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Kimberley Grant ENC2135-0065 Jennifer Adams October 26, 2016 Corruption in Black and White One of today’s centralized topics covered on news channels, newspapers, social media, disgusted on talk shows, radio stations, and in the privacy of some people’s homes has been about police brutality. The question remains whether this is systemic racial discrimination by those in power using excessive force or is this truly the result of the case by case situations where resistance and the behaviors by the people who are being detained result in harsher and more detrimental consequences. This happens contrary to the 4th Amendment of the law which states that “the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, purposes, paper and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrant shall issue without probable cause” (Thomas, page1). Police brutality mainly targets black men. Most analysts and experts in matters of social justice argue that black men lack father figures in their lives who should act as their role models and guide them towards the right direction on being good and respectable citizens. Thus, most of these black men end up dropping out of school, joining criminal gangs in their cities which take part in drug and gun trade across the country. Thus, most of them end up being victims of police brutality due to various reasons and situations as it will be discussed in this essay.
Grant 2 In the past few years, names such as Sean Bell, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Walter Scott and much more have been discussed by others who believe their deaths were the cause of discrimination by police officers and others who believe their actions were to blame for their untimely deaths. Through the examination of the handling, discrimination, the way others deem African-Americans to be, as well as the history of this race in America can aid in answering questions as such. Not all the cases affecting black people in matters of police brutality have received the required attention. Most of these cases are taken lightly while others are simply forgotten as time goes on and the tension and pressure goes away. This has sparked anger among people in the African American community which has led to mass protests with the police departments across various cities in the country. Most of these indecent riots result in the deaths of innocent citizens. The main aim of these riots is to communicate one message, which is, black lives matters and that police brutality should be put to an end in the US (Calla, page 1). Thus, we will examine some cases where black people have been mercilessly killed by police officers in USA. We will also focus on the racial discrimination especially in the judiciary system where these cases are tried. I’ve come across numerous individuals who chose the place they were looking to move into not only based on the way the environment looked, not only the crime rate or population but more specifically what the race or ethnicities were of those living in those neighborhoods. Growing up with my grandmother she feared to live amongst too many AfricanAmericans. She felt as though too many African-Americans in one neighborhood were simply trouble. It was the opposite for my aunt who met her neighbors who mentioned things about her in which she never disclosed such as her occupation. They disclosed enough information to give her a hint that they did a background check as to who she was before her moving into their
Grant 3 neighborhood or maybe the person who sold her the house forwarded this information to everyone in the neighborhood so they would feel at ease about who would be living amongst them. This is a good example of how black people are discriminated in various neighborhood based on their color. Other races in America are given special treatment, and they are hardly treated like criminals in their neighborhoods like the African Americans. Therefore, most people choose to live in neighborhoods where their counterparts live because they are free from being branded as criminals, thugs among other titles. Maria Krysan wrote an article called “Whites Who Say They’d Flee: Who Are They, and Why Would They Leave?”To examine White flight. White flight as described in the article is “when the arrival of African-Americans in a neighborhood prompts the rapid departure of whites, thus turning a community from all white to all African-American” (Krysan, page 678). According to Krysan’s article, she includes a respondent in the Detroit Area Study One of debates surrounding the issues of whether the residential segregation is motivated by “whites’ opposition to integrated neighborhoods” stating “…it is not a problem how many blacks come into it. The problem is how many whites go out” of a neighborhood. She states that “traditional interpretation is that opposition is motivated by racial prejudice. According to Krysan, it has been a controversial topic and over the past 40 years “researchers have disagreed about the validity of the white-flight hypothesis” (Krysan, page 679). This could be due to certain conditions such as the individual-level factors. These factors range from marriage and having children to simply just wanting a change of scenery. There are more, however, to consider when relocating which may not necessarily is race driven.
Grant 4 According to another article written by Robert Staples called “White power, black crime, and racial politics”, he speaks in a case where an African-American professor from Harvard University was questioned in front of his property about his residency. What occurred was after unloading his luggage from a limousine he was struggling to unlock his front door. His limousine driver, who was also African American, assisted in helping him to push open the door when a police officer arrived. The police officer wanted proof that Professor Gates lived on the property but Gates challenged his authority which resulted in him being arrested (Staples, 2011). Gates yelled out that “This is what happens to black men in America”. About 40 percent of white Americans believe the officer’s procedure was correct. Staples states “Why did such a division exist, and in spite of conciliatory statements on the part of Gates and the president following the episode, is it wise for the US as a nation to ‘put the event behind us?’ … but such statements allow whites to continue in the comfortable illusion that racial profiling can be defined merely regarding individual attitudes on the part of cops” (Staples, page 31). This is to say that 40 percent of white Americans may believe that the actions of law enforcers are determined by one’s attitude and not so much about race. Staples explain that whites have very different experiences with the law than blacks. Whites may view the law as “a force to serve and protect” whereas blacks may view the law as “an agent that denies their rights” (Staples, page 33). This dates back to slavery where the criminal justice system did not acknowledge AfricanAmericans as citizens and did not protect them from their slave owners, racist groups, and individuals. According to Staples, as early as 1963, law enforcers were legally allowed to take any black person they saw walking around without a pass from their master, this included freed, and enslaved blacks.
