Between Me And You Analysis

“Between Me and You” a book created by Ta-Nehisi Coates describes how tough it is being an African American man in America. The book which I read a couple of months ago showed how hard it is not to be targeted and judged in society if a person is of color. Coates mentioned how the rise of police brutality scares him on a daily basis for his African American son who is able to see these attacks on the black community through different outlets. Due to the use of social media, cellphones, video cameras and more we are able to see the destruction of minority communities. Though, the use of excessive force and police brutality happened years ago, now we are able to see blatant racism right before our eyes. The killings of Corey Jones, Tamir Rice,
and Laquan Mcdonald has shown how police brutalized minorities on a consistent basis. The author said in an interview recently that Police Brutality that usually occurs is nothing new but the use of cameras sheds light on this serious trend that has been occurring for years. Slowly but surely, the minority population will continue to diminish if our lives are in the hands of the police force. This paper plans to show how police brutality has affected minority communities by looking at their sentiments about police forces and it also shows how history interplays with what is going on now in our society regarding this issue. Participation of police brutality is when police officers inflict harm onto people physically,verbally or emotionally. Police inflict harm physically by the use of weapons, machinery or with their hands. The use of racist statements, curse words or negative remarks are often issued verbally. Emotionally, police officers can leave emotional impact on a person who experienced brutality by having a negative feelings toward the police system. Police brutality often times uses violence as a resolution for their victim’s actions. The enforcement of violence generally involves the use of misconduct. Police officers who usually involves themselves in brutality go against the laws that protect citizens. The power that they are given are times not used appropriately in regards to police brutality. Dating back to the 1600’s racial profiling and types of brutality was common in our society. “White Power, Black Crime , and Racial Politics” by Robert Staples shows how profiling has evolved over the years. For example, in 1693 the courts enabled police officers to arrest any Negro who walks around without a pass. In the South, militiamen was allowed to arrest and keep black people who appears suspicious. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act made sure that law enforcement was penalized if they failed to seize runaway slaves when the suspicion is based on written allegations.(Staples 2011) There has been many attempts to stop racial injustice.The Civil Rights Act tried to limit inequality for African Americans who was being mistreated for some time. Unfortunately, even though this act should be in effect, many law enforcement groups are still able to legally to target people based on their race. Many Supreme Court rulings appropriate police. They can stop people of a certain racial group as long as the police officer has proper reasoning. Furthermore, the Patriot Act which was created in 2001 also enabled the legalization of racial profiling. Due to profiling there are many incidents of ethnic groups being brutalized or wrongfully accused of crimes they didn’t commit. There are many incidences where certain racial groups are targeted and brutalized by law enforcement. Lee Sigelman’s article titled “Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A tale of two beatings” share two tales where police heinously brutalize two Black men. In the early 90’s a man by the name of Rodney King was disturbingly beaten by multiple male caucasian police officers in Los Angeles. Due to a high media coverage, society was able to see the beating on their televisions and other outlets. Since it received high publicity, many public figures also weighed in on what happen. For example, Maxine Waters who was the representative of of Los Angeles at the time stated that even though the news of police viciously attacking a man of color is traumatizing and shocking to see, it is very common in that city (Sigelman 1999). John Conyers also stated that this beating of Rodney King was considered one of the most ferocious police brutality attacks ever witnessed. It was clear in the video that King didn’t do anything to warrant an attack like that. Many people viewed this as a crime and wanted the officers charged for their wrongdoings. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. Fourteen months after, all officers were found not guilty for this senseless crimes. Months later, another injustice occurred to an African American male. In 1992, Malice Green who lived in Detroit was killed after being beaten by police officers. Green received great trauma to his head area due to the beating. Residents in the Detroit neighborhood was astonished because the same incident happened to Rodney King previously. Even though, it is a different location, the results remain somewhat the same. Similar to the King incident, the cops involved in this case didn’t get the consequence that they deserved. The officers was suspended but later was able to return to the regular duties. Many police officers use too much force against people in certain communities for many reasons. In Brad Smith’s article named “Police use of excessive force in minority communities”: A test of the Minority Threat, Place, and Community Accountability Hypotheses”, Smith looks closely at three hypotheses that help see why this occurs. Police tend to target certain neighborhoods when doing their line of work.
