According to research from the NAACP, a black person is 5x more likely to be stopped or pulled over without just cause than a white person in America. The other issue in America is that police brutality and abuse in any form is taking away many innocent lives, whether it is the death of a life or their morals for the rest of their life. From George Floyd’s death to the Central Park 5, who were wrongfully accused of a crime they did not commit, this injustice must be addressed.
Police brutality is often downplayed when talked about in the court system. When discussing it, the system comes up with an excuse for why the victims were killed or why the force was used, which has been proven from multiple instances that the reasons supplied weren’t good or ethical. On the other side, people are spreading out “Defund the police,” which really isn’t effective in the long run. Neither “solutions” are helping the situation that currently exists today.
Recent stats from 2014 and on, from the NAACP, show the issues of what’s occurring in the United States today. 65% of adults felt targeted due to the color of their skin and their race or background. 900-1100 people are shot and killed each year by police in the United States. Only 98 police officers have been arrested, but only 38 of them have been convicted of a crime or a lesser offense; 3 of those were only charged with murder and sent to prison. In a survey 84% of black adults say white people are treated better than African-Americans and more than half of the white population agrees with that statement.
In the United States, 13.4% are African-American, but unfortunately, they make up about 22% of fatal police shootings. That does not account for similar or other types of police brutality. There have been 1,900 exonerations of wrongfully convicted, but 47% of those were black people, while there are only 13.4% of African-Americans in the U.S. The use of drug rates is similar among white and black people, but the imprisonment rate of African-Americans is almost 6 times that of white people. Unfortunately, defendants who are African Americans are 22% more likely to have police misconduct that results in exoneration. Since 1991, violent crimes have actually gone down by 20%, but the population of people in prison spiked 50%.
The effects of police brutality can really damage not only the victims but their loved ones. In twelve states, conviction means you cannot vote again, which strips away freedom. Finding jobs can be difficult to obtain for those who are trying to provide for their families. People who are also wrongfully convicted, depending on the crime, can also lose their lives to the death penalty, in which black people are sent to death at a higher rate than any other race, with an 82% rate.
The black community has attempted to reduce incidents of police brutality by having more restrictions that stop police from pulling cars over with expired tags, for example, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Citizens in America are now taught to use social media as their advantage to hold officers accountable for brutality, abuse of authority, and racial profiling. Also, many states have now implemented more extensive training for people joining the police force, teaching them to use violent force correctly and on time. Paying more police officers has also been tried, especially in 1994. Batson v. Kentucky is a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the dismissal of jurors without cause, and without regard to race.
In addition to these solutions, all police officers should be required to keep a record of incident profiling and any other type of mistakes. After a certain number of mistakes have been made, those should be reviewed by a board or commander and the officer should be terminated. Also, we need to create a better background check of officers who have completed training. All cases must be automatically reviewed to determine if race is a factor.
Police Brutality is a Deadly Epidemic
By Kam Harling ‘26
According to research from the NAACP, a black person is 5x more likely to be stopped or pulled over without just cause than a white person in America. The other issue in America is that police brutality and abuse in any form is taking away many innocent lives, whether it is the death of a life or their morals for the rest of their life. From George Floyd’s death to the Central Park 5, who were wrongfully accused of a crime they did not commit, this injustice must be addressed.
Police brutality is often downplayed when talked about in the court system. When discussing it, the system comes up with an excuse for why the victims were killed or why the force was used, which has been proven from multiple instances that the reasons supplied weren’t good or ethical. On the other side, people are spreading out “Defund the police,” which really isn’t effective in the long run. Neither “solutions” are helping the situation that currently exists today.
Recent stats from 2014 and on, from the NAACP, show the issues of what’s occurring in the United States today. 65% of adults felt targeted due to the color of their skin and their race or background. 900-1100 people are shot and killed each year by police in the United States. Only 98 police officers have been arrested, but only 38 of them have been convicted of a crime or a lesser offense; 3 of those were only charged with murder and sent to prison. In a survey 84% of black adults say white people are treated better than African-Americans and more than half of the white population agrees with that statement.
In the United States, 13.4% are African-American, but unfortunately, they make up about 22% of fatal police shootings. That does not account for similar or other types of police brutality. There have been 1,900 exonerations of wrongfully convicted, but 47% of those were black people, while there are only 13.4% of African-Americans in the U.S. The use of drug rates is similar among white and black people, but the imprisonment rate of African-Americans is almost 6 times that of white people. Unfortunately, defendants who are African Americans are 22% more likely to have police misconduct that results in exoneration. Since 1991, violent crimes have actually gone down by 20%, but the population of people in prison spiked 50%.
The effects of police brutality can really damage not only the victims but their loved ones. In twelve states, conviction means you cannot vote again, which strips away freedom. Finding jobs can be difficult to obtain for those who are trying to provide for their families. People who are also wrongfully convicted, depending on the crime, can also lose their lives to the death penalty, in which black people are sent to death at a higher rate than any other race, with an 82% rate.
The black community has attempted to reduce incidents of police brutality by having more restrictions that stop police from pulling cars over with expired tags, for example, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Citizens in America are now taught to use social media as their advantage to hold officers accountable for brutality, abuse of authority, and racial profiling. Also, many states have now implemented more extensive training for people joining the police force, teaching them to use violent force correctly and on time. Paying more police officers has also been tried, especially in 1994. Batson v. Kentucky is a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the dismissal of jurors without cause, and without regard to race.
In addition to these solutions, all police officers should be required to keep a record of incident profiling and any other type of mistakes. After a certain number of mistakes have been made, those should be reviewed by a board or commander and the officer should be terminated. Also, we need to create a better background check of officers who have completed training. All cases must be automatically reviewed to determine if race is a factor.
Sources:
https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A750626676/SUIC?u=lanc78965&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=a2311857
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A629606142/SUIC?u=lanc78965&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=5602e892