Police Brutality Effect

Words: 873
Pages: 4

Police brutality has gotten out of control in the past few months or at least it has been recorded and spread by social media more than before. The root cause of this problem is something that is still not known completely. The explanation to why this specific police brutality, African-Americans citizens harmed by white American police, occurs could be a mixture of racial issue and class conflict. It can be said that White American cops are not to be blamed for everything. If a specific person of color is truly a criminal, then the cops are simply doing their job, making sure the criminal doesn’t harm anyone which may mean stopping them in a way they feel is necessary. But if they are assuming that a colored person is a criminal before confronting …show more content…
As racial issue and class conflict seem to be interrelated, “being a person of color is synonymous with being poor, and being poor is synonymous with being a criminal”, it is the most logical reason to why it occurs (Abdul-Jabar 11). Although it may seem unfair to identify a person of color as a poor person and a poor person as a criminal, since it is the truth, the white American cops have a reason to act the way they do. A man who is poor is more likely to become a criminal in search of wealth to survive or better his situation in this world, which is why poor, colored people are associated with being a criminal. Even though it is unethical to judge all colored people to be poor as they are not, when cops enter areas densely populated with colored people, there is a higher chance of the area being associated with criminals. This assumption which is justified as the cops have to be prepared to protect themselves, is what causes police brutality. Harvard Economist said that there was racial bia in almost every police encounter. Furtherly, based on the reports, “the police were more likely to stop African-Americans than white citizens” and African-Americans were more likely to be treated more violently, whether it be by way of gun or physical violence compared to white citizens (Wells 7). This is one the biggest problems, simply the race issue. There is no reason to why the white …show more content…
When George Zimmerman was interviewed after killing Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman admitted that he did not confront Martin but was still in fear was his life (Wells 1). This goes back to the assumption that colored people are criminals. Zimmerman believed that Martin was a criminal for being a colored person which lead to him having fear. Although he did not confront Martin, he supposedly had a fear. This is illogical and even though research proves that it is reasoned to believe that colored people can be criminals, it is not justified. But viewing from the white police’s perspective, the assumption seems fair. As Wallace Wells states, “we send the police into places where we are too scared to go-who are we, safe in our distance, to second-guess their judgement that a situation has grown too frightening to control…. he was terrified, because he was sure that surrounding him… were people capable of killing someone”, this is where class conflict plays a role as these “places” are populated with poor colored men that are deemed to be criminals (Wells 4). Since white police have to deal with such difficult situations that normal citizens don’t have to face, then it can be said that the public shouldn’t be allowed to be mad at the