POLICE AND RACISM

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Police Brutality equals Racism

Kyra M. Berry
Portland State University
Globalization
Professor Carey

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Police brutality is becoming a huge problem in todays world. Several

incidents of racism have captured national headlines. The police are suppose to
protect the citizens and enforce the law. Citizens fear for their lives because they
are not sure if they can trust the police. Police officers are now harming innocent
citizens that they are suppose to be protecting. Many people do not believe that
police brutality is related and based on racism. In the past two years, several
African Americans have been murdered by police officers. This paper will argue
that police brutality is motivated by racism.
Several of the recent shootings involved unarmed citizens. African
Americans who were murdered were unarmed; they were not causing any harm
to the community. They have been the targets for the police force for many years.
Although, police brutality is on the increase today, history is just repeating itself.
This behavior from the police has happened before and is causing conflict
between the government and American citizens. White police officers in particular
have been targeting African Americans for a long period of time, going back to
the beginning of the Civil Rights in the 1960s. Research has been done to prove
that the police have been murdering African Americans due to the act of racism
and how history is currently repeating itself.
The topic of police brutality and racism was not difficult to research. There
have been many cases between the police force and African Americans. I began
to first look at current events. I found many current events on CNN and other
news source along with EBSCOhost. I began to use Internet articles for the most

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part. Those articles did not provide the information I was seeking. I was able to
find books with multiple journal articles from multiple authors on my specific topic.
I needed to prove with evidence how police brutality connected to racism. I
recently found a website killedbypolice.net that listed how many people were
killed by police officers. The website is not indicate the ethnicity of the people
who were killed. Also the website was not a reliable source for me to use. I
continued to search for what I wanted to focus on. I chose to narrow the general
racism to racism toward African Americans. Lately, the news has been reporting
unarmed African American being killed by the police. Those reports were majority
of the current events I researched. As I began to deeply research my topic, I
wanted to find evidence showing why the police targeted African Americans and
where it all started. I believe that it began from slavery leading to civil rights and
at that time racism was increasing more. The information I retrieved from this
research was that racism was worse back in the 1950s and there were similar
incidents that happened then that it happening now.
In 1991, the Rodney King case was brought to national attention. Rodney
King was named the face of police brutality in America.(Chaney) He was beaten
by multiple police officers and the incident was caught on camera. The verdict of
his case led to the Los Angeles riots; which was also known as the Rodney King
riot. The citizens of Los Angeles were upset with the verdict of the trial; which the
jury acquitted the four police officers involved. The 1992 Los Angeles riots were
considered the largest riots seen in the United States since the 1960s. (Claudio)
This trial and the aftermath of it was an eye opener for American citizens. Before

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the Rodney King incident, there was Tracy Brock. In 1986, he was arrested by
Manhattan police officers and beaten when he refused to go to the officers office.
The next incident was Trayvon Martin; which did not include police officers but
racism itself. Michael Brown was the next victim of police brutality in America. He
was an unarmed African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri who was shot
10 times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. American citizens say that
Officer Wilson was doing his job. (Rosenfeid) A police officer is trained to kill and
protect their community. (Rosenfeid) Michael Brown was not putting anyone in
danger to lead to his death. Officer Wilson was not charged for the murder of
Michael Brown and that verdict caused the uprising of Ferguson. The uprising of
Ferguson was not big as the Los Angeles riots but they both included destruction
of the city and looting.
Another incident that occurred was Florida police officers creating a video
containing racial abuse. (Campbell) As they made the video they were making
racist comments toward one another about Hispanics and homosexuals.
(Campbell) The video included the four officers wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods,
attacks against minorities and offensive images of President Obama. (Campbell)
These officers worked in a predominately black community and claimed that the
video was just material from the film Django Unchained. (Campbell) Three of the
officers were fired and the fourth officer resigned his position. (Campbell) The
Florida police department stated that they do not tolerate any type of racial
behavior. This incident did not do any harm the community but it made people
aware that the people who are suppose to protect them are prejudices. An

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incident similar to the Florida police officers is a small city Missouri losing 80
percent of their police department. The first African American mayor was elected
in Missouri that lead to about 80 percent of the police department resigning after
she took office. (Robinson) The small towns police department only had six
police officers and five of them resigned along with multiple top officials after
Tyrus Byrd, the towns first African American mayor sworn in. There was no
reason why the officers and official resigned their positions. They left the 713
people who lived in the community wondering with questions.
Racism has been a problem for years but society has progressed over
time. (Rothman) The American citizens were able to accept the first African
American president and even allowed him to serve two terms of presidency.
(Mooney) He was treated fairly different from other presidents because he was
an African American. People asked to view his birth certificate; which indicated
that he was half African American and half white. President Obama was not
concerned about what people view or said about him; the only job he was
concerned about was running the country.
The Washington Post indicated that more than 75 percent of police
officers charged with fatal shootings were white. (Kindy) Two-thirds of the officers
victims were African American. (Kindy) Since 2005, only 54 officers were charged
among the thousands of victims involved in fatal shooting by police officers.
(Kindy) Officers of different ethnicities such as African American, Latinos and
Asian were also involved in fatal shootings. (Kindy) There were 49 of their victims
that were African American. There was an article explaining why white officers

