American history has several cases of violence against minority populations. Moreover, recent history entails prominent examples of police brutality enacted against the African-American population. Such developments have raised public attention on the vice of police brutality. Therefore, an analysis of current literature will elucidate the nature of police brutality in America.
As an ideology, racism justifies and rationalizes ethnic and racial inequality while discrimination entails denying members of particular ethnic groups equal access to societal rewards. Historically, African-Americans have experienced racist and discriminatory bias effected by those who either fashion or enforce laws. For example, the arrival of most Africans to America was through slavery, which is synonymous with racial discrimination. Other examples include the Watts riots of 1965 and law enforcement violence against African American women. Recent history examples include the beating of Rodney King, the death of Amadou Diallo and the fatalities of the recent upsurge of police brutality (Chaney & Robertson 2013). Scholars have offered several explanations for such a phenomenon. For instance, the Caucasian population believes that African-Americans deserve the harsh treatment they receive from law enforcement officers. Such a belief is implicit of the racially discriminatory mindset of the affected population. Moreover, there is literature portraying the African American male as the model of a criminal. Again, the media fraternity and the general public assert this notion.
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Police brutality entails the excessive use of physical force along with psychological intimidation and verbal assault. There is a growing body of scholarly associating African-Americans are more susceptible to police brutality than their Caucasian counterparts. For example, there are studies relating to police killing of unarmed Americans. A professor at the University of California established a significant bias for the shooting of unarmed African-American citizens. The study revealed that unarmed African-American individuals were about 3.5 more likely to get shot at by police officers than unarmed Caucasian individuals(Ross 2015). Moreover, the study revealed that the increased exposure of unarmed individuals did not correlate with both general and race specific crime rates. Therefore, the study confirms the existence of racial bias in police shootings.
Studies also reveal that both African-American and Hispanic citizens were more likely to be stopped and searched while driving. For example, a 2015 report on police practice in San Francisco revealed that African-Americans accounted for over 40% of non-consent searches while accounting for about 15% of all traffic stops. Moreover, the level of contraband discovery in such cases was higher among Caucasian drivers than either their African-American or Hispanic counterparts(San Francisco District Attorney’s Office 2016). The Department of Justice conducted investigations in Ferguson and made several findings. For instance, African-American drivers were more likely to be searched during traffic stops despite the decreased likelihood of contraband discovery. Moreover, records reveal that nearly all of the use of force incidents by the Ferguson Police involved African-Americans(DOJ, U. 2015). Generally, such examples imply the influence of racism in making certain decisions.
Other studies have revealed racial bias from police officers when making determinations about the use of nonlethal force. The Center for Policing Equity conducted a study between 2010 and 2015 which revealed that African-Americans were more susceptible than Caucasians to experience the use of force by law enforcement officials(Williams 2016). Moreover, another study showed that off- duty African-American and Hispanic officers were more likely to victims of police shootings. Thus, the influence of racial discrimination is evident in the decision making of police officers.
Conclusion
The recent increase of police brutality has increased public concern about an existing problem. An analysis of American history reveals several cases of police brutality. The use of law enforcement resources implies a racial bias and discriminatory practices designed to ensure that minority racial and ethnic communities do not access societal rewards.
References
Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies , 17 (4), 480-505.
DOJ, U. (2015). Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
Ross, C. T. (2015). A multi-level Bayesian analysis of racial bias in police shootings at the county-level in the United States, 2011–2014. PloS one , 10 (11), e0141854.
San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. (2016). The Blue-Ribbon Panel on Transparency, Accountability, and Fairness in Law Enforcement. Retrieved from http://sfdistrictattorney.org/sites/default/files/Document/BRP_report.pdf . Retrieved on May 11, 2017.
Williams, T. (2016). Study supports suspicion that police are more likely to use force on Blacks. New York Times , E1.