It is very rare to see police in an area that lacks minorities. Usually the police community relations within these neighborhoods are very different compared to communities with an influx of minorities. The Place hypothesis states that police forces are usually more prominent in neighborhoods where minorities are because minorities are seen as threats. Usually in urban neighborhoods, it is less likely that there are enough resources for people to live comfortably. For many urban neighborhoods, there is great disadvantage compared to communities with Caucasians. The school systems lack proper books, poverty occurs, violence happens and there is weapon availability (Smith 2014) Many police forces sees this as a threat to society because their circumstances are different from what is considered the norm. Keeping African Americans and Hispanics in an environment where it's hard to prosper maintains social order. Officers often associate these neighborhoods with menacing ways and criminality. People in these neighborhoods are considered potential threats. This relates to the next hypothesis which is the minority threat hypothesis. The minority threat hypothesis states the higher the percentage of minorities in a specific community, the higher the police involvement within that neighborhood. In these neighborhoods, police may believe that they are dominant compared to the people that live there because
there is a lesser chance of their actions getting ridiculed in those areas. Police are known to use excessive force within these neighborhoods because it is unlikely that they will face consequences when this occurs. These communities lack proper representation for the people that live there so alot of the times the police force doesn’t need to discipline their workers because outside forces isn’t persuading them to do so. Lastly, the community accountability hypothesis states that police systems are often organized in a way where police aren’t held accountable for their actions especially when it comes to police brutality. Many times excessive force issues are covered up by colleague of the offending police officers or sometimes by the government. Unlike many minorities in our society, police rarely are reprimanded for their actions. There are different perceptions regarding the police forces in America.
Race is one of the factors that predicts one’s view of the police system. White supremacy is definitely linked to one’s perception of police and their activities. According to Steven Tuch, who wrote the article “Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct”, Tuch states that dominant groups like white people favor police forces to keep black people subordinate. A Lot Of minorities shouldn’t be considered “anti police”, instead it should be noted that they tend to have some negative sentiments regarding police. Their subordinacy in America ultimately increases the likeliness of being abused due to police misconduct. (Tuch 2004) For example many African Americans deal constantly with unwarranted stops but aren’t able to argue against these procedures due to their subordinate position. Many white people agree with the tactics police use against minorities. Cassandra Chaney’s article called “Racism and Police Brutality in America” agrees with this. Chaney mentions a term called “negrophobia” which is a term used to describe white people’s fear of being abused by black people. This fear warrants police to harm black people due to them wanting protect the dominant communities. (Chaney 2013) This protection gains favorability in these
communities. White people are found to be accepting of police using excessive force to arrest someone compared to African Americans. (Chaney 2013) Over 50% of the white people interviewed in Chaney’s article has good faith in police systems. Many white people believe that black people are more likely to be involved in criminal activity and should expect harsh treatment by law enforcement. There was also an agreement among many people that showed that they approved of capital punishment which in most cases applies to African Americans. Many African Americans in Chaney’s article didn’t share the same sentiments in regards to police forces and the use of excessive force. In the study, many African Americans stated that law enforcement is responsible for taking lives instead of saving them. (Chaney 2013) Some of them believed that police actions toward Black people are inappropriate. They believe that the police force is very deceitful because they cover up each other’s wrongdoings. Many police officers are held at a different standard compared to citizens when laws are broken. According to Chaney, increasing more education in community policing, more educational credits, and sensitivity training are some of the procedures that some police forces are doing to reduce police brutality. (Chaney 2013) Even though this is the case, many black people still fear for their lives around police. Recent events that involve police brutality is making people more aware of the destruction of the minority community. Black men that were considered what black men “isn’t” supposed to be which is well educated are getting killed by police, It’s sad that minorities continue to be the target for brutality It’s hard to trust law enforcement when they are killing innocent members in our society. Hopefully with new procedures like different training strategies will decrease police brutality against minorities.