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Jamel Ross
Professor Douglas
ENG 2116-07
21 November 2016
Does Race Influence The Use of Police Brutality?
Police brutality has been an issue for many years, and it remains a major concern for
those of the minority community. Over the past five centuries, black people have endured
violence in many different ways. Nowadays some police officers use deadly, excessive force that
leads to inexcusable assaults, beatings and shootings. Articles that were analyzed were
addressing the perceptions of police in some communities, some articles talking about how social
media affects perceptions of law enforcement, and perceptions and ideas of how police feel about
body worn cameras. Still not having seen change or any resolution about this issue in the year
2017, demonstrates the governments role in initiating and prolonging racial suppression and
provides the explanation for police brutality to become a federal crime and reform the justice
system. Over time, the police brutality has transitioned from the former styles of handling
victims and changed due to influence of Internet and the emergence of strong social media
platforms. My research and statistics shows that race does have an impact on police use of force
and that we must change our perception of police as a community of minorities before anything.
In history, racist ,violent, police brutality, has been used to suppress the racial blacks and
to preserve power and privileges for the white race. The governments role in averting police
biases and in ensuring there is equality and fairness in police body was driven by the increasing
instances of police brutality on the minority races. The government initiated policies to control
the extremes in police brutality against some minority communities (Chaney 313). This research

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was done for five primary purposes. First, was to help improve law enforcement so that bias-free
policing is embraced and practiced across the United States. Second reason was to help improve
the image of law enforcement within minorities across the country. A third reason was to
maintain social control. A fourth purpose was to eliminate conflict in politics, social life, and
employment. Lastly, the fifth purpose was to unite white people across the ethnic, class, and
gender boundaries. People always talk about how we want world peace, well fixing the bad
relations between police and establishing bias free policing within minorities in our country is a
great way to start.
Sprott and Doob (368) indicated that the public confidence in the police force was of
critical importance since it informed on how the community would participate and cooperate
with the police to root out disorder in the society. The perception of the police varies across
racial and cultural groups in United States and Canada. The police focus on what they have
learned or experienced over periods in their handling of the minorities and this implies that a
tendency of discrimination or brutality is spread across the country as opposed to localization.
The perception is two-way in that the community is informed of their perception through the
actions of the police. The United States considers improving the perception of police by
community as an important goal in democracy and that implies the success of the government in
enhancing cooperation between several departments (Wickersham 18). Majority of the povertystricken areas across the US experience increased police brutality and the police apologists opine
that the police are strict and violent against them due to their negative perception of the police. A
case example quoted was the blacks in Ontario who, more than the Chinese and whites believed
that police treat poor and young people differently from those from wealthy background. The

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black Ontarians were significantly more likely than the Chinese or whites to perceive
discriminatory treatments from the police.
Amalcar discusses the history of police brutality and points to the growing of civil rights
movements from the early 1960s where excessive force was used to neutralize the
demonstrations. The police focus on quieting the disenfranchised demonstrations and across the
unstable poor neighborhoods. Amalcar (13) indicated that reported abuses among the citizens,
mostly the minorities, dropped when the police started implementing a program where they wore
tiny video cameras on their forehead caps while interacting with the citizens. There was also an
eighty-eight percent drop in the complaints against police officers. The police also view the
black communities in a retrogressive perception where they dehumanize them and use excessive
force against them. A case in point is when a Miami based police chocked a fourteen-year old
during the Memorial Day in 2013 since the boy watched him in a dehumanizing stares
(Amalcar 14).
Police also view citizens who want to capture them while on their duties as
dehumanizing. This is implied by the negative attention that the police abuse their powers on
cameras and journalists who try to capture their bias treatment, especially during demonstrations
and when manhandling minorities are wrong.. There are cases where cameras and journalists
have been harassed due to the negative perception they have on their biased reporting where
they only focus on the negative side of the police. According to Donald (10), the police view the
media as a channel that ignites racial disparities through selective reporting of incidences that
only affect the minorities. In many cases, the police management has refuted any claims if
mishandling the minorities through asserting that the victims were either in possession of guns or
were violent. Another instance where police are reacting against their negative publicity is

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countering media activisms of platforms like Black Lives matter, where the platform focuses
on any instance of harassed minority (Donald 12). Black Lives Matter organization states that
the police have a negative perception of the blacks and thus they campaign through social media
platforms. The organizations data indicates that the police most likely have some negative
perception towards the blacks since over 200 blacks are murdered across the US in every year, a
higher percentage than that of Hispanics and whites combined (Donald 12).
In other instances, police are expected to make some reasonable mistakes that are
allowed in the Fourth Amendment and be considered to have acted in good faith (Henning
275). This amendment allows the police to exercise their powers, whether against the
constitution or not, to justify their actions. In a case of Henen v. North Carolina, the police
could exercise their powers and engage in racial profiling or manhandling without being held
accountable (Henning 280; Weitzer 479). The recent increased killings of the African-American
men sparked unprecedented and heated public debates on the form of policing in the US. The
focus of the series of killings is a pointer to possible racial brutality by police that is inescapably
linked to minority perceptions of criminals. According to Weitzer (475) the victims were
minorities from the Latinos, African Americans and the Asians. The sweeping allegation against
the police by social media has painted a negative picture of police who have, maintained
neutrality when handling any case. Staples (31) sets a case example where a Harvard University
professor, Henry Louis Gates, was arrested due to forcefully opening his house after his keys
failed to open the door. This case positioned the police as against the blacks even without trying
to understand the background information of the scenario. Staples (41) concludes by saying that
the police have a preconditioned state of mind where they view any black as a potential criminal
even without understanding the background of the case. He also indicated that racial profiling

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was historic, systemic, and capital punishments were the preferred mode of punishing the
minorities by the police (Staples 40).
The Internet has also changed the way police handle criminals or minorities over other
groups since the social media platform spreads news over a wide coverage within the shortest
time possible. Cases of media activism have increased that have spread from US to include
abroad support for the minorities (Ebuke 11). The use of coercive mechanisms in facilitating
social control against the ethnic and racial minority populations is demeaning and social media
platforms have embraced the call to end partiality in police handling. Also, Smith and Holmes
(89) indicate that the majority the minority are in a city, the higher the coercive crime control
mechanisms are employed by the police. These coercive mechanisms are, in many cases,
captured through cameras, and spread over for actions (Chaney 505). This further supports the
assertion that police negatively view cameras and when an incident is reported, the media tends
to favor the minorities and conclude the cases as incidences of racial/ethnic harassments. The
data thus indicated that in cities with over 100,000 people, there were likely to have high
incidences of police reporting of coercive mechanisms to control disenfranchising societies
(Wickersham 17).
In conclusion, police have targeted the minorities in an old systemic and historical
injustice that views the blacks as potential criminals. Articles and data presented points out that
the highest number of victims of racial profiling and police brutality are the blacks, followed by
the Latinos and then Hispanics. The report also confirms that the police treat negatively any
attempt to capture their actions against the poor black youths who are viewed as lazy and
criminal-hardened. Social media platforms like Twitter, and Facebook have enhanced activism

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against blacks and other minorities that point to the negative police perception towards the poor
neighborhoods and blacks in particular.

Works Cited
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