How Police Unfairly Treat Minorities Essay Sample

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How Police Unfairly Treat Minorities And How Interactions Go Negatively Most Of The Time Essay Sample

Introduction

Over four out of ten Americans believe the US still has the effort to ensure that black Americans and white individuals have equal liberties. Black Americans, in general, are pessimistic that they will ever have similar freedoms in the United States. In America, the ratio of Black Americans is 41.1 million representing 12.4% of the total population as per the report of Census published in USA Today (USA Today). For many years police officers have been treating black people of America with cruelty. According to BBC News, the Black community of Americans have a higher risk of being killed by police, i.e., fatally shot (Hart), police officers prefer to yank over black individuals during traffic checks, and imprison black people at five times the rate than white people (BBC News). Police brutality with black people can be seen in the case of George Floyd, who died when the American Police arrested him in Minneapolis (Dreyer, Maria, and Ashanti). Floyd was kept on the ground for more than nine minutes with one knee of a police officer on his neck, begging for life till his last breath (BBC News).

It is not only Floyd who had been preyed to police brutality; there are a lot of cases like Eric Garner in 2014, Michael Brown in 2014, Tamir Rice in 2014, Walter Scot’s case in 2015, Alton Sterling in 2016, Philando Castile in 2016, Stephen Clark in 2018, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and Daunte Wright’s case in 2021. These people are those who faced the brutality of police officers just because they belonged to minorities. However, these are the names whose loved ones highlighted their cases to get justice, whereas there are thousands of names that never have come to the spotlight. This is not a matter of current time, but it has continued for many years.

To be white is seen as a perceived advantage by most Americans, but to be black is seen as a hindrance to growth (Watts and Robb). Perceptions are more mixed when it comes to the impact of Asian or Native Americans if any. Most individuals agree that officers and law enforcement agencies treat black people unfairly, regardless of their nationality or religion. However, there is less unanimity on the way black people are treated in other situations, such as when they apply for mortgages or property, go for groceries, or dine out. (Gau and Eugene).

This research is about the unfair treatment of police officers with minorities and the negative interactions between them. This research aims to highlight the interaction of police officers with the minorities in America and to highlight the reason for their negative behavior with minorities that arises due to the stereotypes by interviewing some police officers, teachers, community leaders, and ordinary people (friends) who belong to minority groups.

Project Approach

The research approach is primary as the interview method has been selected for this research to collect qualitative data. The sampling method of this research was the convenient sampling method. Participants who are “accessible” to the investigator are used in this sampling technique (Sarstedt, Paul, and Abdel). There is no set process for obtaining these responders; they could be enlisted by simply asking individuals on the road, in a shared facility, or at the office. Interviews were taken from the people who were selected to collect data by this technique were; one police officer, two community leaders, four teachers, and three friends to know their perspectives about the behavior of police officers with minorities.

The purpose of interviewing the police officer is to know the other side of the story, i.e., understand their perspective regarding the minorities. A total of 5 questions were asked from these people to get the most information that can assist this research in extracting the final results. The community leaders were interviewed for the identification of community concerns and needs regarding this issue. Community leaders are considered the representative of the entire community, so in this case, the community leaders were supposed to be the entities to know the inner perspective of the whole community on the relation of police officers with black people of the USA. Teachers are the ones who deal with diverse ethnicities daily. So, they can be an essential entity to know the experiences of the targeted population of this research regarding the behaviors of police officers with them or their family members. Lastly, interviewing friends was the best approach to get the information on this issue individually.

These entities were asked about their experiences and interactions with police officers. If they did not have any personal experience of such interaction, they were asked to share their family member’s experiences. They were also asked about the reason for this issue, i.e., what could be the reason for the negative behavior of police officers with minorities and what solution they think can work to reduce the negative impacts of this issue.

Project Finding

After interviewing these participants and knowing the perspective of interviewees, it is uncovered many essential aspects of this research problem. It is found out the view of police officers, i.e., they believed that they are being handled inappropriately and are intentionally assaulted for attempting to safeguard minority areas of the city. The officer said he has the same value for his entire community’s protection, irrespective of black and white people. Interviewing different teachers revealed different perspectives. Some of them had neutral thoughts for police officers as they did not face any of such incidents in their circle.

