Police Brutality Against Black People

Before I ascend into a very prominent topic, I want all readers and/or commenters to be mindful of my perspective, especially as a black, female individual. Many of you may agree with me, others may not, but all I ask is that you remain respectful. Under the Room for Debates I discovered a very intriguing article called, " Black and White and Blue". It examines police brutality and the racial injustices that black people encounter in America on a daily.

Police are responsible for maintaining public safety and enforcing the law, but when you have officers that are abusing their power for the sake of prejudice and/or racist intentions, we have a serious issue. To a certain degree, becoming a policeman is a gateway entrance for racists to legally oppress POC's. Not only do they hold a significant amount of power, but they also have full support of the justice system behind them. In 2015, 99% of cases filed against officers were acquitted according to mappingpoliceviolence.org.  It is undeniably evident that policemen aren’t held accountable and this only result in the continuous vile treatment towards black/brown communities.

 July 6th of 2016, Philando Castile, a 32 year old black man,  was fatally shot in Falcon Heights, Minnesota by a white, male officer. Castile was initially pulled over for his brake lights; however, during the engagement he did inform the officer that he was carrying a firearm which he had a permit for.  Castile repeatedly stated that he was not reaching for the gun, as he was only trying to retrieve his drivers license as requested. Despite this, Yanez, the office, shot Castile  seven times with his girlfriend and seven-year-old child bearing witness.  His last words were “I wasn’t reaching for it”.  The officer claimed that he feared for his life and that he had “no option”  but to shoot. Unsurprisingly, the verdict was not guilty and the system failed to demonstrate justice yet again. It seems as if using their gun is the first option when it comes to de-escalating situations with black men and women. On the contrary, white criminals, who are at times non compliant and armed, are faced with tasers and repeated warnings. More importantly, it has become more and more frequent for cops to state “I feared for me life” as a means to dissemble Their true intentions, but why are you the man who fears for your life when you’re the man behind the gun?

 Racial biases against African-Americans prevail within the police community. What is actually implied by the phrase “ my life was in danger”  is his belief in the racial stigma that black people are violent, animalistic, and dangerous which causes them to feel threatened by our presence. Therefore, he psychologically formed the ideal that he was in danger and acted upon it. The African American makes up 13% of the total U.S. population, while white Americans consist of 76%. Despite these numbers, black people are three times as likely to be killed by the police then our white counterparts. If your rebuttal is that the majority of these cases are subjected under crimery, that is false. According to mappingpoliceviolence.org, "fewer than 1 in 3 black people killed by police in America in 2014 were suspected of a violent crime and allegedly armed".

Lastly, black inmates make up a disproportionate amount of the prison population. This is not due to the false accusation that black people are more susceptible to indulge in criminology. It is precisely because policemen patrol areas that are predominantly black or hispanic. As a result, African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. It's not like white people aren't involved in the same type of crimes. "African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost six times that of whites" reports naacp.org. So why aren't we patrolling our white neighborhoods too? Because of white privilege my friends.

Any white american across this nation has been born with white privilege. You have societal privileges over non-whites that benefit you in any social, political, and economic circumstance. The system has been created to empower white people which is the underlying issue that POC's are trying to reform. Many of you may disapprove of those that are anti-cop, but how can I support a force that continues to kill my people? Black people across the nation tense up at the sight of an officer for in fear that they will become the next hashtag on twitter. Most of you have never had to sit with your parents and talk about what to do when an officer pulls you over in order to avoid an escalation between the cop and you. I have. So until the racial injustices in America are demolished and POC are included in the safety net within the police community completely, I will not be able to support our law enforcement system wholly.

- Jordyn Parham