Cultural Perspective: Police Brutality

This cultural perspective paper will be on police brutality. This diverse situation and dilemma is our main problem of today’s society. This situation involves more than one cultural group. As we know it deals with white law enforcement and young black females and males. Police brutality has been going on for year just hasn’t been so main stream as it is today. It became known back in March 1991 in Los Angeles with a black male known as Rodney King.

Rodent was beaten by four policemen while a white civilian video taped it. While only two of the four men hot jail time the city had lost billions of dollars in the riots that am after this situation.

As of today in the twenty first century we are still dealing with the same as in 1991 and can go back as far as 1950’s. Even with years going by there is still young black females and males getting killed by that hands of a white policeman for no reason. According to data released by the (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2011), “between 2003 and 2009 at least 4,813 people died in the process of being arrested by local police. Of the deaths classified as law enforcement homicides, 2,876 deaths occurred of which 1,643 or 57.1% of the people who died were people of color’. This problem is dear to me because I’m a black female and I personally have a problem with what is going on in our world today. This topic is a topic that needs to be talked about and something to hear both parties out, but this is a topic that I deal with everyday I step foot outside my door.

When it comes to police brutality it deals with two racial groups which are African Americans and Whites. Someone once said, “ White privilege is a hidden and transparent preference that is often difficult to address. Only on closer inspection do we see how it creates a sense of entitlement, generates perks and advantages for white people and elevates our status in the world.’ The privilege and power that is associated with each group is easy to explain. We all know about white power and privilege that comes with just the color of that skin. White skin privilege is not something that white people necessarily do, create or enjoy on purpose”( Teaching Tolerance 2018). Stereotypes and biases that associated with these two groups are whites think they are better than any other race. Blacks are poor and rude. Whites are always rich and well off. Blacks are loud and ghetto. Whites are more righteous and perfect. While blacks are hood rats and killers. As you can see with just a few I name it is set up to be that whites are better than blacks and that’s how it always been even dating back to the 1600’s.

The power is very powerful. White people has been having power over the past few decades and it is just showing more and more. When it comes to African American people it’s a different tell. It is know fact that black people are not treated the same as other race. We have been in the background and treated like less for years. With privilege and power we hardly have any. After the system of indentured servitude proved unstable, planters turned increasingly to (MappingPoliceViolence, 2018.) African slavery and began writing laws to divide Blacks from whites. Coincidentally, African slaves became more available at this time. Poor whites were given new entitlements and opportunities, including as overseers to police the slave population. Over time, they began to identify more with wealthy whites, and the degradation of slavery became identified more and more with Blackness (Huang Y).

With all the facts that I have shown ill voice my opinion and how I personally feel about police brutality. For me living in this crazy time we living in now it’s hard because I am a black female. Know how the police view us is hard. Not knowing if I may get killed if I get stopped or if I’m just walking down the road and get stopped by some strange that feels like I’m a threat to them. Being black has always been hard but now it’s even worst. You never know when something might go wrong. It’s like a constant looking over your shoulder for the threat. This topic is dear to me like I stated before because I am black and I have heard and seen these actions take place. It’s a cultural norm for police to pull over blacks more than other ethnic race.

The police has always thought we was a threat to them and they was the one who was a threat. Even back a few years ago with the black panther leader getting killed because they thought he was a threat to the society when in all reason the police just don’t want the blacks to rise up and be in control of their own lives. In an article I read it had stated that the Black Panthers Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, are gunned down by 14 police officers as they lie sleeping in their Chicago, Illinois, apartment. About a hundred bullets had been fired in what police described as a fierce gun battle with members of the Black Panther Party. However, ballistics experts later determined that only one of those bullets came from the Panthers’ side. In addition, the “bullet holes” in the front door of the apartment, which police pointed to as evidence that the Panthers had been shooting from within the apartment, were actually nail holes created by police in an attempt to cover up the attack. Four other Black Panthers were wounded in the raid, as well as two police officer (History). This happened 1969.

