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Police Brutality Against African-Americans in The United States

Momoreoluwa Ayinde

Quinnipiac University

EN102H: Honors Academic Writing

Professor Kim O’Neil

March 28, 2022.

Introduction

Racism is built into the DNA of America (Annalise Keating-how to get away with

Murder, 2018). From a dissertation on police brutality against racial minority citizens published

by The Lancet, between 1980 and 2018, more than 30,000 people were killed by the police. An

exhaustive investigation reveals that fatal police brutality has been undercounted by more than

50 percent. Simply put, twice the documented figure of fatal police incidents happened in the

United States. Americans of all races, ethnicities, classes, and genders have been subjected to

police brutality, particularly African Americans. The community of colors – with diverse

languages, religions, customs, and cultures –have suffered opposition and were labeled in a

common identity under the oppression of white supremacists, and this racial identity and

inequality are still prevalent in the contemporary American society. Notwithstanding the variety

among groups that have been subjected to police brutality in the United States, African

Americans have been predominant victims of police brutality (Edwards et al., 2019; Buehler,

2017). From a recent study, more than 300 black Americans are murdered by the police– at least

a quarter of them unarmed– each year in the United States (Bor et al., 2018). We understand that

racial inequality and oppression have persisted for several years and these racist actions and

influences have become a pandemic that has claimed several lives. For this research paper,

police brutality and the senseless use of force by agents of the state against minorities,

particularly against black folks, will be substantively addressed.

What Is Police Brutality

The idea of police brutality is usually associated with extreme violence, which we deem

outrightly bad for a civilized nation. Police brutality has been a component of many central civil
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and political movements in the United States. America, a nation-state embodied with multiracial

characters, was founded on the ideals of liberty and equality for all, and a real responsibility to

live up to these values. The international human right strictly prohibits any form of

discrimination and affirms that no one should be treated differently by law enforcement agents

because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or any other status, and everyone has the right to equal

treatment under the law. Yet racism and other forms of discriminatory actions are demonstrated

by agents of states and justice systems around the world. The issue of police brutality remains a

highly controversial action contrary to these ideals and everything must be done to end it. To

begin with, the term “police brutality” is often used to illustrate various human rights violations

by law enforcement officers. They might include physical assaults, racial abuse, unwarranted

arrest, unlawful murders, excessive and indiscriminate use of power forces against civilians,

malicious prosecution, wrongful search and seizure.

Police brutality against people of color, most especially African America has been a

persistent issue in the United States and has also steered a national conversation about the nature

of America’s law enforcement. In large parts of the States, African Americans are regarded as

inherently foreign, as aliens who could never be fully "American", and therefore could never be

worthy of the rights, privileges and protections enjoyed by their citizens. African Americans have

always been seen as vulnerable and racially impure in Western society, hence subjected to racial

profiling and discrimination. Racial profiling is another term often used to describe controversial

and unjust practices in which individuals are being targeted for the apprehension of crime based

on their ethnicity, race or religion rather than evidence-based suspicious behavior. Imagine being

apprehended by the police on your way to work or back from work to go meet your family, and

eventually find out you were apprehended because of your complexion. Not only is this
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discriminatory and illegal, but the police might be allowing the real criminals to get away while

arresting innocent folks because of their race.

History Of Police

From time immemorial, since black slavery, Africans were brought to the United States

forcibly, and have been a subject of indiscriminate and racial practices by those who create and

enforce the law. Racial discrimination has profound inception in American policing, and reforms

in policing within the American society cannot eliminate the experiences of Blacks who had

violent encounters with the police. The relationship between the police and people of color is

very poor and at the hands of the police, black folks experience racial and differential justice.

Recent research shows that, even when legal and other factors are equal, black folks continue to

experience the aggressive and lethal virtues of policing relative to their non-Black counterparts

(Brown, 2019). The historical stains of racism and related ills are part of the history and

conventions of American policing, and despite some progress in making policing more

indiscriminate for racial and ethnic minorities, racial injustices still pervade our systems of

policing and criminal justice. The incidents of racial prejudice and injustice that are

demonstrated in the modern American society, especially regarding the arrest and the use of

force, are not isolated or detached from the inceptions and evolution of American law

enforcement; police actions involving the use of force and arrest proves that race matters in how

people experience policing, and that experience of racial inequality is part of a long history of

injustices perpetrated by those who were sworn in to protect the nation and stop injustices – the

police (Brown, 2019; Muhammad, 2019).