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shoot African Americans. We intentionally are not born with racial prejudice in
own mind. (Mooney) It comes from how we are raised. Psychologist Brian Nosek
explains that prejudice come from the same tools in our mind that helps use
figure out what is good and what is bad. (Mooney) He believes that it is all in the
persons mind and not realizing that they may be wrong. Other psychologist
tested people with Implicit Association Test (IAT); which indicated that most
people are bias toward different categories. (Mooney) Psychologist Susan
Gelman explained that humans categorize everything. She explained that we
categorize races by stereotypes. (Mooney) An example of that is African
Americans are considered loud and good at sports. (Mooney) Those are two
common stereotypes that people believe. She explained that those assumptions
of African Americans were false. (Mooney)
The African Americans in these sketchy communities are considered bad
people. They are considered as ghetto, criminals and thugs because of the
lifestyle and community they live in. Trayvon Martin who wasMichael Brown and
Trayvon Martin were considered as thugs. The media focuses on the worst in
situations such as the shootings of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Recently
another young African American man was killed, Freddie Gray in Baltimore
Maryland by a police officer. The people of Baltimore protest against this case for
justice. The protestors brought to everyones attention that the news media
shows the bad things that are happening in Baltimore. The news showed
Baltimore being destroyed by the protestors but there were some protestors truly
protesting. There were also others cleaning up the mess that had been made

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during the protest. African Americans are trying to make a statement to everyone
who looks down upon them. They are now capable of letting their voices be
heard unlike it was during slavery times. The reason that some protests leads to
violence is because they want their voices to be heard but no one is listening.
Social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr have been the
main sources for people to actually receive positive information about protest. I
believe people rely on social media because the content may come from their
peers. There have been multiple video and images containing positive actions
and statements from the Baltimore protests. The same information was being
distributed during the protest on Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and
many more. Social media takes a big part in situations such as these because
the media content may travel faster than media from new sources. Also social
media can bring people closer together when they could be far away from the
situation. The protest for Freddie Gray has been seen all over the United States
and there are communities outside of Baltimore that have made their voices
heard. Other communities such as Oakland and Portland have protested for
justice for African American victims.
Police brutality was introduced to Globalization in the 1960s during the
Civil Rights. During this time, history was being made because of activist
speaking on segregation laws and arising movements such as Martin Luther King
Jr. marching from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. Racism is in
general a global issue; which makes it related to Globalization. Racism contains
multiple cultures being hostile toward one another. The history of racism needs to

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be known for one to be racist. For example, African Americans have a history
with white people that lead to present day racism. Both police brutality and
racism have a history behind it and there is evidence proving that it actually
happened. History of ones culture is considered a part of Globalization because
people are learning from a culture different from theirs. Since racism is the main
topic, everyone around the world is noticing how police officers are treating
African Americans. A movement called Black Lives Matter was created after the
shooting of Trayvon Martin. This movement has been noticed around world in
places such as Tokyo, Paris, India and London. More and more people are
becoming aware of the police brutality happening in America and they want their
voices to be heard. Different ethnic groups who are willing to stand with African
Americans recognize the Black Lives Matter movement. People assume that
African Americans dislike white people in general are a false assumption. White
people are taking a stand along the African Americans because they think
everyone deserves justice. Everyone is starting to see that African Americans are
being treated unfairly and are starting to understand why African Americans are
strive hard for success.
My topic for the debate is related to original topic because it is practically
the same topic. My debate topic focuses on one ethnic group instead of multiple.
I wanted my research to have evidence from history and relate it to todays
current events. My goal is to make people understand that racism is still
happening and be aware that police officers can use that against a minority
group. Some people in the United States believe that racism does not exist

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anymore. People in general target African Americans because they are

minorities. I would like people to understand that the difference between the way
media presents facts and how it actually happens. My research has more current
events than history. I did research facts about white police officers in America
killing African American and why it was a large number. I also researched the
scientific research on why white officers shoot young African Americans.
Racism and police brutality is becoming a known issue in America. Police
brutality and racism was also a global issue. The research shows that white
police officer target African Americans. As a minority group, African Americans
should be treated fair with any other ethnic group. Everyone deserves to be
treated the same and racism should not exist. Racial behavior is improving in
America however it is becoming a big problem again. The racial behavior
occurring now is an example of how America was in the 1960s. I believe that
African Americans have a chance to get justice and make peace with the police
force. I still have the same idea that I had in the beginning of my research. I still
believe that police brutality is related to racism. I think that police officers do need
to do their job and protect everyone. However, I do not think that they should
target African Americans. Targeting one ethnic group is considered being racist
and if they do not want to be accused of being a racist.

Bibliography

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Campbell, A. (2015). Florida Cops Fired Over Racist Texts, KKK Video. Retrieved
April 16, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/22/cops-firedracist-video_n_6918652.html
Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and Police Brutality in America.
Journal Of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505. doi:10.1007/s12111013-9246-5
Claudio. (2014, February 24). The 10 Biggest Ever American Riots. Retrieved
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Kindy, K., & Kelly, K. (2015). 54 police officers have faced criminal charges for
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