Police brutality is common in the United States as part of an instrument of enforcing law and order. The line between excessive and reasonable force is still a debate because it is not defined and agreed by the public and professionals. Minority groups have experienced police brutality in different degrees; some arguments indicate that police brutality is the result of racism. Also, the institutionalization of racism within the police is through the support of the elites, government leaders, businesspersons, and the influential individuals with racial biases. Political and legal use of power against minorities under the guise of enforcing law and order is the primary focus of the article. Escobar (2003) shows that evidence tampering and falsification; inconsistencies in officers’ accounts; LAPD's stands on critics; and the creation of a public image that attempts to give police credibility were seen in Bloody Christmas event and the aftermath. The Bloody Christmas incidence is a reinforcement of police commitment to protect its image against external influence and the rule of law.
Police usurped their accountability from the people they were constitutionally created to serve. By depriving the agencies and commissions the power to investigate and criticize their acts of policing, the autonomy signaled a disconnection between the police and the people especially the minorities. Ethnic conflicts formed part of the culture, something that has to be dealt with through the use of the police. The reforms within the police force as a profession were viewed as racial profiling exercise and acquisition of police independence in internal discipline and accountability.
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The Zoot Suit riots and LAPD’s explanation that Mexican American youth have an inclination towards criminality. Police officials “argued that Mexican American criminality sprang from biological factors” (Escobar, 2003, p.178). The police Department extension of their explanation that connects race and crime included African American in their law and order practice. This inclusion strengthens the racial divided and perception of the police as instrument of the white middle and working bracket. Mexican American expression of their rights changed relations with the LAPD for a while. Also, police officers will not give damaging testimony to fellow colleagues.
Escobar, E. J. (2003). Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles PoliceDepartment, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 2. pp. 171-199
