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DiNeisha Jones
Dagher
UWRT 1102
April 22, 2015

Exploring Police Brutality

What happened to serving and protecting society? I decided to explore this topic
because it has been a very controversial issue in the media throughout the last few
months. It struck me as strange that police officers whose job is to serve and protect
people in the community are actually the ones inflicting harm on individuals in society. In
the recent months there has been the case of Michael Brown who was fatally shot by
Darren Wilson, a Ferguson police officer. Eric Gardner, who was put in the chokehold
after being accused of selling loosies, single cigarettes. He was pronounced dead on
arrival at the hospital. Recent police brutality hit close to home for me. My uncle drives
a 2013 Lexus that has legal tinted windows, chrome black rims and his license plate tag
reads $ Rec $. He was pulled over on his way home from McDonalds on April 4,
2015. He wasnt speeding, he hadnt been drinking, and he wasnt doing anything wrong.
The officer stopped him, proceeded with normal protocol, and found that he has a
pending charge. The officer went back to the car, asked my uncle to get out of the car
because he was under arrest. Wait, but why was he arresting him? The officer didnt read
my uncle his rights or anything; he just proceeded to take my uncle into custody. After

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being down to the police station for over three hours, the officer told my uncle they are
charging him with a DWI; then he proceeds to give my uncle a Breathalyzer. Interestingly
enough the officer didnt smell alcohol on my uncle. Prime example of racial profiling,
my uncle is young, black, with a beautiful car, and prior convictions that just happened to
have gotten him a false charge. I believe that because of the pending charge my uncle has
this made him a target for police. Even before the situation with my uncle happened I had
always been curious about why people of authority, such as law enforcement personnel
abuse their power. It makes no sense to me how corrupt the judicial system can be.
The significance of this issue is, if we cannot rely on the police to protect us then
who can we rely on? Society as a whole is affected by police brutality, minorities
especially. It affects the victims families and the officers as well. It gives police officers,
law enforcement and the judicial system a bad reputation. Minorities dont want to use
the judicial system because they feel like it has been designed to keep them at the bottom.
If you dont trust someone you wont rely on him or her to do anything for you. It is the
same way with the police. If people feel like they cannot trust the police to do their jobs
they wont call them when they need help, instead they handle things on their own which
brings more violence and chaos. n this article I read that, society is more willing to
cooperate with police when the trust and confidence is higher.(Tyler) If society does
not trust the system they wont use it.(Tyler) This is what I have been saying all along.
Police officers were put in place decades ago to serve and protect. If society lacks
confidence in polices ability to do their job they will not use the system. In the article
Policing in Black & White: Ethnic Differnces in Group Trust & Confidence in the
Police a study done in 2002 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that only

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27% Americas had confidence in the justice system.(Tyler) 2002 is a long ways back, but
I am taking it back to make the point that if Americans didnt trust the justice system
then, I wonder what the rating look like now since the violence against citizens has
increased.(Tyler) Another study done in 2001 by the National Institute of Justice revealed
that minorities were extremely distrustful of the police.(Tyler) It states that in the case of
the overall criminal justice system, 27% of Whites expressed a great deal of confidence,
as compared to 22% of African Americans.(Tyler) I believe the trust issues minorities
have with the police comes from the degradation against them. How can you expect
someone to trust you if you are the one causing them harm? This goes back to my
question what happens when society starts to retaliate? In December of 2014 two New
York police officers where killed in the line of duty by 28 year old Ismaaiyl Abdullah
Brinsley. These two killings where said to be in retaliation to the Michael Brown and Eric
Gardner killings. What happens when this happens again and again and again? This is
puzzling. After the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner I read an article on
A question?
Facebook about their deaths and I happened to scroll through the comments as well and
as I was scrolling I seen a comment from a lady that said I am a police officer and have
been for some time and when it comes to situations like police brutality, it is my life or
theirs and I will always choose my life. This statement baffles me. For someone with the
authority that this woman has to say that lets me know that some law enforcement
personnel think that it is okay to kill or beat on civilians if it comes to protecting
themselves. Now I am not saying dont protect yourself, but excessive force doesnt have
to lead to fatalities.

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In an article written by Nittle she interviews many activists about the media
coverage that is done when police officers abuse their power. In the article activist talk
about how news reports dont extensively cover black and Latino forms of police
brutality as they do with whites. Brigitt Keller, executive director of the National Police
Accountability Project, says the media should cover police brutality among minorities
just as they do whites but not only cover the stories do follow-ups, talk to the victims
family, and people in the community.(Nittle) Keller says many times society is misled
and officers are rarely convicted on the accounts of police brutality. This goes back to my
question why police brutality is so common? (Nittle) It also takes me back to the
question why arent these officers being indicted. Very often in cases of police brutality
those head of the police department say that they have a thorough investigation going on
but in reality things are being swept under the rug. Activists have reported that white
people have been reported to sympathetic victims while those of color are portrayed as
the aggressor who are deserving of the excessive force from police officers.(Nittle) This
article took me back to a lot of questioned proposed in my forum. Such as, whom are
these officers protecting? Seems to me they are protecting each other by sweeping things
under the rug and not thoroughly investigating these crimes. Aside from that does
disability provoke police violence? In Nittles article it says police accountability
activists have closely monitored the international media attention resulting from the death
of a white man, Kelly Thomas, 37, in July. On July 5, six Fullerton police officers
repeatedly beat Thomas after he fled when they tried to search his backpack during a
burglary investigation.(Nittle) Thomas, a schizophrenic vagrant, died from his injuries
five days later and two officers are facing criminal charges, including second-degree

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murder.(Nittle) I am still curious to know why is society so quick to sweep police
brutality under the rug like it doesnt affect us. Another question is, what has to happen
for us as a society to speak up and speak out about an issue that for many years has been
a hot topic? Im not saying every police officer is bad but what I am saying is who is
going to protect us if police wont.
I have come to understand that this isnt an issue that can be fixed overnight. I
also understand that it is an issue that will continue to happen because some authority
figures feel that they can beat the system. I just hope that one day this madness stops. I
have a lot of unanswered questions like what does this mean for future police officers,
what does politics and politicians have to say about this issue, and why is corruption so
common in policing?

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Bibliography

Gabbidon, Shaun, George Higgins, and Hillary Potter. "Race, Gender, and the
Perception of Recently Experiencing Unfair Treatment by the Police: Exploratory Results
from an All-Black Sample." Criminal Justice Review. 36.1 (2011): 5-21. Print.
Manzoni, P. "Violence between the Police and the Public: Influences of WorkRelated Stress, Job Satisfaction, Burnout, and Situational Factors." Criminal Justice and
Behavior. 33.5 (2006): 613-645. Print.
Nittle, Nadra. "Improving Media Coverage of Police Brutality Cases." Improving
Media Coverage of Police Brutality Cases. Maynard Institute, 5 Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Feb.
2015. Website
Robertson, Ray V., and Cassandra Chaney. "Racism and Police Brutality." Racism
and Police Brutality. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2015. Website
Tyler, Tom. "Policing in Black and White: Ethnic Group Differences in Trust and
Confidence in the Police." Police Quarterly. 8.3 (2005): 322-342. Print.