People always say why blacks don’t like white police or whites in general. It’s because white police officer have been killing us for as long as we can remember and it’s not going to stop with prejudices playing a part of it. I never was the person to hate white people or group all of them in one category. Not all white people are bad or evil it’s just the ones that are out shine the ones that’s not. That’s how I felt about police brutality when I first stated seeing it, but over time once it keep happening and happening my view and opinion started to change. I started to feel anger and hate towards a particular group of people, but those was my biases and how I started stereotyping them. A good argument is backed up with facts.

Which I think I have provided more than enough of them. To fight my side with a good argument I’ll explain how and why my argument is valid. I once read a something from the Kerner report that stated “ Since the time of the Kerner report, perceptions of police brutality have increased substantially among the total public. This change started long before Ferguson. When the public was asked about police brutality in their area following the videotaped beating of Rodney King by black police officers in L.A., perceptions of brutality had risen among both whites and blacks. Asked to consider the frequency of brutality in police departments across the country, 66% of whites and 84% of blacks thought such incidents occurred at least somewhat frequently. Through the late nineties into the early 2000s, roughly half of whites and eight in ten blacks said police brutality against blacks and Hispanics happened occasionally or often in their community. In the last decade, very few polls have used the word “brutality” when asking questions about police practices. Recent polls have shown the blacks are much more likely to say that that the police are too quick to use deadly force and that they have very little confidence that their community police officers will not use excessive force on suspects police brutality by race” (Roper Center 2018).

With these results and everything that’s going on is the reason why I feel the way I do. It’s not just about being black in America for me it’s the injustice that our system has had for decades. This Nation was build on inequality and racism. Some believe that police brutality is just them protecting themselves and doing right by the badge. It is illustrated that police brutality has been going on for decades and don’t have anytime of stopping. Another reason why I don’t believe in police brutality or excessive force is who cases plays out. I hate when there is a young education black guy that does nothing wrong and do everything by the book gets killed but in the same breath a white man can threaten the police system and physically harm them and still for force is done or someone getting killed. For me it’s not just the police brutality on blacks but it’s the whole police department with its lack of justice and not properly hiring the right people for the job.

This dilemma is something that can’t be stopped just so abruptly. It’s so many years of police brutality that it won’t stop. It can die down and have more justification when blacks are getting arrested. This one is pretty simple. Law enforcement disproportionately impacts people of color. It funnels them into jails and prisons at staggering rates. Between 1980 and 2008, America’s incarcerated population grew from 500,000 to 2.3 million. Sixty percent of incarcerated Americans are now black or Latino.One of the primary causes is policy that — whether intentionally or unintentionally — targets blacks and Latinos through drug and search laws, for example. The report recommends that policy makers should have to evaluate the potential racial impact of any new laws they create, and involve community organizers and people who work with disadvantaged populations in every step of the process. Implement a common language for how to evaluate these topics — from patrol officers all the way up to the mayor’s office. And of course, collect data on the results.

How can we solve the problem if we can’t agree on what the problem looks like? This standard needs to be better defined and enforced. The report says that all departments should issue a statement affirming that their officers should use minimum force to subdue people. They should develop clear and transparent standards for reporting, investigating and disciplining officer who do not comply. They should develop policies that let other officers intervene when fellow officers are using excessive force. And their training should be adjusted to emphasize de-escalation ( 15 police). So this is my stand on police brutality and how it effect me personally and the dilemmas of it. This my view and my opinion of a problem that the world is dealing with and some solutions that may can change how people view police brutality and a possible way to end the decades of violence.

Reference

1. Black, White, and Blue: Americans’ Attitudes on Race and Police. (2017, July 28). Retrieved April 30, 2018, from https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/black-white-blue-americans-attitudes-race-police/
2. Police brutality. (2018, April 28). Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality
3. On Racism and White Privilege. (2017, July 27). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/on-racism-and-white-privilege
4. Police have killed 352 people in 2018. (2018, April 19). Retrieved April 30, 2018, from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
5. Huang, Y., & Liu, B. (2010). On a conjecture about the kth lower multiexponent. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 60(1), 36-44. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2010.04.027
6. Police kill two members of the Black Panther Party. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2018, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/police-kill-two-members-of-the-black-panther-party
7. 15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to End Police Brutality. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2018, from https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.mic.com/articles/amp/121572/15-things-your-city-can-do-right-now-to-end-police-brutality

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