Cases Of Police Brutality

Racial discrimination and police brutality are still prevailing practices in America today,

with minorities seeming to be the most popular target (Angus & Crichlow, 2022; Schwartz,

2020). As we have seen, heard, or experienced too many times in America how police officers

indiscriminately arrest, injure or kill civilians. However, several cases of police brutality

involving Black Americans are given disproportionate attention. On the 25th of May 2020,

George Floyd was murdered by an ex-police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota after he kept on

pressing his knee on George's neck for more than nine minutes. This horrible killing spurred

widespread protests against police brutality across the United States and called for the officers

involved to be held accountable for their wrongful deeds. The protests against police brutality

surged in response to the rising number of senseless murders of people of color, particularly the

black folks in the United States. Before the death of George Floyd, we have had several cases of

African Americans murdered by police officers who were never prosecuted. Breonna Taylor was

shot by police officers in her apartment. Philando Castile who was killed while he was out

driving with his girlfriend in Minnesota, Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police officers in

Baton Rouge. Tamir Rice, aged 12, was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio by a police officer. Eric

Garner died after he was grappled to the ground by a police officer on suspicion of illegally

selling cigarettes. All these people were murdered by police officers but were not held

accountable and prosecuted. Police officers who were involved in the killing of unarmed black

folks were later exonerated of all charges and discharged following the decisions from grand

juries (Angus & Crichlow, 2022)

How Court of Law Judge These Cases and Why Offenders Receives Limited Punishment

For years, it has been very difficult to formally charge a police officer for wrongful death,

due to qualified immunity about the use of force (whether the officer's force was reasonable) by
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the U.S. Supreme Court (Angus & Crichlow.; Ray, 2020). Cases of murdered unarmed black men

by police offers are not only increasing, but they are also threatening to the public, especially the

black community. There are several cases of how police officers unlawfully murder people and

get away with it. Nobody is above the law, especially those who were sworn in to uphold it.

Every individual, no matter what status– wealthy, poor, powerful, weak– is equally subject to the

law. All cases of fatal use of force by police officers should be subjected to a thorough, impartial,

and transparent investigation and if the evidence indicates that the killing was unlawful, the

police officer responsible should be reprimanded and prosecuted. Police officers often have

significant advantages in legal proceedings due to qualified immunity when they violate an

established constitutional right.

Effects On Victims of Police Brutality

Policing in the United States has, over the years, maintained structural inequality between

people of color and the White. And if no attempt is made to reform the police system, this crisis

will continue. Police violence is a lasting public health problem in America. The implications of

racist policing can greatly affect the health of victims. Racism can be experienced vicariously

and can induce heightened perceptions of systemic injustice and lack of fairness, loss of social

status and self-regard, heightened fear of victimization and considerable mortality probabilities,

intensified alertness, weakened trust in social institutions. For example, people who have

witnessed racial policing are likely to experience hypervigilance and psychological distress

associated with stop and frisk policing during another police encounter (Schwartz et al., 2020;

Bor et al., 2018). Social scientists and public health experts now widely acknowledge that violent

encounters with the police can consequentially lead to early mortality for African Americans

(Edwards et al., 2019).

Solution to Police Brutality

A significant body of evidence indicated that people of color, especially African

Americans, are at greater risk of experiencing police brutality and criminal justice than white

folks (Peeples, 2020; Edwards et al., 2019; Buehler, 2017). Intensive research reveals an

astonishing discrepancy in account of racial police brutality and killings in the United States.

Cases of police killings in America have been undercounted (Arango & Dewan, 2021). Police

killed over 1,136 people in America in 2021, of which, of which 263 were black (Mapping

Police Violence, 2020). We can no longer pretend that racial injustice is not a thing. We are living

in a time of civil and social unrest. We seek to encourage intervention and reform at the earliest

point in the policing process. Interventions must be designed and be capable of transforming the

current policing practices that continue to determine which lives are valued and which can be

lost to the endless police violence. While policies are enacted to address police brutality, we must

ensure that police officers who are involved in racial actions be held accountable for their deeds.

To address the complex gap between the police and the minority communities, both parties

should work hand in hand. Good policing cannot be attained without the support of the

community. Police departments should conduct more sophisticated analyses of crime problems to

ensure the crime-control strategies are not indiscriminate and unfocused, engage residents in

their crime reduction efforts by revitalizing community policing, ensure procedurally just police

contacts with citizens, and implement problem-solving strategies to curb crimes beyond

surveillance and enforcement development (Braga et al., 2019).

Conclusion

Police brutality is a lasting problem that has claimed thousands of lives in America.

Recent public movements have re-centered police brutality as a subject of discourse. Americans
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of all races, ethnicities, classes and genders have been subjected to police brutality. Police

brutality is often associated with violent actions such as physical assaults, racial abuse,

unwarranted arrest, unlawful murders, excessive and indiscriminate use of power forces against

civilians. African Americans are at higher risk of experiencing police brutality and criminal

justice than any other race. Cases of unarmed black deaths from police violence are increasing

and greatly affecting the public, particularly the black community. For years, it has been very

difficult to charge a police officer for murder due to qualified immunity. This research paper

delineates the persistent racial policing in America and calls for reform of the policing system

and strongly seek alliance between police and the community. Places for future research include,

case studies of victims of police brutality and examining police brutality of other people of color.

Visual Representation of Black Deaths in 2021

Note: Obtained from Mapping police violence. Mapping Police Violence. (n.d.).

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
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References

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America. FAU Undergraduate Research Journal.

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Arango, T., & Dewan, S. (2021, September 30). More than half of police killings are

mislabeled, a new study says. The New York Times.

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Bor, J., Venkataramani, A. S., Williams, D. R., & Tsai, A. C. (2018). Police killings and

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