Deja Woolard
Janel Spencer
WRT 101S
November 28th, 2019
Police Brutality Against African Americans
Police Brutality has been around ever since the 1950’s and has been a way to punish and hurt African Americans in a discriminating way by police, and 50 years later, the issue still remains, and continuing to affect so many communities. Black men and boys face the highest risk of being killed by police–at a rate of 96 out of 100,000 deaths. By comparison, white men and boys face a lower rate of 39 per 100,000 deaths, despite being a bigger portion of the U.S. population. Overall, men faced a rate of 52 per 100,000 deaths (Santhanam, L), and law enforcement officers who commit the police brutality crime, needs to be held more accountable for their actions.
In the 2010s, several communities held protests in response to incidents in which the victim was killed and the officers involved faced minimal consequences (Gale). Law enforcement can use any kind of unnecessary force such as a baton, gun, taser, and sometimes their fist when doing so, and even though police brutality can affect anybody, and any person of color, African Americans have been treated the worst of it to where it has already gotten to the point to where we are used to it by now.
This issue doesn’t have to just be a physical act, but it can also be verbal abuse, intimidation, sexual abuse, and also false arrest, and to have most of the law enforcement get way with this issue, causes a bigger issue in the community, while also a form of injustice. Police Brutality has been starting to become more of an issue since the early 2010’s (Gale), and is also causing more protestings about it that evolved into a national movement calling for reforms in law enforcement tactics and training (gale). Many activist organizations, such as “Black Lives Matter,” has launched many police violent projects back in April of 2015, and has been used to track down any kind of violence and racial disparities based on the particular country of law enforcement (gale). Unformaylet, there have been many victims who were involved in this issue like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and many more. The most disappointing story for about police brutality was the shooting of Alton Sterling and the death of Eric Garner.
On July 6th, 2016, in Baton Rouge, Lousiasa, Alton Sterling was approached by two police officers who are told that Sterling had a gun. The owner of the store did mention that Sterling was not bothering anybody, but was at the front of the store selling DVDs. During the beginning and end of this, both of the police officers cursed and used agner, and force on Sterling and automatically pulled a gun on him. Seconds later both police officers attack sterling, while also wrestling with him on the ground due to both police officers knowing that Sterling had a gun, but never used the correct procedures to remove it from Sterlings possession. Sterling, who was defenseless while wrestling both officers, Sterling was shot multiple times, left in a puddle of blood.”Baton Rouge, we are sorry,” Paul said. “We’re sorry for our failure not to discipline an officer who demonstrated unprofessional behavior and violated our code of conduct consistently, escalating incidents. We’re sorry, Baton Rouge (Mettler, Katie).”
In 2014, Eric Garner was apporcah by the NYPD in regards to allegedly selling loose cigarettes illegal on Staten Island, but Garner claims that he was not illegally selling anything and was breaking up a fight that has happened and was documented and recording of a separate video during the attraction (CNN Wire). During the arrest, Garner was tackled down by five NYPD officers, while one of them, officer Daniel Pantaleo, applied a fatal chokehold on Garner, while Garner’s final words, “I can’t breathe,” after being pronounced dead at the hospital (CNN Wire). Before the articulation, Garner has not done anything wrong and did not show any resisting (CNN Wire). Justice was never served both Alton Sterling, nor Eric Garner, and police officers till this day, still do not take any accountability for their actions.
Recent months have seen intensive investigations from BuzzFeed, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Tampa Bay Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, among others. Several Post reporters, myself included, spent 2017 investigating what happens to “bad apple” police officers after they are fired. As it turns out, they often end up right back on the job (Lowery, W). Even though not all police officers are bad, there are a small percentage of them who actually are, make the entire law enforcement of the United States look bad, which causes a lot of friction in many communities, especially for the communities that deal with police brutality on a daily basis. As Many law enforcement officers get away with police brutality, it took five years to finally get justice for police brutality victim, Eric Garner. “Today, we have finally seen justice done,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said after his police commissioner James P. O’Neill announced at a news conference Monday that he was terminating Pantaleo (CNN Wire).
When it comes to Law Enforcement for not being held accountable for committing police brutality, justice is never served. You can fire or suspend an officer for committing police brutality on a citizen, and the law enforcement seems to be ok with that. Ever since Officer Pantaleo may still be dismissed from the New York Police Department in the coming weeks, the bigger question is whether justice and accountability can be found in the legal and administrative decisions of prosecutors and police (The Washington Post). Garner’s death, like the deaths of many others at the hands of police, was not a tragic accident. Instead, it was a reflection of how we, as a nation, have chosen to protect white lives — and increasingly “blue” ones — at the expense of black ones. The laws allowing maximum discretion to use force are working as they were intended, and they reflect decades of rejecting alternative policy visions of policing that would have done far more to achieve racial justice (The Washington Post). Surprisingly, a century ago, officials blamed much of the problem on implicit bias. “We recognize that these practices and tendencies are,” they explained, “in a large degree the unconscious results of traditional race prejudice.” “They recommended all criminal justice agencies must “deal fairly (and without discrimination) with all persons charged with crime”(The Washington Post).”
Officers have had charges against them dropped or reduced, while others were not charged at all. After five years of disagreement on how to move forward with the Eric Garner case, for example, Attorney General William Barr ordered that the DOJ’s investigation into Pantaleo’s use of force end in July 2019 (Gale, Black Lives Matter).
We were a nation need to be more aware about this issue that is continuing to happen, and a way to have this be solved is the accountability of the law enforcement. Every Law enforcement officer needs to have a no tolerance rule on officers committing police brutality in order for this issue to decrease. As for the communities such as Chicago, IL, Brooklyn New York, Detroit, MI, Atlanta, Georgia, and many other cities that are affected by police brutality, the more our voices are heard and the message will continue to spread. We need to look out for one another, no matter what race and learn the difference between right and wrong. Even though police brutality will not be fully resolved, we can start off with looking out for one another. Will Justice ever be served? It is only a matter of time. Black lives don’t just matter, but all lives matter.
Works Cited
“Black Lives Matter.” Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/RMBGVS336742654/OVIC?u=pima_main&sid=OVIC&xid=a9781ef1. Accessed 26 Nov. 2019.
“Fired NYPD officer accused of choking Eric Garner files lawsuit against NYC.” CNN Wire, 24 Oct. 2019, p. NA. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603658792/OVIC?u=pima_main&sid=OVIC&xid=c54be63c. Accessed 17 Nov. 2019.
“Justice for Eric Garner? Not even close.” CNN Wire, 19 Aug. 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596864719/OVIC?u=pima_main&sid=OVIC&xid=0b3290d0. Accessed 17 Nov. 2019.
Lowery, Wesley. “Police are still killing black people. Why isn’t it news anymore?” Washingtonpost.com, 12 Mar. 2018. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A530900300/OVIC?u=pima_main&sid=OVIC&xid=6c186dd7. Accessed 17 Nov. 2019. Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. “Why police accountability remains out of reach.” Washingtonpost.com, 26 July 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A594647478/OVIC?u=pima_main&sid=OVIC&xid=570a0ff0. Accessed 26 Nov. 2019.
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