police officers. Overall, black lives have been the most mistreated race. Police officers also have had noticeably less time training compared to other countries around the world. Police officers are targeting people of color because black lives were lost more than any other race from police officers. 

The most noticeable thing when viewing police brutality is the difference between the number of people that were killed by police who were black compared to whites. Statistics from the Los Angeles Times show that people of color are targeted 85% of the time by police officers. This fact shows that in general blacks would be more likely to get fatally shot than whites because they are already being targeted, making them more noticeable to be shot. Black lives are also 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police. That is double the chance of being killed by a police officer compared to the white race. Not only this, but people of color are also more likely to be stopped by white police officers than colored police officers. This adds up to suggest that there is some sort of racism in the police department if it is whites that are killing people of color. 

Some people may argue that police are trained to shoot when feeling threatened. This means that there is a suspect that seems suspicious or is threatening the police with a weapon or anyway, the police officer has the ability to shoot for their own safety. This may be true, but data has also proven that Europe trains police more strictly than the US. Police in Europe takes training for 2-3 years, while police in the US only train for 12 months. This shows that US police aren't as well trained as other police officers around the world, making police here in the US more reckless and unlawful than other police associations. Others would say that police follow the 21-foot rule, meaning anyone who is 21-feet within the police, gives police the right to be able to shoot if needed. This adds up to suggest that usually people who are within 21 feet of a police officer, are a weaponized suspect. Even though this is true, it doesn't take away the fact that police can use a taser instead, and black people who were fatally shot are twice as likely to be unarmed than whites. don’t have weapons most of the time, making them not a threat.

Police brutality, specifically towards people of color, has been going on since 2012. That was 8 years ago and is still going on now with the current death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Other evidence of real-life people who have been fatally shot by police was Eric Garner in 2014. Eric Garner was in a prohibited chokehold by police, which ended up killing him. This adds up to suggest that police officers sometimes do irresponsible acts when they are not supposed to. An even earlier sign of police brutality happened with Trayvon Martin in 2012. Martin was fatally shot by police and was found not guilty of holding any sort of weapon. Even after George Floyd’s case, which caused a major eye-awakening movement, Breonna Taylor later was also fatally shot by a policeman. This shows that even after a big movement seen nationally, police brutality still continues.

With all the evidence, it's clear that police are indeed targeting people of color. From the data difference in white vs blacks rate at being killed by police, to real-life evidence of people of color being fatally shot by police. Adding on to the evidence, when officers search colored people's cars or any search, 9 out of 10 police officers claim to have found nothing when searching. Instead of police officers killing innocent black lives or searching black people's cars with no reasoning, police officers should get better training. In general, the police are targeting people of color and need to be stopped.