Police brutality against African Americans
The initial interactions between the urban police departments and the African Americans happened at moments surrounding the significant shift of the African Americans between the years 1916- 1970 (Moore, L). The African Americans shifted from the country South to the North and the Western parts, which a little bit more urban; this is especially following World War II.
As this was happening, the white communities who carried around the belief that the African Americans tended to possess criminal behaviors started to segregate the African Americans. While the police departments believed that they needed full-time surveillance as they were not to be trusted. Around the mid-1950s, the police started to put upon tight security for the African Americans when, in a real sense, all they were doing is protecting the whites from the black people. This behavior brought about the issue of segregation. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The police engaged in several forms of brutality, which was harsh and uncalled for. For example, they engaged in emotional harassment, slanderous language, unlawful arrests, sexual assault among the women, and even worse, they did commit police homicides. That is, they killed innocent civilians just because they were Africans. The police were also involved in drug trafficking, gun smuggling, prostitution, and even burglaries.
As much as the brutality was happening in the country, around the mid-20th (Mock, B), most white people had no idea of what was happening during that time. The readers of the white newspapers were only receiving news about their state of affairs alone because some other white people did not think that the black people’s stories were newsworthy. Meanwhile, in the black press, did not document so much about what was going on.
Police brutality has become more frequent and more intensive over a few years. However, some African American people have joined the police departments as a form of affirmative action to have a voice.
Today, African Americans are still faced with the same problem, leaving us with the question of if the police are genuinely indulged in violence or if the black people are honestly criminals as it is said. For example, in 2015, 26% of the civilians who were killed by the police were black people, while by then, the number of black citizens was actually at 12%. This means that civilian killings have been so rampant.
In conclusion, racial segregation is a vice that needs to be stopped once and for all, no man is superior or much better than the other. Studies have shown that some states are more racially segregated than others, and that often means that the level of police violence in those areas is high. The truth is, no one deserves to die because of the pigment on their skin, because they are of white or black.
The law also needs to be strict on this matter as the young people who get killed had their whole lives ahead of them, and so that to ensure the civilians of their safety and make them feel like they could trust the police once again. The policemen who commit these crimes should also be held accountable by serving some jail term.
Work Cited
Mock, Brentin. “What New Research Says About Race And Police Shootings.” Citylab, 2019, https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/08/police-officer-shootings-gun-violence-racial-bias-crime-data/595528/.
Moore, Leonard. “Police Brutality in The United States.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580.