Hands Up, Don't Shoot: Recent Police Brutality Against Minority Groups
Article: Jamie Song, Jessica Ryu, Vincent Lee
Editor: Yoon Lim
Designer: Sarah Cho
Editor: Yoon Lim
Designer: Sarah Cho
On April 4, 2015, Saturday 9:30 A.M. in North Charleston, Feiden Santana captured a moment of police brutality that would once again trigger fierce uproar and debate over the safety of African American lives in the presence of white police officers. Originally created when Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year-old teen, was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012, the American movement Black Lives Matter enjoyed an explosive rebirth after the infamous death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. This was not long after the death of Eric Garner on July 17, 2014. Now with the shooting of Walter Scott, police officers have a lot to explaining to do.
Racial profiling has been a long-standing problem with law enforcement in the United States. Along with deep-rooted racist culture surviving to this day, they face discrimination under the national laws because their ethnic groups are perceived to commit the most crime. African Americans especially deal with unreasonable suspicion from police officers on a regular basis because they are statistically more likely to have lower income and live in poorer neighborhoods, which police tend to patrol more vigorously. However, the truth is that while the crime rates of blacks are high, the white crime rate relative to the white population shows that whites commit more crimes on average than African Americans. According to the United States Census, whites constitute about 80% of the total population, while blacks make up 13%. Blacks committed 28.4% of crime in 2011, while whites were responsible for 69.2%. If this is the case, then why does America still see racial profiling left unchecked in the United States? |
|
“Whites commit crimes but blacks are the criminals,” says historian David Levering. Racial profiling is harmful because it ultimately discriminates against ethnic groups, be it for noble purposes or not. A person’s color should not become a factor when determining the suspect of a crime unless there is obvious proof that they are of a certain race. Furthermore, it is ineffective because it discourages trusting, cooperative relationships between law enforcement and community members. Without trust, police are less able to keep communities safe.
Law enforcement cannot use racial profiling to identify suspects, because it simply doesn’t work. Racial profiling cannot be allowed to continue in the United States, or Ferguson will only be a taste of problems to come.
Law enforcement cannot use racial profiling to identify suspects, because it simply doesn’t work. Racial profiling cannot be allowed to continue in the United States, or Ferguson will only be a taste of problems to come.