Sunday, November 15, 2015

Excessive Force : Policing in 21st Century America

In this blogpost, I want to discuss with you about excessive police brutality and what is my opinion on this topic.

Do police officers have the right to treat people by force because of their badge?    



People don’t have to judge you or treat you differently because of your religion or because of your skin color, especially not the police; they should be more aware and understanding. However, this has been going on for decades and there is nothing that can be done. Police Officers are considered dangerous minority, because sometimes their only decision to solve the problem is through violence. How can you ask for help from someone when they end up hurting you instead of helping you, they consider you dangerous mostly because of your skin color and religion.


As you can see from this video this African-American Student was disturbing class verbally and the police officer reacted by slamming her down. There are other ways this police officer could have handled this situation. He could have kicked her out of the class, informed her parents, even suspend her from school for a few days.

Michael Brown an unarmed teenager was shot by a police officer on August 9, 2014. His body was left uncovered for over 6 hours. Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old boy who was shot to death by police in November 2014. No warning was given to Rice as he was shot in close range and he was left to die while responding officers stood by. Freddy Gray was allegedly arrested for possessing an illegal switchblade, he was transported in a police van in Baltimore, Maryland on April 12, 2015, he died a week later because of injuries to his spinal cord. Injuries he sustained while he was in police custody. Those are just a few of the incidents that had happened recently to African-Americans.
“A widely publicized report in October 2014 by ProPublica, concluded that young black makes are 21 times more likely to be shot by police than their white counterparts”
 Wihney and Kille are both Harvard scholars who have a background in law and this makes them credible sources,  they utilize facts to further prove their point that minorities are targeted more often than white people and that excessive force and deadly force is employed against them more than white people. 

“Authorities and white citizens alike may stereotype minorities as dangerous and prone to criminality”     

Holmes and Smith argue that white citizens believe that the minorities are considered threatening. This theory suggests that minorities threaten police officers because they feel like they challenge them and therefore they are more likely to use excessive force.

Holmes and Smith explain it is logical for the police officers to use excessive and even deadly force against minorities. Their argument is effective in that it provides their audience with a clearer understanding of how easy it is for police officers to employ deadly force.  



In this video, there are graphic pictures and videos of police using excessive force and it's horrifying to know that the police, people we trust, are acting so aggressively towards the minorities.

Previous research suggests that there is still so much to be done by every police department, the FBI and the Department of Justice to reduce the instances of police brutality and use of excessive force, because it is getting worse by the day.


In my opinion I think that the police should trust the people around them no matter what their skin color is and no matter what their religion is. If they keep using excessive force, the minority will feel that the police are untrustworthy and that they shouldn’t be trusted, the video of the girl being slammed to the floor just because she was verbally disturbing class opened my eyes.

Maryam Alkubaisi is a student in Northern Virginia Community College. She is majoring in Computer Science. She is not afraid to learn and try new things. She loves to be up-to-date with everything, from news to technology.



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