Unraveling the United States

Phadlin Jean-Phillipe

Ms. Simon
Advanced Research Methods
April 9, 2015
In todays society, the killing of African-Americans has become more and more apparent
across the United States and there are many possible reasons why. It can stem from health issues

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all the way to gun violence, but one cause many people refuse to believe is police misconduct. A
major issue that arises from that is that if nobody wants to believe it, then no one will
acknowledge it, and if no one acknowledges it then it will never get resolved. History has shown
time and time again that people in authority have abused their power, mainly on minorities and
people of color. The investigation of the U.S. criminal justice system has shown that people of
color are targeted on and off the streets by any branch of the legal system. They are stopped
more frequently by police, they are convicted for crimes they never committed, they are given
longer sentences, and above all, they are not given the judicial opportunities that whites get
throughout the entire process. The foundations of America was built on racism which permeated
the slave era. From the slave labor used to literally build the country rippled a continuous
segregation that continues up to this very period in time. Although many people would think the
Michael Brown murder is just another ordinary murder, it in fact represents the ongoing racism
and prejudices that continuously occur in our country.
To understand why todays forms of policing are so dangerous, the origin of policing
must be understood first. The earliest forms of policing can be seen as far back as 1650 when
whites were used to keep watch over blacks. plantation ownersrequired white men to
perform nightly patrolsprohibiting them from gathering in groups, possessing weapons, and
storing excess provision. (Speer 1). The slave owners wanted to make sure their slaves stayed
under their control and would not revolt, so they hired men to watch over them and keep order.
Policing can be traced back to the slave era where many could argue is where the prejudices we

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know come from. It was about control back then but now, as things have changed and evolved,
everyone in the United States has acquired equal rights despite their race, gender, religion, or
sexual orientation. This is what makes todays forms of policing so destructive, they infringe
upon the very basis the United States of America was built on. Over the years it transformed
from pure racism to hate crimes against minorities and these acts have unfortunately been
supported by the government. In todays society, the word government varies in meaning
depending on the context its used in. It can mean something that may differ from a political or a
social or an economic point of view. The protest in Venezuela is a prime example of bad
government due the revolution that is currently underway. The government in Venezuela has
neglected its people to the point where its international homicide rate became 2nd highest in the
world. When governments focus on protecting order for the majority but fail to protect individual
freedoms, countries approach a state of revolution. Similarly to the United States, they also put
the majority of the whole before individual freedom which helps people justify the senseless
murder of African- Americans. The relation to policing is that the president used the police of his
country as his own private army. If the officers were true to their job, they would not have been
corrupted.
Although obvious examples of inequality, like slavery and domestic racism, have been
seen all throughout American history, the violent racism that plagued America really occurred
during the 1900s when groups like the KKK and pro-confederate groups rose up to try to
essentially eradicate not only African Americans, but also black culture. The idea of the police is

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to protect the people they serve, but during civil rights era and even in much of todays society,
they did not protect the inalienable rights that EVERY person regardless of their race is born
with. In early 20th century society, the police not only purposely neglected the ongoing racism
but they even went so far as to promote it. A relationship can be seen even now between the 2 era
with 2 similar cases. A prominent case from the civil rights era is the case of Emmitt Till, 14,
who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. After
he was kidnapped, beaten, tired with barbed wire, shot in the head, and then thrown into the
river, the men who did it were acquitted by an all-white jury. Similarly in todays age in the
post-civil rights era, the case of Kendrick Johnson can be seen as a modern day Emmitt Till due
to the severity of his death. He was found dead, rolled up in a wrestling mat at his school, with
his shoes thrown in after him. The coroner had ruled it an accident even when there was video
evidence showing a group of students entering the gym after Kendrick Johnson. The mystery and
crime stems from the boy apparently being beaten to the point where his face swelled and his
dreadlocks were soaked in blood. To add insult to injury, the coroner who first looked at
Kendricks body allegedly removed all his organs and replaced it with newspaper (Helen 1). In
both situations, the police did little to actually solve the crime but instead choose to attempt to
cover it up. But this is not the only example of intensified racism; in the early 1900s movements
like the Black Panthers, Chicano, Asian-American were just the beginning of larger movements
to come due to the racist treatment they were getting from not only Americans, but largely from
the officers that were created to protect their rights in the first place.

