The police Brutality

The police Brutality

For several years now, the police who are supposed to be the core enforcers of the law have been accused of misusing their powers by beating the Americans of African origin and murdering some of them. In the eyes of such police, Black men and women pose a threat to the country and must be treated with a lot of caution. There are a number of cases of African Americans who have been victimized by the police that have been reported. Still, ironically, the route to justice has been termed to be slippery. Information from the racial discrimination activists indicates that the cases that involved police brutality favored the law enforcers, and there is a low possibility of justice prevailing. There have been protests from concerned citizens who are protesting for the lives lost by Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and Eric Garner, among others, but without a serious reform in the police, the killings will continue. The law enforcers need to be re-evaluated and the justice system correct to get rid of the few crooked officers (Holmes, 343).

The problems started from the time President Abraham Lincoln declared Emancipation Proclamation. During this period, the President ordered that all people, a majority of which composed of the Black to be set free. This paved the way for a legalized slavery where the lives of the African Americans were endangered. The reasons behind the police killings during the time and today are entirely different. During the period, the African Americans were beaten and killed for taking part in unlawful protests. Today, they are being killed for walking along the streets. The officers end up with a little punishment, whereas the families of the diseased are left mourning for the loss of their loved ones.

The Huffington Post published an article that revealed how the precious life of Black Americans was taken for granted by the police. The post was released after the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who served as a civil-rights activist, was killed by the police who were well known by the government. The reason behind the killing is that Jimmie Lee was trying to protect some of his family members who were being beaten by the police. The State trooper, named James Fowler, was the officer who killed Jimmie Lee (Holmes, 343).

Although the police were known from the beginning, the path of getting justice for the lost soul took for decades before the officer was interdicted. He is said to have pleaded guilty for being involved in second-degree manslaughter and was given a 6-month sentence in prison (Rawls, 20). This is part of the evidence that shows that a Black man has to strain before getting justice. Does this qualify in the first place to be called justice? A 6-month sentence in jail is only suitable for a person who stole $200 and failed to raise the bail amount. Ironically, a monster that killed a person for protecting a family was given such a lenient sentence. Another painful story behind this is that the office continued serving for more than four decades before his interdiction. This can be termed as racial profiling since if the diseased were White, then the process of justice would have taken less than a week. The incidences of hate crime will increase if the justice system is not reformed.

Another incidence happened immediately after the death of Jimmie Lee. The human rights activists, most of whom composed of the Black Africans, friends, and the family of Jimmie Lee, staged a protest against the killing of Jimmie. The protest was commonly referred to as the Bloody Sunday protest. About 300 marchers came out composed of men and females who marched and crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge that is located in Alabama. The Alabama state troopers took center stage and prevented the protesters from proceeding with their protests. The protesters were ordered to go back. The police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, and some were beaten mercilessly. Reports given indicated that at least 50 black protesters would be hospitalized as a result of being hit by the police. The Bloody Sunday was aired live in the country, and the police were seen brutalizing the Black Americans. Unfortunately, no police officer was punished for their actions (Ryan, 41).

The constitution spells out the role of the police officer in the society.  The police are required to protect the lives of citizens first, and then their lives. They are allowed to use force in cases that it is necessary. Their training entails guidance on how to use discretion and which situations call for such activities. The constitutional provision that allows the police to use some force “where necessary” has been termed as the cause of the loopholes experienced. With such a provision, the police can use their powers as per their will and claim later that the situation forced them to use force. Why do such situations affect only Black Americans and not other citizens? It seems that for black people to walk in the streets is termed illegal and a threat, unlike their white counterparts. The police think that it is okay to kill the Black because their color signifies danger (Holmes, 343).

There is evidence from the police reports that they tend to be on high alert when they are patrolling areas where low-income people live. This happens as a coincidence since the majority of people living in such regions are African Americans and other members of the minority groups in the country. This is because they earn low incomes, and these are the only places that they can afford to live. The police reports indicate that the crime rates in the small income areas are high. Some of the people living in such areas are unemployed, and they are said to be possessing illegal firearms that they are using in conducting illegal activities to sustain themselves. Police have been seen walking in groups in such areas while they are heavily armed. This means that such areas are dangerous to people and them as the police (Pasternack, 22).

The issue of being on high alert in such areas can be justified by the number of insecurity cases that have been reported. However, this does not change the role attached to the policy of ensuring that the lives of the citizens are protected regardless of their age, religion, race, economic muscles, and gender, among other factors. Walking in a low-income region or an area habited by the Black people does not give the police a right to shoot the people. Feeling threatened does not mean that one is allowed to kill (Weitzer, 16).

An article by Cobbins (21) indicates that the pressure of being threatened by one’s security while in the crime scene was one of the core causes of increased cases of police killings in the country. This, however, does not answer the question of why black people end up suffering the consequences and not the other civilians. The article gives an example of the New York rookie police, who was alerted that a crime was going on. There were two cases of robberies, and the alert pressured four assault cases in the area and the officer. He ended up killing an innocent black man who was walking up the stairs while leaving the robbers to walk away. While in court, the officer claimed that he was overwhelmed and killed the person by accident. He was struggling to ensure that his life was safe first before pursuing the thieves. The reasons that are given by the police officer for killing tends to be the same. Most of them claim that they killed because they were trying to protect themselves. This, however, does not answer the question as to why the person they were protecting themselves from was Black and not White (Eliana, 19).

The authorities need to evaluate the reasons given by the police officer when they are involved in such situations. The issue of self-defense is common in many American courts today, which means that the police are using the self-defense term as a scapegoat to escape the killing and assault cases that they are facing. Statistically, it can be argued that there is a strong positive correlation between crime and black people. It is not yet justified how the police can kill a person who is not carrying any weapon and defend himself in court that he did it for self-defense. Shooting should not be used as the only mechanism that will make the police feel safe (Smith, 32).

