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Race in regard to Police Brutality Police brutality has become a hot topic in the United States of America, and that is for good reason. Brutality by police refers to the use of excessive force against a civilian. Police officers are authorized to use necessary, reasonable force against civilians, but in times that line can be crossed. In many cases the ideal of race is closely associated with police brutality. This raises the question “In what ways has the ideal of police brutality in regard to race changed in the minds of society?”. To examine this, the history needs to be broken down and examined. Racism in police brutality stems from a systematic failure that begins with the introduction of slavery, and transitions to police targeting individuals of color. Officers are put into the public light and are expected to make society feel safe and not uneasy. The media, laws, and police officers show that racism in regard to brutality has not changed. Ongoing movements for social equality such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ are a repeat of prior movements in American history. For example, Malcolm X took on the role as being an advocate of social equality and justice for African American citizens. His approach included more violence in comparison to Martin Luther King who fought for the same exact ideal but with a softer approach. Although these movements have occurred in different time periods, the underlying aspect is that police brutality and racial profiling against black individuals has always been a problem that the United States has failed to vanish. This reality in the United States specifically African Americans is one lived in fear and threats of police officers. The history does not lie, and racism is rooted in our public safety here in America. This issue dates back all the way to slavery, into the Civil Rights and into the LA Riots and is still seen in present day. This issue is both a contemporary issue and an inequity issue. These themes are proven through exploration of brutality in the past and present.

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The historical roots of policing in the United States through race dates back to the slave owners’ efforts to control slaves. The patrols in this time period where consisted of White property-owning men, whose jobs were solely to keep the slaves enslaved. Slave officers were heavily prevalent in states that had more slaves than whites to keep the uprising of slaves to a minimum. This time period set up racial profiling in policing that is still in play today. The United States first reform effort came after the Civil War in which “states replaced slave patrols with police officers who enforced “Black codes;” in 1865, Mississippi and South Carolina became the first states to establish these codes.”i. These codes made it so black individuals who committed a small offense be charged as a serious offense. This so called “reform” was so detrimental to the black communities that “Police generated enough arrests for violating Black Codes that the number of Black inmates in southern prisons skyrocketed, in Mississippi, for example, the number of Black inmates tripled between 1874 and 1877ii. The United States kicked this policy during Reconstruction, but the damage was already done. The introduction of the Civil Rights movement created a platform for black individuals voices to be heard. A public figure, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,”iii. This era also created the Black Panther Party whose purpose was to patrol black neighborhoods to protect residents from police brutality. This party stated, “We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people,” iv. These figures and movements are still in todays era with the Black Lives Matter movement. From the 1950s through the 1970s, movements for civil and social rights, equality, and justice swept the United States. Every law that gave black individuals more freedom meant more restriction on what police officers could and count not do to them. Tension in the United States with race met its match when Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-

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speed chase on March 3, 1991. This incident includes officers pulling Mr. King from his vehicle and being beat brutally. The four Los Angeles officers were originally charged with assault and excessive however were acquitted by a majority white jury v. This sparked the violent Los Angeles riots of 1992. This was more than 25 years ago and still happens in todays age. A recent situation includes an unarmed Black woman, 44-year-old Pamela Turner, was shot to death on video by Baytown Police Officer Juan Delacruz back on May 13th, 2019, outside of her apartment complex on Garth Rd. in Baytown Texas vi. Pamela Turners sister stated “The brutality keeps going on. It happens over and over, and it will keep happening until you do your job and do what you say you’re going to do.” vii. This quote shows the United States unwillingness to adapt. Mr. King was fortunate to still be living after his altercation unlike Miss. Turner. The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been tasked with for generations and generations. This issue is also a global issue as seen in Mexico, with “The lack of public safety is not only due to crime, but also to the ongoing “war” between the government and drug-traffickers”. This proves every country deals with drugs, but the United States added a racial bias to it viii. The “War on Drugs” was another detrimental policy that hindered black individuals’ freedom. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. President Nixon’s approach included increasing anti-drug enforcement spending, creating a federal drug task force and helping to foster a culture that demonized drug use and drug users ix. This was a whole America problem but due to the racial stereotypes the black communities were hit hard. The African Americans had a mindset of “Thus Negro citizens still cannot count on safety and protection even in the custody of the guardians of law and justice, to judge from evidence available from many”x. The statistics during the “War on Drugs” state “Between 1982 and 2007, the number of arrests for

