The rise in police brutality has drastically increased on police issues. These problems have been commonly posed by illegal police power, which becomes a problem for the African American race or class inclination. In this society, there are innocent people who are beaten physically, mentally, and emotionally which as result death has occurred. In our society we have good cops and bad cops but all with the same exact training but with different purposes behind there badges. Brutality contradicts police service values because a police officer should protect citizens and not harm them. When officers participate in instances of brutality they must face stricter consequences at the federal level.
Police officers don’t receive the same treatment that our justice system gives other criminals as a result of their actions, their actions are overlooked because of the badges they were and their safety. According to Chicago Gang Members Blast City, Police Policies It states that “The problem with them is that they’re giving us an ultimatum- quit- instead of an alternative. But we’re offering these young men an alternative, saying,’Get off the corner selling these bags and come to this construction site and pick up this brick”, Akeem Berry said. This makes one interpret that in our community young African American men are targeted over drug use or exchange but have options to do the right thing as far as getting off the streets and into someone’s establishment. This connects to the thesis because although police officers take a different approach some mean well as far as getting young men in working environments but others prefer taking life instead of taking action on our communities to make them better.
Police brutality has stood out in our society when our African American young men were gun down because of false allegations toward them being a threat to an officer. For example, In the USA Today “Police killing of black men in the U.S. and what happened to the officers” article, Philando Castile was pulled over because of a broken tail light but was suspected to be involved in a robbery which had just occurred, after all this controversy of being pulled over the officer accused him of having a gun ( which he had a permit) but according to the live video the gun was not present for Castile to use or even for the officer to feel any way threaten. In this article, it shows how police officers didn’t take proper training on how to handle this situation such as asking for his license to carry or just simply asking him to step out the vehicle to avoid any suspicions of this turning into a threatening situation. The officer that was found not guilty (Jeronimo Yanez) was stripped of his badge but not behind bars for manslaughter in 2017. This act from our justice system shows how our lives are to be questioned in this society because of this selfish act and it questions if the officers are here to serve and protect or to serve and kill.
The actions that have been shown over the years gives us a glimpse of how one needs to be cautious of how one responds to officers who may be a threat. According to the Vox “ There are huge racial disparities in how US police use force” article states that “ These disparities in police use of force reflect more widespread racial inequities across the entire American criminal justice system. Black people are much more likely to be arrested for drugs, even though they’re not more likely to use or sell them.” This explains the outlook on how the minorities are targeted just from how things were back then racially in the police department and how if you were “white” you were right but if you “black” you better get back. This gives us an indication of how our race is shut down just from our presence.