Examples Of Racism In The Court System
Racism in The American Court System The American Court System was composed to be as fair and just as possible for everyone, but racial stereotyping and prejudices may have turned the court system towards favoring certain races over other ones. People of color are being unfairly judged as criminals by not only citizens, but police officers as well, resulting in injury, or even death of many innocent minorities. The media have made a big impact on fixing these hate crimes, but it is not enough to eradicate the racial injustice that the court system has. On March Third, 1991 minority Rodney King is stopped for speeding on the 210 freeway by two California Highway Patrol Officers. King is told to step out of the vehicle, after doing so King resists arrest by the officers, urging the officers to first taze King and then beat him to the ground over fifty times with metal batons, breaking several bones including his skull, and causing nerve damage in his face. after the incident all five attacking officers and their commanding sergeant were put on trial for "assault by force
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likely to produce great bodily injury and a deadly weapon"(Hate-motivated Violence), all 6 officers were found not guilty of the charges. the Jury was composed of ten middle class white citizens who could not properly see the incident from inner city minority Rodney King’s point of view. After hearing the verdict, the citizens of Los Angeles were appalled. Riots broke out, violence and looting were obdurate. The officers were finally put on trial again when the riots and were out of the control of the LAPD. During their second trial, the officers were charged for violating Rodney King’s constitutional rights, two of the six officers were found guilty and sentenced to serve two years in a federal penitentiary. The verdict of the second trial brought the riots back down to a more controllable level, but not without first costing Los Angeles with over one billion dollars in damages. Although in the end some justice was served, Rodney King was faced with many hospital bills and enough psychological damage to last him a lifetime. Another more recent example of racial injustice in the court system takes place in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. eighteen year old minority Michael Brown was walking down Canfield Dr. when Officer Darren Wilson stopped the boy after noticing that he fit the description of a recent convenience store robbery. Brown was then accused of attacking Wilson, leading to Officer Wilson to shoot and kill the young minority possibly using unreasonable force. When put on trial Wilson’s fate similar to the Rodney King case was decided by a jury of mostly white’s who found him not guilty for the murder of Michael Brown. This shows another example of how minorities are unfairly prosecuted for crimes they weren’t responsible for. In 2012 seventeen Year old Trayvon Martin was walking back to his father’s fiancee’s house from a 7-11 When head of neighborhood watch George Zimmerman reported to the police a suspicious teenager running down the street.
Zimmerman stopped Martin. Zimmerman allegedly got into a scuffle with Martin, leading him to shoot and kill the unarmed teen. Immediately after killing Martin, George Zimmerman reported it to the police.even though Zimmerman “ knew his acts were unlawful, and committed those acts in open defiance of the law."(No federal civil rights in Trayvon Martin case) was left unpenalized because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws. This incident not only ended the life of an innocent minority, but also devastated the lives of his family, and affected families all around the country. The Trayvon Martin Foundation was started in order to prevent similar incidents to happen to other
minorities.
In Reginald Rose’s Play Twelve Angry Men an inner city teen is being put on trial for the murder of his father. Most of the jurors had already decided to vote guilty before talking about the case at all. He was discriminated because he lived in a poor neighborhood, and so the jurors automatically labelled him as a criminal. On the initial vote only one of the jurors dared to vote not guilty and give the boy a chance. By the end of the play, One jury member convinced all the other members to see reasonable doubt in the boy’s case. If all jury’s we’re able to put as much effort as the jurors in Twelve Angry Men, then many more cases would be more accurately judged. Even though laws state that a Citizen cannot be judged for his or her race, sex, or religion, many cases are judged biasedly because of racial prejudices and stereotypes. Even though the media has covered many cases that portray racial injustice to raise awareness, people of color are still being judged unfairly in court.
likely to produce great bodily injury and a deadly weapon"(Hate-motivated Violence), all 6 officers were found not guilty of the charges. the Jury was composed of ten middle class white citizens who could not properly see the incident from inner city minority Rodney King’s point of view. After hearing the verdict, the citizens of Los Angeles were appalled. Riots broke out, violence and looting were obdurate. The officers were finally put on trial again when the riots and were out of the control of the LAPD. During their second trial, the officers were charged for violating Rodney King’s constitutional rights, two of the six officers were found guilty and sentenced to serve two years in a federal penitentiary. The verdict of the second trial brought the riots back down to a more controllable level, but not without first costing Los Angeles with over one billion dollars in damages. Although in the end some justice was served, Rodney King was faced with many hospital bills and enough psychological damage to last him a lifetime. Another more recent example of racial injustice in the court system takes place in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. eighteen year old minority Michael Brown was walking down Canfield Dr. when Officer Darren Wilson stopped the boy after noticing that he fit the description of a recent convenience store robbery. Brown was then accused of attacking Wilson, leading to Officer Wilson to shoot and kill the young minority possibly using unreasonable force. When put on trial Wilson’s fate similar to the Rodney King case was decided by a jury of mostly white’s who found him not guilty for the murder of Michael Brown. This shows another example of how minorities are unfairly prosecuted for crimes they weren’t responsible for. In 2012 seventeen Year old Trayvon Martin was walking back to his father’s fiancee’s house from a 7-11 When head of neighborhood watch George Zimmerman reported to the police a suspicious teenager running down the street.
Zimmerman stopped Martin. Zimmerman allegedly got into a scuffle with Martin, leading him to shoot and kill the unarmed teen. Immediately after killing Martin, George Zimmerman reported it to the police.even though Zimmerman “ knew his acts were unlawful, and committed those acts in open defiance of the law."(No federal civil rights in Trayvon Martin case) was left unpenalized because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws. This incident not only ended the life of an innocent minority, but also devastated the lives of his family, and affected families all around the country. The Trayvon Martin Foundation was started in order to prevent similar incidents to happen to other
minorities.
In Reginald Rose’s Play Twelve Angry Men an inner city teen is being put on trial for the murder of his father. Most of the jurors had already decided to vote guilty before talking about the case at all. He was discriminated because he lived in a poor neighborhood, and so the jurors automatically labelled him as a criminal. On the initial vote only one of the jurors dared to vote not guilty and give the boy a chance. By the end of the play, One jury member convinced all the other members to see reasonable doubt in the boy’s case. If all jury’s we’re able to put as much effort as the jurors in Twelve Angry Men, then many more cases would be more accurately judged. Even though laws state that a Citizen cannot be judged for his or her race, sex, or religion, many cases are judged biasedly because of racial prejudices and stereotypes. Even though the media has covered many cases that portray racial injustice to raise awareness, people of color are still being judged unfairly in court.