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Anthony Perschon
Mrs. Burr, Instructor
English 1010, Section 2
18 November 2016

Integrating Law Enforcement: Cracking Down on Police Brutality and Racism

The big issue in the United States of America is law enforcement taking advantage of
their abilities of wearing a badge and represented our country. Police have also shown racism and
brutality against blacks, hispanics, muslims, etc. Police Brutality Against Black Males According
to A. Walker, Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive physical force or verbal assault
and psychological intimidation(qtd. in Chaney 482). Every person in the U.S. should be treated
equally, and throughout the years that has been the big problem. The United States of America
law enforcement needs to look at every person the same way black or white. One of the biggest
Arrising problems in the United States is Law Enforcement racial profiling the citizens in the
country by their color of their skin.
In the Huffington Post article, the editors present information about five black men
Charles Kinsey, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Delrawn Small, and Michael Brown each
involved in cases while being unarmed, but still ended being beaten to death, or shot by the
police in the past year. This article is a prime example of police targeting blacks with lethal force
because even if they arent doing anything or have anything on them thats illegal the law
enforcement still acted with aggressive force which led to the deaths of each of these men. The
reasoning for why this happened is because they were a different skin color than white. Each of
these cases the men were black, unarmed, and not doing anything illegal.

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E. Anderson, a journalist said black men have written extensively about experiencing
race and gendered racism in the United States. The skin color gives stereotypes with whites
being respectability, civility, and trust while blacks are associated with poverty, danger, and
distrust (para. in Brooms 168). The way that people will give people such a poor first impression
on someone because of their skin color is pathetic, and how they are getting treated because of it
is even worse.
According to M. K. Elicker there was data obtained on a opinion study on police use of
force from the General Social Survey. The study took place at the University of Chicago. The
survey provided proof that regards the accepting of force against the blacks. GSS found that
whites were (29.5%) more accepting of police use of force when a citizen was trying to escape
(Chaney 482).
Two men Carl Dix and Charles Barron spoke out on the national scene about big
examples of misconduct with the law enforcement in the New York City area. Dix said that from
January through June this year (2009) there were a total of 311,646 total people stopped, and that
52.3 percent were black, and 32.1 percent were latino, and only 9 percent of the people were
white. Barron said, [Researchers] found that 2.6 percent of people stopped had a gun, and 6
percent were given summonses for some other infraction, which is to say they are stopping a lot
of innocent people, (qtd. in Shabazz 3) Even if these studies werent shown to display the
example of racism, it still proves that there is as well. For the state of New York City there was
only 9 percent of white people stopped which represents that the other 91 percent of people were
of some other race. That gives of proof that the law enforcement is going after people that arent
white. Most of these people were inoccent recalled by Barron as well. The police need to stop

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criminalizing everything. People that arent doing anything are getting arrested and brutalized,
and it needs to change. The police cant look at everything as a crime.
In the book, Are Cops Racist? How the War Against the Police Harms Black Americans,
last said that in 2001 through 2003 there was fifteen black men that were killed the the previous
six years by the Cincinnatis police force. That ended up causing beatings of white motorists
which showed a sign of revenge on the police force. On the southern end of the New Jersey out
of all the minorities in that area fifty-three percent of them involved blacks. It doesnt sound that
bad but blacks only make up 13.5 percent of the states population. (Kay 73-76) This example is
thirteen years ago, but it represents that from then to now it has been going on and never stopped.
Issues are not being resolved when they need to be.
There was an interview with Killer Mike (Hip-Hop Artist) on Hot 107.9 FM about him
speaking out on the topic of police brutality, and racism towards the blacks. During the interview
he was very upset and emotional. The thing that stood out that most was how emotional he was.
He spoke out vividly, Im ashamed to be a part of this country. he definitley said these thoughts
because of all the things that are occuring to the blacks. (Web. 2016)
Howard Safir, Former Police Commisioner expresses his opinions on Police Brutality. He
says that police brutality is inexcusable and rare. In the article he explains that the shootings in
North Charleston, S.C. was an enormous tragedy. This scene was caught on camera, and will end
up hurting the image of police Safir says. Attorney Benjamin Crump speaks out on the video and
says, If not for the video, the officer would have been believed and his story would have never
been questioned by the justice system or city officials.(Howard and Crump 30) Its sad that our
government will believe anything that the law enforcement will say over the person being
brutally beat down by an officer. Thats a big issue, and a lot of cops end up getting away for