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The Michael Brown death serves as an important symbol representing not only the racist
targeting of African Americans but also the superior attitude police feel is entitled to them
leading to any neglect of their wrong doing. His death revealed to the country that the racism that
citizens thought were gone has never left. It put our country on a standstill and opened up a lot of
peoples eyes. For example, even though they are still active and should have been disbanded,
the Ferguson police department was under investigation by the Justice department and was found
guilty of racist policing towards African Americans. Even despite this information, the ruling in
the killing of Michael Brown was still ruled justified. Racism is still a systematic part of our
society living dormant in the legal department, justice department, and even everyday American
culture. This can even be seem in the basic civic duty of voting like the 2001 election of George
W. Bush where minority voters were crossed of the voters registration for having similar names
to convicted felons who were unable to vote. In addition, 54% of Floridas votes casted by
African Americans, in the 2000 election, were deemed spoiled meaning they were not counted
towards the voting polls. With racism and discrimination being part of even the most basic parts
of society, these habits and behavior are then passed down to the people hired to them protect
and prevent these actions. In no way does this provide a justification to barbaric actions citizens
witness today with police brutality, but instead offer an insight to how and why some police
officers operate the way they do. Even though it took the deaths of people like Michael Brown
and Eric Garner for the country to see the damage and misconduct the police departments around
the country are inflicting, it can and has to be changed for future generations to thrive and
prosper.

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Police brutality is a serious issue that should not be ignored and one of the best ways to
fix something, is it understand how it works. The police forces are preforming such acts of
misconduct as many can see, but what a lot of people dont know is that many of them are
getting government assistance to provide them with a number of supplies from weapons to
vehicles. The 1033 program (formerly the 1208 program) is a government act that allows the
government to equip local police departments with militarized weapons like assault rifles, .45
pistols, M16s, 5.56 millimeters rifles, and night-vision scope rifles for example. They also were
able to receive vehicles like MRAP (mine-resistant, ambush protected) to use in the appropriate
event. It was finalized in 1997 in accordance with National Defense Authorization Act for the
Fiscal plan. But with such force available, the question arises; what event would call for mineresistant vehicles for a local police department? This 1033 program serves no purpose except to
offers police armys better lethal weapons to use at their whim which is why over 8,000 local
and federal police department participate in the program. The use of this program was first seen
and recognized in the riots and protest that occurred shortly after the death of teenager Michael
Brown as police responded to upset civilians in the city of Ferguson. But there is still hope for
change as new ways emerge to help solve these issues of police transgression. One idea of
reform is the idea and implication of body cameras. Police would be required to wear body cams
to better help review committees to improve the understanding of police involved fatalities. This
could be a big step forward in the fight to end police brutality because it now offers a different
perspective other than the officer involved. The significance of the death of people like Michael

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Brown is too show how, despite what many think, racism is still a large factor in many aspects of
our society, country, and even our world.
Another solution would be to have an increase in community activism to encourage
people to stand against this injustice. African American advocators should inform people of these
atrocities to open their eyes on the matter. What are not helping are the riots and looting people
are participating in because it takes away from the significance of the cause. Not only that, but it
also distracts the audience from the important topic of police misconduct or brutality; it gives
them something else to talk which is negative publicity. Social media plays maybe one of the
biggest roles in todays society due to the increasing use of technology in all age groups. Social
media has played a major role in this activism by fueling the fight for equality in either direction
by helping expose, refute, or agree with the various incidents unfolding in the country involving
fatal police encounters with African Americans. The use of social media is & can be used to
spread the issue of police brutality but it can also have a negative effect. A very common affect
would be a form of fake activism where people would be preaching equal rights but then rioting
in the streets and the looting of the town.

Although African-American are mainly the one being affected, police brutality affects
every one of every race. In May of 2013 Charles Eimers, a Caucasian male, death was ruled
accidental by the court after he supposedly suffocated on a beach in Michigan after he was
stopped for a traffic violation. After he fled police, he was chased to a beach where officers

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arrested him but according to police, he had fled his vehicle and collapsed on the beach before
going into a coma. But after a video was released showing the officers handing cuffing him,
accounts of what happen began to change. The video of the arrest and news reports not only
showed that the officers were lying about what happened, it also points to the same police
officers being responsible for his death (CBS News 1). This death shows how police officers not
only dont do their jobs but when they in fact make a mistake, they try to cover it up instead of
rectifying it. This tragic death is just one in the long history of unjustified police shootings of
unarmed people that needs to be stopped.

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Quigley, Bill. "Fourteen Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System." The

Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 July 2010. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
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Replaced by NEWSPAPER after He Died on School Wrestling Mat." Mail Online. Associated
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Speer, Thomas. "Origins of Modern Policing". February 2004. Issue. Vol. 1. No. 4. Page
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Gutterman, Amanda. "Key Witness In Michael Brown Case May Not Have Actually Seen
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"The Post-Michael Brown Agenda Provides Goals To End Racist Militarized Policing."
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