Grant 5 African Americans have a high probability of interacting with law enforcement based on the way they look. According to Devon Carbado and Patrick Rock, in “What Exposes African Americans to Police Violence�, police concentrate on areas of high crime, criminalizing non-serious areas including the schools, racial segregation where African Americans are suspicious when they are not in a predominantly black neighborhood, and group vulnerability where African Americans are targeted and were less likely to report harassment from police officers and/or less likely to be believed (Worth, page 1). Carbado and Rock explain that the repeated interactions between police and African Americans increase the likelihood of police violence which is the result of stereotypes of African Americans being viewed as violent and dangerous. Stereotypes such as African Americans being violent and dangerous are a part of the reason others perceive violent forces as appropriate and even necessary. This may be part of the reason why people of other races do not see an issue with excessive force or may unintentionally not realize the severity of force an officer is using on an African American. According to Carbado and Rock, the increased exposure to police is one possible reason for increased incarceration rates for African Americans, another is that those officers who interact with African Americans under the impression that they have been to jail/prison before have the tendency to handle those individuals with less care. Carbado and Rock also explain that African Americans who have ongoing experiences with law enforcement tend to resist, assert rights, or flee. Additionally, in an article written by Henderson Barney a respondent of the Telegraph News, it is quite clear that African Americans especially men have continued to suffer in the hands of the police officers (Henderson, page 1). The author points out some cases where innocent people have been victims of police brutality just because they are seeking justice
Grant 6 for their community. Precisely, he gives an example of Michael Johnson who is an army reservist. Recently, he shot police officers in Dallas where he injured much more people who were in that environment. He shot everyone indiscriminately who was in that environment. When he was questioned on why he shot innocent people and police officers in the area, he argued that he was just angry with the police violence against African Americans in the city and across the country. It is also important to note that black people are angry because of the systematic racial discrimination in the judiciary system which is supposed to fight for the rights of the innocent people who are victims of police violence and brutality. For instance, in the case where 15 years old Chad Holley who was viciously beaten by a police officer as recorded in a video, the first officer who tried the case Andrew Bloomberg was not found guilty although other officers involved in the case were charged with a misdemeanor (Savali, page 1). According to police violence published in the year 2015, some revelations were made where African Americans were the main victims of police brutality across the country. To start with, approximately 102 people were killed in the year 2015. These were unarmed African Americans where two were killed every week. One victim in every three people who were killed was unarmed. However, the number could be higher due to the increased cases of underreporting by police involved in the cases. Secondly, black people who were killed in the year represented 37% although the African American community only represents 13% of the entire US population (Mapping Police Violence, page 1). These are just figures which are present in the police department system. However, most analysts and experts in this field argue that most cases end up unreported and undocumented. Thus, the number could be higher than this.