One of the factors that are promoting police killings is the power that is bestowed on them. The skills that they are given the time they are given their uniforms make them commit such an amount of discretion and go unpunished. Arresting as a result of suspicion is true, but killing for the same reason is not valid.  There is evidence that the police make a selective decision on whom they will kill and who they will arrest. The case of Sean Bell is painful, considering how the police killed him for suspecting that he was carrying a gun. How on earth did the police decide to use fifty ammunition as a way of protecting themselves from a suspected person? One-shot was enough to disarm the suspect then arrest him for confirming whether he has a weapon or not, but this did not work out (Weitzer, 14).

On the same note, the case where the police brutalized and killed Eric Garner claiming that they suspected that he was selling cigarettes reveals the brutal nature of the police. How dangerous was the sale of cigarettes that forced the police to kill the suspect? In this case, the police claimed that the suspect resisted their arrest, which forced them to chokehold him hence killing him. There is no evidence presented that can prove that the suspect refused the police arrest. The event was captured on a video, but still, no action was taken over the police officers who were involved in the brutal murder of the suspect. They used the loophole in the constitution that they are allowed to use the force where necessary. Someone may claim that the police killed the suspect as a defense mechanism against the suspected criminal. The question will remain that, were they protecting themselves from the cigarette that the suspect was selling?

Discussing the incidences of police brutality does not mean that the offices are wrong, but the actions done by a section of them are wrong. They have the role of protecting the citizens and themselves, and drawing a gun is taken to be the last resort. This, however, does not apply in other cases since the police draw guns as their first resort after suspecting an individual. The gun should be used to seize any individual who intends to endanger the life of the officers of that of the citizens. Some believe that the brutal murder of the police should not be termed to be racial since the numbers of White people who have been killed by the police are high. This, however, does not justify the fact that the killings are racial. The data obtained from the police database indicate that between 1999 and 2011, a total number of 1139 Black people were killed as compared to 2151 White people. The comparison needs to be made to the percentage composition of the respective populations in the country, and it will prove that more Black people have been killed (Medved, 24).

The police officers can be likened with tap water, which will never always be clean. When one notices some dirt particles in the water, he or she does not wait until the water is clear but tries to fix the source of the dirty particles. There are some dirty particles in the police service, and it needs immediate fixing. Some of the police officers have been involved in brutality, and this calls for a review of their system to filter out the officers who are capitalizing in the racial killings. In normal circumstances, the citizens are expected to feel safe when they see a police officer. This is a different case for people living in low-income areas. When they see the police in their locality, they feel that their life is in danger and that the police have come to kill them. There is a lack of trust between the officers and the citizens, and this must be corrected as soon as possible. This can be rectified is the police uphold discipline and do their role as required (Eliana, 19).

Since the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation, people have come up with groups to support the victims of the police brutality. One of the most successful group is the black lives matter movement that was formed to protest against the police killings in the regions where the black people lives. This movement was established in 2012 after the death of Trayvon Martin. His death was not taken seriously by the authorities who acquitted the killer, Gorge Zimmerman, from his act and instead put the diseased on trial for his death. The human rights activists were aggrieved with this action, and they decided to form a movement to fight for Justice. The movement was formed to protest against the cruel justice system but has today worked as an inspiration to many Black people (Weitzer, 14).

It is ironical that the White activists also made efforts to join such movements that were meant to protest against the police brutality against the black. Racial games have indeed been detected not only by the black but also by the white. Some changes have been experienced as compared to the past when the protests were characterized by violence. After the shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, the citizens came out in large numbers to protest the killing. The police stood and peacefully faced the protestors. This signifies some of the changes that the police department is undergoing.

The justice system has been requested to exercise some due diligence of ensuring that a re-test is conducted for all police officers in the service. The police have been characterized by corruption, illegal arrests, and wrongful killings and as instigators of social genocides, which are less expected from the officers who have undergone training to protect the civilians. The police department should come up with some ethical guidelines that the officers must follow to remain in the service. It has been claimed that police-training agencies concentrate on the physical fitness of the officers and forget the psychological aspect, which is essential for their service. The system should analyze and filter out racists and regain the lost glory of the police.

In conclusion, the causes of gun violence, which involves the police killing the Americans of the African origin, are at an increase. The poor civilians who suffer in the hands of the racist police do not get justice since the justice system tends to favor the police. The families of the diseased are left mourning and strangling in poverty after losing one of their family members. The police department should come up with reforms to ensure that the relationship between the police and the Black people is restored.

Work cited

Cobbins, Quin’nita. “Selma, Alabama, Bloody Sunday, “University of Washington, Seattle. Blackpast.org, 2012. Print.

Eliana, Dockterman. “Hawaii Police Won’t Get to Have Sex With Prostitutes Anymore” University of Washington, 2014. Print.

Holmes, Malcolm. “Minority Threat and Police Brutality: Determinants of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints in U.S. Municipalities” Criminology, 2000. Print.

Medved, Michael. “Police kill more Whites than Blacks.” University of Washington, Seattle, 2014. Print.

Pasternack, Alex. “Police Body Cameras Will Do More Than Just Record You.” Fast Company, 2017. Print.

Rawls, Phillips. “James Bonnard Fowler Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter In Death That Sparked Selma March.” Huffingtonpost.com, 2010. Print.

Ryan, Gallagher. “Study: Police abuse goes unpunished.” Medill School, Northwestern University, Alabama. 2007. Print.

Smith, Brad. “The Impact of Police Officer Diversity on Police-Caused Homicides.” The Policy Studies Journal. 2003. Print.

Weitzer, Ronald. “Journal of Criminal Justice.” Journal of Criminal Justice, 2002. Print.