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Saray Padilla
Malvin
Eng115
November 30, 2016
Racism and Police Brutality
Racism has been occurring for many years now whether people want to accept it or not.
Even if the people dont see it with their own eyes, it doesnt mean it doesnt exist. With racism,
it isnt a we have to see it to believe it, if people have been publicly discriminated against
because of their race, then it is evident that racism exists. Although we live in the 21st century,
racism and discrimination against minorities is seen in the law enforcement in America.
Racism has existed for many years now and goes all the way back to the thirteenth and
fourteenth century with the identification of the Jews with the devil and witchcraft
(Fredrickson). The Renaissance and Reformation era was when people were staring to see more
people of color which was followed by racist acts. Slavery then rose when people were seeing
people of color from Africa and Asia. In the 19th century, racism was then more evident with the
continuous hate towards the Jewish and Black people. The century where racism took a huge
upsurge was the 20th century. It took one vile and racist dictator to create enormous hate towards
one race and led to others going to the extreme. Hitler truly believed Jewish people should be
abolished and tried his best to make that race disappear from the face of the Earth. During the
20th century there was also still a lot of discrimination and segregation towards African American
people. Many of them unified and fought for their rights and although some differences were

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made, that discrimination is still current in this century (Fredrickson). Hatred of another race has
always existed and is still existing to this day.
Those who have experienced racism are usually discriminated against by others who feel
more superior to them. When it comes to police brutality, the police officers are the ones who
feel superior and because they have power, they take advantage of their power and hurt others.
Police brutality is clearly a racist act because racism is when a group feels more superior to
another race so in this case, cops believe they are more superior to minorities. In the news, most
cops who have committed racist acts towards people of color are usually white males. White
people also team up with these cops and defend them but thats because they believe their race is
superior as well. Swain states in an article titled The Cycle of Death, Anarchy and Mayhem Will
Persist that white people believe black people are worthy of minimal protection from the police
(Swain). So if white people believe a certain race shouldnt be protected and they see them lesser
than a human being, then that is called racism.
Privilege exists amongst white people and it is evident when you compare how they are
treated by police officers. An example is with the church shooting committed by Dylan Roof.
Dylan Roof is a white male who entered a black church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed
9 innocent black people. When police officers were called to the seen, Roof was arrested. He was
arrested and not killed like how a black male would be killed. Lets switch up this scenario and
let say, hypothetically speaking, that Dylan Roof was a black male who entered a church and
killed 9 innocent white people. Would his treatment by police officers differ from the treatment
of Roofs? Because most black males are being innocently killed by cops, it is safe to say that if
Dylan Roof was a black male, police officers would have a different approach and instead of
being arrested, he would most likely get shot, even if his hands were raised up. Privilege exists

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and a reason you can tell is because a white person would feel safe to call the cops and expect
and receive help by them, whereas a person of color fears police officers and instead of cops
helping them, which is their job, they end up getting killed by them. When privilege and power is
given to some people, they allow it to get to their heads and soon take advantage of it. Because
they are privileged, they will never understand what it feels to be a person of color in America,
that this type of empathy doesnt exist. They will never know the fear of walking down the street
and not knowing if youre going to be the next victim of a cops hit list, even if you did nothing
wrong. They will never know how it feels to be looked upon and treated differently just because
of the color of their skin. While white parents are teaching their children about the dangers they
can stumble upon on, parents of color have to teach their children to not wear a hoodie because
they can get shot, to never play with toy guns because officers can confuse it as a real gun even if
theyre 12 years old, to always obey authority but even if they do, theres still a chance they can
get killed. These privileges are evident whether some people want to deny it and they allow the
different treatment and the separation between white people and people of color.
If a certain group is getting constantly attacked by one specific group then the group that
is getting attacked cant help but grow some sort of dislike towards their attackers. If people of
color are constantly getting discriminated against by cops, then it makes sense for them to grow
aversion towards the cops. Hayes argues in an article, Fuhrman Tapes Confirm LAPD's
Racialized Tyranny, that because of the experience and events minorities have to face, they start
to grow hate towards the LAPD. Hayess father is an LAPD officer and advised Hayes to keep
safe from the streets especially after curfew, he mentioned. This advice came from the fathers
sense of outrage and resentment that such local-state violence against black men was tolerated
(Hayes par. 2). His father is a first-hand witness of the mentality some police officers have. He