Grant 7 In an experiment in the field of social psychology, according to empirical data, white Americans view African American men to be violent and dangerous. In the experiment “shooter bias” was considered where “social psychologists measured how quickly participants responded to images of black and white men pictured in one of two scenarios: holding a violent object (for example, a gun) or a non-violent object (for example, a cell phone)” (Carbado and Rock, page 168). The participants were instructed to “shoot” the men holding violent objects and not the ones who were holding non-violent objects by pressing a key on a keyboard. The results of this experiment were that participants were quicker to “shoot” blacks with a gun than whites with a gun and quicker to shoot blacks without a gun than whites without one. One way to interpret these findings is that the participants had an easier time perceiving African Americans as armed whether they were or not which resulted in deadly force being used against them either way. Another research Carbado and Rock mention in their article were conducted by Sophie Trawalter and colleagues, which found evidence of the associations between race and danger. It is believed the faces of black males attract “more visual attention from white respondents than comparable faces of white men.” This was demonstrated by having both white and black faces flash in different positions on a screen. The participants were shown to have different gazes which were attracted to different areas where the black face had been on the screen (Carbado and Rock, page 168-169). The attention to these pictures was more likely to be seen in response to biologically threatening stimuli, images such as snakes and spiders which evolved for one’s ancestors’ survival and fight or flight response. The researchers interpreted it as evidence that “blacks in America have become so associated with danger that even viewing them has come to trigger the same kind of heightened attention and awareness people manifest in the presence of biologically threatening stimuli” (Carbado and Rock, 169). It has also been noted
Grant 8 that although this hyper-attentiveness has been demonstrated in response to angry faces, “black men attract attention even in the absence of any aggressive, angry, or threatening facial content� (Carbado and Rock, page 169). This could be a potential reason as to why police officers are more likely to deem African Americans as more suspicious or threatening. There are various ways in which the African-American community can end and condemn police brutality in this country. All the stakeholders involved should be ready to listen and avoid being defensive that this issue requires immediate attention to prevent more deaths of African-Americans. This is because black lives matter. The police departments should not in any way dehumanize criminals who have been arrested for various offenses. This is because most criminals are mercilessly killed and use of excessive force on them (American Civil Liberties Union, page 1). This is inhumane and should be condemned in all ways. All African Americans should join the Campaign Zero which is a community website that has 10 plans which should be implemented to end police brutality. Members of the community would be able to communicate with their local legislators and to some extend the presidential candidates and let them know of this issue which is affecting their community. People should also protest and indulge themselves in other social groups (Blades, 1). For example, they can create social media pages where they can start various online petitions. The African-American community needs to strengthen themselves as a unit first and foremost in order to get anything done. Through educating the future generations about their rights as well as influencing them to make better decisions and strategize. In order to see change you must be those changes and motivating youths to become doctors, lawyers, judges, police officers, and etc. will benefit them and the following generations to come. These are not simple solutions because the first issue at hand is for everyone to agree and see that there is an issue with police brutality in 2016.
Grant 9 The key players should also advocate for mental health awareness programs as most victims involved in police brutality are victims of mental health. More resources should be allocated towards this issue especially in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Members of the public should also push towards the removal of police officers who break the laws as opposed to protecting them, especially those involved in police misconduct and violence. This is achieved through contacting the responsible police department, demanding the full identity of police officers involved in the cases. Members of the public should use social media to make petitions with the aim of rallying support towards the cause. On the other hand, we should also help the police officers who do their job correctly to speak out on this issue (Blades, 1). Finally, it is the goals of every mindful citizen to vote out all legislators who condone police violence and brutality on African Americans. There is a difference between police killing African Americans and African Americans killing police officers. The difference is that law enforcement is aware of the dangers of their job that can result in their injury or death. Criminals, black or white, do not represent the black community but police officers do represent the government. African Americans do not sign up for being at jeopardy of police brutality or killings (Calla, page 1).
Grant 10 Work Cited American Civil Liberties Union. Fighting Police Abuse: A Community Action Manual, 2016, pp. 1. Retrieved from: https://www.aclu.org/other/fighting-police-abuse-community-actionmanual Blades, Lincoln. 10 Things You Can Do To Help Black Lives Matter End Police Violence, 2016, pp. 1. Retrieved from: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/support-the-black-lives-mattermovement Calla, Cganemn. Five Ways to Fight Police Brutality: NewsOne, 2008, pp. 1. Retrieved from: http://newsone.com/138441/five-ways-to-effectively-combat-police-brutality/ Carbado, Devon W. & Rock, Patrick. "What Exposes African Americans to Police Violence." Harvard CivilRights-Civil Liberties Law Review 51.1 (2016): 159-188. Hernderson, Barney. Killings of black men by US police officers lead to ‘revenge’ shootings across America: The Telegraph, 2016, pp. 1. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/killings-of-black-men-by-us-policeofficers-and-dallas-attack-le/ Krysan, Maria. "Whites Who Say They’d Flee: Who are they, and Why would they Leave?" Demography (pre-2011), vol. 39, no. 4, 2002, pp. 675-96., https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/220165187? accountid=4840. Mapping Police Violence. Police Violence Report, 2015, pp. 1. Retrieved from: http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/
Grant 11 Staples, Robert. “White Power, Black Crime, And Racial Politics.” Black Scholar 41.1 (2011): 31-41. Education Source. Web. 11 Oct. 2016 Thomas, Akilah. Police Brutality towards African Americans: William Paterson University Press, 2015, pp. 1. Retrieved from: http://www.wpunj.edu/gfpj/hscontest/hscontest2015/police-brutality-towards-africanamericans.html Savali, Kristen. Killers Behind The Badge: NewsOne’s Investigative Series on Police Brutality in Black America: NewsOne Origial, 2012, pp.1. Retrieved from: http://newsone.com/2023676/police-brutality-against-blacks/ Worth, Robert F. "Blacks are Searched by Police at a Higher Rate, Data show." New York Times, New York, N.Y., 2003.,
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Annotated Bibliography
Grant 12 Carbado, Devon W.; Rock, Patrick. "What Exposes African Americans to Police Violence." Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 51.1 (2016): 159-188. The Article presents a theoretical model that police violence is a systemic issue that cannot be solved by just separating the “bad” police officers from the ones that take pride in treating everyone fairly and respectfully. This article explains the perceptions such as when people heard about the crime rate they were more likely to agree with stop and frisk as well as the rate of black African-American males behind bars which thus cause more attention to black males outside. That even when a African-American male is not aggressive or angry is still likely to attract the attention of law enforcement.