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doing illegal things, and using illegal force because the person is not white or not the same race
as the officer. All the United States can do it try to prevent it because a lot of these issues are
going under the radar without being seen. For all the rare times that this will happen it will ruin
that image that has already been ruined by law enforcement. There are so many problems with
police brutality and racism each year, and it is not stopping. Racism and Brutality throughout the
years has been represented, and theres many signs of proof. In figure 1 it represents all the
people that were shot by the Chicago police. There was a total of 83% of people that were of
color. For the population in Chicago the blacks only made up 32% percent of it.
Fig. 1. Sources of Population in Chicago and race that was shot by police through 2009-2013
there was a total of 42 people shot throughout the four years (Kappeler Web.).

As most people know there is a huge problem, and it needs to be fixed. Racism and
Police Brutality are big issues in todays society. This issue has gone on for hundreds of years
and is still strongly going. People need to stop categorizing themselves into groups and cliques

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because of the color of their skin. There is one giant problem, and many possible solutions to cut
down the brutality and racism in the United States of America.
First, The government needs to understand that their is two sides of a story when it comes
to the police, and a black victim. The government never believes the black victim, and will
always believe what the law enforcement will say even if its dishonest in certain situations. The
government needs to give the victims the freedom of speech. Another big solution is to crack
down on law enforcement, and make the consequences a lot stronger to prevent police from
risking their job on doing something that is pointless.
The government needs to stop attacking the poor. Another reason that there is this huge
issue is because the government, and law enforcement goes after the poor to get better budgets
throughout the city. The police also criminalize everything. Law enforcement needs to be aware
of what is a serious crime, and what is not. Police need to know that everyone has rights, and
they arent above the law.
We need to change, our country needs to change for the better of our nation.In the end our
country cant be perfect, but we could end up coming close by fixing issues like this. The United
States of America is a country that is freedom for everyone that is a citizen, and we cant let
perspective of our country change. Our society can always end up bettering itself, and that starts
with treating everyone the same way no matter if they are black or white. Law enforcement
needs to understand their rights, and understand when they can use force on someone. Once our
country comes to a solution on Police Brutality and Racism we will be so much stronger, and
have a lot more unity throughout the united states once this issue is diminished.

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Worked Cited

Almendrala, Anna, and Erin Schumaker. Be Wary of Studies That Deny Racial Bias in Police
Shootings. Healthy Living. Huffingtonpost.com. 27 Jul 2016. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.

Brooms, Derrick R., and Armon R. Perry. "ItS Simply Because WeRe Black Men." Journal
Of Men's Studies 24.2 (2016): 166-184. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray Robertson. "Racism And Police Brutality In America."

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Journal Of African American Studies 17.4 (2013): 480-505. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

Crump, Benjamin, et al. "Truth And Consequences." Time 185.14 (2015): 30-31. Vocational and
Career Collection. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

Garland, Maurice. Killer Make on Police Shootings: Im Ashamed to be a Part of This

Country. [Video]. Fader. 07 July 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Kappeler, Victor. Harsh Remarks, Racism and Police Shootings in the Windy City.
EKU: Online Police Studies (2009-2013). Published 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2016

Kay, Jonathan. "Crime By The Numbers." Commentary 115.4 (2003): 73.

MasterFILE
Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

Potemra, Michael. "Bash Tha Police." National Review 55.1 (2003): 54. MasterFILE Complete.
Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

Shabazz, Saeed. "Activists claim that police brutality is alive and well in America." New York
Amsterdam News 22 Oct. 2009: 3. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.