InstructionsMy topic is Is Racial Prejudice Fuelling Police BrutalityFor next week, please draft an Annotated Bibliography. You may draw from your dialectical notes for this assignment. Remember, you'

Topic: Is Racial Prejudice Fuelling Police Brutality

Literature Review:

Racism is a belief system which is coded to justify and make inequalities among persons of different races (Tonry, 2011). With racial prejudice, one or more races are deemed superior to the rest of the races. Discrimination is accompanied by aspects of racial prejudice where certain members of the race are denied certain privileges. Ever since Africans were forcibly relocated to America, they have remained affected by racism that have been substantially enhanced by law enforcement officers.

Let’s take a trip back in history such as for instance Watts Riots that occurred in 1965, violence in Harlem against African Americans around 1920s among other instances show aspects of racial prejudice by law enforcement. Slave patrols are not a new concept that is traced in 1700s and the same applies the Jim Crow laws which were enforced by police which defined when, how and where African Americans could look for work as well as how much of the wages to get. Movement and voting rights were also limited by Jim Craw laws (Chaney, 2015).

The Latino community has suffered the same fate over the years from as early as Porvenir massacre where law enforcement officers from Texas Rangers, U.S. soldiers and State police collaborated to massacre the community in Porvenir (Philips, 2020). The American Indian movement of 1968 was a product of struggle against police brutality.

Minorities such as African-Americans have been associated with tendency to be criminal. That applies mostly to males who are portrayed as potential perpetrators of criminal acts. There is tendency to see them as aggressive upon encountering them (Chaney & Robertson 2013). That aspect is what has led to use of deadly force as there is potential apprehension of aggressiveness even where it doesn’t exist. Police threat to employ aggressiveness can thus be associated with such reasons.

The media has played a substantial role is depicting the members from minority community with a negative picture. The consumers including members of the law enforcement agencies have digested these notions in mind. Being displayed in various sources including mainstream media, the perception has been furthered making many believe the perception that is being spread. Such a move can be attributed to what has led to police brutality against the minority. For instance, new stories and TV programs show black males with criminal tendencies. The viewers will thus consume that belief that has been planted by the show leading to the belief being adopted. Moreover, the coverage by media of the incidences of police brutality is another area of concern. The mainstream media can give no coverage or give a selective coverage that promotes a certain perception. Maligned and less sympathetic approach of incidences of brutality against minority show a pattern of bias promoted by media. The minority community member is portrayed not as victim but a perpetrator of what led to them becoming a victim (Chaney & Robertson, 2013).

Tonry (2011), holds the contention that White community mostly excuse police brutality against African Americans. The excuse is attributed existence of racial prejudice against African Americans. Gabiddon (2010) posits the narrative of Negrophobia. This is the narrative where African Americans are victimized which leads to their shooting owing to racial prejudice. Graham et al (2020) draws inference that indeed African Americans do greatly fear use of force against them by members of law enforcement. The same was inference was drawn for Hispanic communities. Edwards (2019) shows the minority communities are victims of police violence that culminates to the death. Helms (2020) has similarly come to the conclusion that race among others is a predictor of violence by police.

In his book, Zimring (2017) has analyzed the use of lethal force by law enforcement where such force has led to death. He draws attention to the fact members of minority communities are victims of lethal force which has led to death. African Americans and Native Indians are leading victims. That just points to the fact that there exists a pattern as far as minority community is concerned when it comes to dealing with members of law enforcement.

From the above studies, there seems to exist a link between racial prejudice and police brutality against minority communities in United States of America. The African Americans happen to be victims of the use of force and in some cases, it has led to death. In other circumstances, the same community happens to worry about use of force in case an encounter with the police happens. Similar inferences show a similar trend when other minority communities such as Native Indians and Latinos are concerned. There is thus pattern of potential prejudice against minority communities. The protests that had been experienced earlier this year are just a repeat of what has happened down in history. The concerns by the minority communities have been raised over the years. As it can be noted, some of the protests have culminated to riots leading to destruction of properties such as was the case for Minneapolis. The members of law enforcement responded with force against injuring them.

The studies have brought to light an area that needs to be looked at. The area of racial prejudice and police brutality against minority communities. What the studies have shown is the existence of a pattern and signs that show the possibility of police brutality against minority community. The minority communities despite being the smallest population makes a substantial number of the ones being killed and victims of use of force. That raises eye-blows as it shows that there are always high number of encounters which have negative results. There is thus that possibility that such encounters are fuelled by racial bias which makes police want to approach the minority community members with force. This study will thus seek to establish whether there is police brutality fuelled by racial prejudice against minority communities.

References

Chaney, C. (2015). Institutional Racism: Perspectives on the Department of Justice’s Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. Western Journal of Black Studies, 39(4):312-330.

Chaney, C. and Robertson, R. (2013). Racism and Police Brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, vol.17 (4):480-505.

Edwards, F. (2019). Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex. PNAS, vol.116 (34), pp. 16793-16798.

Gabiddon, S. (2010). Criminological theories on race and crime (2nd Ed.). New York: Routledge.

Graham, A. et al. (2020). Race and Worrying About Police Brutality: The Hidden Injuries of Minority Status in America. Victims and Offenders, Vol.15 (5) pp. 549-573.

Helms, R. (2020). Contextualizing race: a conceptual and empirical study of fatal interactions with police across US counties. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, Vol. 18(1), pp. 43-71.

Philips, K. (2020, June 6). Longtime Police Brutality Drove American Indians to Join the George Floyd Protests. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/06/longtime-police-brutality-drove-american-indians-join-george-floyd-protests/

Tonry, M. (2011). Punishing race: a continuing American dilemma. New York: Oxford University Press.

Zimring, F. (2017).When Police Kill. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.