On the other hand, one of the teachers showed negative thoughts regarding the behavior of police officers of America with black people. He mentioned the case of Stephen Clark, who died in the backyard of her grandmother in California and got seven shots by the cops who were conducting an investigation of a break-in near to his place. He said that he was present at that place when this event happened. This event left a very negative impact on his psychological health, and he still was insecure with the behavior of cops as he was also a black American.

Interviews took from community leaders also showed diverse thoughts. One did not show any negative gesture regarding the brutality of police officers; he even says that the cops served the community for protection and maintaining justice at the initial level regardless of race. At the same time, the other leader agreed that this is a sensitive matter that must be addressed to reduce the killings of minorities and make them feel secure, just like the white men. He further agreed that this prevailing issue must be addressed to equate the rights of black and white and to finish this racism in America.

One of the respondents (a friend) shared his experience, which has made him distrust the police officers. He said he was once pulled over and mistreated by the cops for speeding. He mentioned that those cops’ behavior was quite aggressive with him and checked his car for if he had carried drugs with him, while there was not even the smell of smoking. They left as nothing was there, but their rude behavior had left so many insecurities regarding the police’s behavior. This incident had left him disturbed, and he became even more afraid of cops. Between him and the cops, there was even more distrust. He became more anti-police, and he began to speak out against police abuse. That experience taught him how dangerous it could be for cops to talk to African Americans and how corrupt the entire system was. He claimed that the incident made him less likely to deal with the police and seek assistance when he needed it because he was concerned about his safety. Altogether, this experience tarnished the officers’ reputation and confirmed his previous beliefs about them.

Lesson Learned

I discovered a significant divide between how police officers and minorities view each other. They have radically different perspectives on how big the matter between them is and how to solve it. Officers believe they are being judged improperly and are intentionally assaulted for attempting to safeguard minority suburbs. Racial minorities p Presume that officers have been harassing, wrongly imprisoning, and even executing them for decades with no repercussions. The recordings of officers shooting black individuals in suspicious scenarios have heightened the Black American group’s fears, while the officers remain unpunished due to certified protection. The relationship between police officers and minorities has been severely harmed, and most individuals are unsure where to start the mending mechanism.

Though there have been introduced many reforms regarding police’s behaviors with minorities. A bill of police reform was passed after the incident of George Floyd, which prohibited excessive force and countering systemic racism (Phelps, Anneliese, and Dwjuan). Other policy reforms to protect black lives are banning the tearing gas, wearing body cameras during protests and strategical operations, and a bipartisan bill mandating cops to register hate crimes committed against someone because of their color, sexuality, handicap, creed, or nationality (The White House).

Conclusion

The brutality of police officers with minorities has been taking place for several years. This research was to explore the relationship between police officers and minorities. After conducting several interviews with different groups of people, the truth revealed that many people have neutral or somehow positive thoughts about the behaviors of police officers. These are the people who never had faced any challenging experience with the brutality of cops. On either side, those who had met the dark side of cops based on minors had very negative thoughts about American cops. They lacked trust in police officers and felt insecure whenever they interacted with them. However, police officers are the symbol of protection for a community. Their behavior must be equal to each person who belongs to the community they serve, regardless of race.

Future Implications

This research can help the minorities groups in reducing their fear of cops. The findings of this research have highlighted the perspective of not only the minority group but the perspective of cops as well. This can help both of them understand each other, maintain a good relationship, and find how their fears can be reduced. This research is also beneficial to clarify the role of police officers in coping with situations that involve racism. Moreover, it promotes future investigation to highlight the reasons that led the cops to behave negatively with minorities; research on this will ultimately develop the process of a solution by which this concern can be dealt with.

Acknowledgment

I want to thank the American police officer who agreed to participate in this project, as his involvement had helped a lot to take this research to the final results in justifying the perspective of cops. Then I would like to thank the other participants, i.e., the teachers, community leaders, and friends who shared their experiences and views related to the concerning issue. The research will not reveal their identities, as the consent form mentioned that their identities would be kept confidential. Yet, it was hard to complete my project on time without their contribution.

Expense Summary

The direct cost of this project included the expenses of food and transportation. As interviewing took time and we had to travel to reach the interviewees. In indirect cost, there included the money spent on printing consent forms and the incentives given to the participants to participate in this project. The total cost of this research was $300. Though the friends contributed free of charge, the rest of the entities were given incentives.