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drug possession tripled, from approximately 500,000 to 1.5 million” xiThis statistics isn’t so bad if it was based off of fair policing but African Americans saw the biggest increase in arrest and “in 1976 Blacks constituted 22% of drug-related arrests and Whites constituted 77% of these arrests, by 1992 Blacks accounted for 40% of all drug-related arrests and Whites accounted for 59% of them; throughout these years Blacks comprised about 12% of the total population while Whites were about 82% xii. The War on Drugs gave police officers more power and resources to facilitate their hate crime. This act signed into play by President Nixon created more underlying laws to target colored people such as the stop and frisk. This was in practice by the New York Police Department which allowed officers to temporarily detain, question, and at times search civilians on the street for weapons and other contraband. This historical racial profiling was seen vividly in this practice. The police officers argue that they are just doing their job, but when the numbers of police arrest and deaths are broken down that argument is thrown away. A statistic in 2015 shows “only 60 percent of the civilians killed possessed a gun or a weapon that resembled a gun.” xiii. This stat plays a role in police brutality because officers are only supposed to draw guns when they are in imminent danger. If there are no gun’s present officers should not pull, there’s. A statistic showed that the United States police officers are 35 times more likely to be fatally assaulted than German officers and approximately 35 times more likely to use deadly force xiv. There is a strong relationship between the police officers’ risk of being killed and likelihood of using deadly force. Talked about above the United States has always been a system of violence and in turn is killing citizens. The racial prejudice aspect of police brutality is nothing new in the United States, and by breaking down history through the time periods of slavery, into the civil rights, and into the LA riots up into present day we a see a systemic failure rooted in racism. Slave officers began a

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movement of whites being able to detain and hurt black individuals. Shortly after the civil war these slave officers were replaced with police officers that enforced “Black codes”. These two historic events above are the foundation of our systemic failure of racial bias in police brutality. The “War on Drugs” was used as a way to incarcerate and dehumanize black individuals. The statistics to support that claim show the increase in racial profiling after the law was signed compared to before. Individuals are still paying the price like Miss Turner because of a historical rooted issue that is both contemporary and shows inequality. Countries like Brazil have the same issue and state “violent police practices persist because of the weakness of institutional mechanisms for controlling police activity”xv. The history does not lie, and racism is rooted in our public safety here in America. The historical analyses of the time periods reveals’ and proves this issue is and always will be prevalent without a systemic change.

i Cooper, Hannah Lf. “War on Drugs Policing and Police Brutality.” Substance Use & Misuse 50, no. 8–9 (2015): 1188–94. https://doi.org/10.3109/10826084.2015.1007669 ii Cooper, Hannah (2nd use of same source) iii Holmes, Malcolm D., and Smith, Brad W. Race and Police Brutality: Roots of an Urban Dilemma. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008 iv Holmes, Malcolm D., and Smith, Brad W. (2nd use of same source). v Lawrence, Regina G. The Politics of Force : Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000 viBoney, Jeffrey L.. "Another Black Man Targeted, Tasered and Beaten by Police; Incident Caught on Camera Months after Tragic Shooting of Black Woman in Same Texas City." L.A. Watts Times (Los Angeles, CA), August 22, 2019. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/documentview? p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1758DEFF8DF3F1F8 vii Boney, Jeffrey L. (2nd use of same source). viii Tello, Nelia. “Police Reforms: The Voice of Police and Residents in Mexico City.” Policing and Society 22, no. 1 (2012): 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2011.605135. ix Cooper, Hannah (3rd use of same source) x Raymond Bernard, S. J. "Consequences of Racial Segregation." The American Catholic Sociological Review 10, no. 2 (1949): 82-100. doi:10.2307/3706858 xi Cooper, Hannah (4th use of same source) xii Cooper, Hannah (5th use of same source) xiii Nix, Justin. 2017. "When Police Kill." Theory in Action 10 (4) (10): 118-127. doi:http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2099/10.3798/tia.1937-0237.1730. https://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2152/docview/1965552943?accountid=14902. xiv Nix, Justin. (2nd use of same source) xv Costa, Arthur. “Police Brutality in Brazil: Authoritarian Legacy or Institutional Weakness?” Latin American Perspectives 38, no. 5 (2011): 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X10391631....