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mentions how LA cops savagely and brutally assaulted black men brought into custody on
charges of violating the law and how he heard countless stories of racialized police brutality
(Hayes par. 1). If people are being unfairly killed, its only normal for people to get upset.
Protests then arise in the streets whenever an innocent person is killed because of the
color of their skin. These protestors are trying to express their anger, their disappointment, their
loathing, by protesting to try to inform others and change what is wrong. As mentioned in the
book Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, riots occurred whenever a group of people were upset for
something that happened that they thought wasnt fair. Although these riots did cause some harm
and some took it a little too extreme, it shows how angry and frustrated they were. There has
been many riots too in our contemporary society because people are still being killed because of
their race. This book was based on riots that occurred many years ago and yet sadly, its still
relevant in this year of 2016.
Riots during 1992 are still very similar to the riots in 2016, the only thing that changed is
the year. The main riot in 1992 was triggered by police officers using excessive force on an
African American man named Rodney King. When the video of the police officers continuously
beating this man up even after he surrendered, citizens were furious and decided to protest in Los
Angeles. These protests led to violence in south-central Los Angeles and got even bigger when
the people found out that the officers were found not guilty, except for one who was just charged
for assault. Because of the injustices that existed within African American people, this protest
grew into the most destructive U.S. civil disturbance of the 20th century (Riots erupt in Los
Angeles). Even after this huge protest and the obvious anger from citizens, that wasnt the end of
it. Police brutality was still evident after that incident, unfortunately. Another popular incident
regarding police brutality was Michael Browns death. Michael Brown was an innocent teenager

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who was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. With this incident, you can clearly see
the racism that exists because although Brown put his hands up and said he didnt have a gun, he
was still killed. Again, protestors were outraged with such a racist act and acted by doing what
expresses their emotions the best- protesting. There was protests not only in Missouri but in big
and small cities like Los Angeles and New York. Protestors chanted hands up, dont shoot as a
demonstration that when someone has their hands up, like how Brown did, the police shouldnt
use lethal force against the person. Many protests have occurred because events like these still
keep happening and people of color stay living in fear.
Some may argue that police officers are just doing their job, they shouldnt be to blame
since they are trying to protect the public. Police officers are taught to fight back if the suspect
isnt cooperating. For example, if a police officer is trying to tell the suspect to put their hands up
and the suspect isnt being obedient, then it is part of their job to use some sort of force to make
the suspect comply. Another argument is that protests dont change anything and only cause
harm towards others and the community. Also, its unfair to only focus only when a black person
gets killed, white people are also killed as well. In these situations, police officers are trained to
do their job and it is up to the suspect to cooperate or not.
There are different ways an officer can approach a situation and of course it depends on
how serious the situation is but lethal force should not be the first option. If someone is resisting
at first, do they really deserve to get shot at? Is there really no other alternative the officer
couldve used? Protests can change things but immediate results are almost impossible. It takes
some time for changes to occur. One example is the civil rights movement. These protest may
cause harm and that shouldnt be the way to protest but a lot of protestors are just very angry and
dont know how else do express it. There are also peaceful protests but they go unheard. It is true

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that white people also get killed but statistically speaking the 1,217 deadly police shootings
from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age q5 to 19, were killed at a
rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the
hands of police (Whibey and Kille). There are many arguments with this controversial topic and
everyone is allowed to form their own opinion but we should also take statistics into
consideration.
Police brutality is a form of racism and it is seen in America by the unfair deaths of
minorities caused by police officers. In order to improve our society, we have to join together as
citizens and protect one another. Also, serious changes have to be made in the law enforcement
to avoid scenarios like these from happening.

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Work Cited
George M. Fredrickson. "The Historical Origins and Development of Racism." PBS., 2003.
Hayes, Floyd W., III. "Fuhrman Tapes Confirm LAPD's Racialized Tyranny" The Black
Scholar, vol.25.4 (1995): pp.48. Cengage Learning, Inc,
John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille. Excessive or Reasonable Force by Police? Research on
Law Enforcement and Racial Conflict - Journalist's Resource. Journalist's Resource, , 28
July 2016
"Riots Erupt in Los Angeles." History.com. History.com Staff, 2010.
Smith Deavere, Anna. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. United States of America, April 1994.
Swain, Jeffrey. "The Cycle of Death, Anarchy and Mayhem Will Persist." South Florida Times,
vol.24.34 (2014): pp. 6A.