Is Police
Brutality Color-Blind?
Is police brutality the abuse of authority by the unwarranted infliction of excessive force by law enforcement personal during the performance of duty? Why an abuser is left unpunished? Is it because the victim is Black and the abuser is White?
“We have a problem” as the famous Apollo astronauts said. Along with the tragic events in Ferguson, and the Missouri police shooting death of Michael Brown, Eric Garner in New York after a choke-hold was put on him by police is both a tragedy and an outrage. In the New York case, based on publicly available tapes of the killing, the policeman applying the choke-hold should have at least been charged by the grand jury with the use of excessive force.
The police brutality toward Michael Brown and Eric Gardner is a blatant reminder that in the eyes of the law, black lives are worth a lot less in this country than whites and that black men are still seen as needing to be controlled and killed if necessary.
Black women lost child after child to a system that considered their offspring disposable property. Black wives, partners and moms screamed, moaned, and grieved as they lost their children, husband and soul mates.
Sometimes they fought, sometimes they tried to run away, and often the fragile family that was still intact consoled them.
As a society should we stop expending emotion over something that seems that it will never ever change? Even if it is a blind hope. In the hope that this injustice doesn't happen again.
In situations like Ferguson, where there is a heavily black
population policed by a mostly white police department, there should be major
outreach to recruit, hire and train black policemen and women. This should
happen in countless communities throughout America where there is a racial
disparity between the local population and the local police.
We should expand the use of small cameras on the uniforms of
police, which might have prevented death or led to justice in the Ferguson
case, but would have done no good in the New York case where the tape was seen
by the grand jury and the nation.
Most members of the police force perform honorable work under
dangerous conditions to
serve their communities well. But there are bad apples, there are mistakes occasionally made and there is a problem when so many black citizens are killed by police in ways similar to the cases in Ferguson, New York and countless other communities. We should all be part of the change as Americans, citizens and especially Social Workers to be the voice that prevail justice in the Justice System. We can all make a change and know that the video below is irrational.
serve their communities well. But there are bad apples, there are mistakes occasionally made and there is a problem when so many black citizens are killed by police in ways similar to the cases in Ferguson, New York and countless other communities. We should all be part of the change as Americans, citizens and especially Social Workers to be the voice that prevail justice in the Justice System. We can all make a change and know that the video below is irrational.
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