Staples, Robert. “White Power, Black Crime, And Racial Politics.” Black Scholar 41.1 (2011): 31-41. Education Source. Web. 11 Oct. 2016 Staples breaks down racial issues and explains the similarities between slavery and discrimination and more recent years. He explains a situation from Harvard’s own professor. Staples breaks down the situation that occurred with Gates and law enforcements where Gates was arrested due to suspicions from the police officer for attempting to force open his front door. The officer was shown his driver’s license and his Harvard university identification but according to Gates the officer still did not believe him that he lived at that resident and proceeded to arrest Gates.
Krysan, Maria. "Whites Who Say They’d Flee: Who are they, and Why would they
Grant 13 Leave?" Demography (pre-2011), vol. 39, no. 4, 2002, pp. 675-96., https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/220165187? accountid=4840. In this article, it explains how whites are more likely to move from a neighborhood that has begun to integrate. The question remains whether they are more because of race or maybe they are simply just moving because they want to own as opposed to rent or starting a family and need more space or just want something different. Determining this is difficult because this can only be determined accurately through a subjective take as opposed to objective. Object viewed can only tell you that “yes, they are moving” but everyone is different and can be a personal issue as to why they are moving but it still doesn’t eliminate the question whether it is about race or not.
Grant 14 Research Proposal The purpose of this project is to create awareness and shed light on the reoccurring issues as to why African-Americans and police officers’ interactions are more likely than nonblacks/whites to result in excessive force. I conducted this research and continues to develop in hopes to grab not only other races but also African-Americans and those who are not or feel as though police brutality is not real, common, or does not affect them and bring them to realize not everything is about “pulling the race card” especially when it results in senseless acts of violence or worst, death. I have used logos to apply logic to my project to assist those reading it to gain an insight as to what is going on in the world outside of their own. I have also applied ethos by providing information to stand behind the information and case by case incidents provided in this project. The modes and medias I have chosen would be able to aid in backing my information as well as provide the audience with real situations in which can help to appeal to them or see firsthand what I am speaking about and visually see what is going on in America. This can help apply pathos by helping them to see “this could have been you or someone you love”. The genres I chose were informative, persuasive, and narrative to not lighten the mood but to apply pressure to the audience to start to make them think. The way I chose to organize my project has been to ask questions or their loved ones and create an open little conversation to my audience for my research to become more personal to each of them. I am considering this because everyone does not come from the same background or grew up the same but I can guarantee that every audience member has someone they love. I have chosen a power point because it is simple and a video can still play within it. I have also been thinking to bring in blank cards for each audience member to imagine was their loved one’s obituary, inside it saying how loving they were, “here lays the body of…” or something of that sort. I am also considering
Grant 15 to bring a list of African-Americans killed by law enforcement or while in the custody of law enforcement whose deaths could not be determined.
Grant 16 Self-Reflection The development of this research paper was quite difficult. Not because I had no clue what I was doing but more so as where to start and what information to provide my audience with. I think police brutality and how consistent it has been in the black community is still difficult for those who have never encountered such disturbances in their own lives to be able to relate or see the seriousness of this. The reason I choose police brutality was because I have experienced a situation where my uncle fit the description of a black man and was beaten on the corner by his house and released after they realized they had the wrong person. The issue isn’t with misidentification the issue is with the procedure and overuse of power that takes place prior to or after an arrest is the issue. There are new names that come up as hashtags on social media and talked about in the news but a lot of my peers may not watch the news or can scroll past those pages on social media. Therefore, I felt if I wrote about it they would recognize it is an issue much closer to them as they perceive. My difficulties with this paper was the time I had; trying to make everything fit and meeting deadlines. I wish I had more time to include some specific situations of the names I had mentioned but I just hoped that those names such as Sean Bell, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and Walter Scott were big to stand on their own and be familiar enough to my audience. However, I am proud of the research I found and incorporate into my paper. I used the rhetorical appeal of logos by using statistics as opposed to my own personal experiences or feelings towards police brutality especially to those of color. Ethos was also used to convince my audience of the credibility with the experiment conducted by Carbado and Rock which confirmed that some white Americans do view black Americans as more violent.