Suspect until Proven Otherwise

Although police brutality is an issue that concerns everyone, it is important to see that the main victims of this practice are the African-American population.

According to the Mapping Police Violence page, the African-American population only represents 13% of the total US population; however, they are who represent 25% of the fatalities in incidents of police brutality.

Which demonstrates the enormous problem with respect to the predisposition that the police themselves can have when it comes to doing their job.

Even when the police should be neutral when it comes to stop a citizen who breaks the law, it is very common to see that many policies make their decision in based on racial stereotypes before take a stand on a suspect.

However, it would be reckless and irresponsible to affirm that this criterion is done intentionally, since many factors can affect this criterion, among which we can highlight the violent past between policemen and African-Americans since the middle of the last century.

This goes back to the era of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s, were many African Americans opted for peaceful civil disobedience as a form of protest towards segregation that they live in public places such as restaurants, bars, cinemas and even drinking fountains of water, just because of the color of your skin.

Naturally, this type of behavior only led to several disputes between the protesters and the police, which at that time were openly supported by the public that reproaches the behavior of African-Americans.

Nevertheless, not all of them were all satisfied with the mere fact of going to a place where they were not welcome and then being treated badly and being taken out by force.

That was the moment where the disputes began to become increasingly violent and the police opted in a more aggressive attitude towards anyone of color that looked suspicious.
Nevertheless, over the years, this type of behavior on the part of the police was gradually disapproved in the eyes of the public, the reason for this? The change of culture in the generations.

While the people of the 50s and 60s were openly racist and were happy to see a policeman give his black man a comeuppance, today the new generations have become more empathetic, which makes cases like Stephon Clark or Alton Sterling scandalize more than it would have done if it had happened a few years ago.

This does not mean that the problem of police brutality is close to ending, on the contrary, with the development of technology and the speed at which the news travels, it gives the impression that the problem has worsened when what really is that information is available to everyone more easily now.

Sadly, the problem with the police brutality is far from over, since many of the cases that this is never able to close, giving a terrible end to a person who did not deserve to leave that way.


Comments

  1. Elizabeth N.April 1, 2018 at 2:31 PM

    The majority of the police were white during these brutalities and for the stereotypical acts of violence they would target African Americans directly compared to the other races. Police brutality will still go on because many people have protested, blogged, and have done many other things to help change this and/or to let this issue get noticed in the public. So far nothing has been changed even though the government, police department, and the Supreme Court is well aware of knowing all of this. There are many others that know that this issue is worsening, but what can be done to change this act of violence.?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julie Quinn TACApril 2, 2018 at 8:30 AM

    Can you reformat this (perhaps even delete and repost? It seems cut/pasted from Word, where the formatting spacing and wrapping are different).
    On to the content--you say the police have a "predisposition"--bias? And the violent past that you mention here just means that a prevailing bias continues to affect people who were not part of any previous police action or incident. Why be fearful of saying that some police officers are prejudiced? It's true. So are some doctors, teachers, engineers, etc. There are issues not just in industries listed here, but in the fabric of America, and the focus is partly on the police due to the sheer amount of power one has behind a badge and gun. Can you use specific examples to show how police are now more empathetic? So, overall, do you think it's getting less dangerous to be a person of color in America?

    ReplyDelete

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