Final paper and reflective essay

1.) Please complete the final draft of your essay this week. Keep in mind the emphasis on creating significance and communicating this to your readers in the conclusion of your essay. 

2.) Look for opportunities to surround facts and information with your own ideas and analysis if you can.

3.) Make sure your paper has a good title!  A “good” title often speaks to the main idea rather than the general topic of the paper. 

4.) Make sure to include your abstract and your Works Cited or References page.

5.) Before you submit your paper, make sure you edit and proofread carefully.  Attached are some proofreading “tips.”

6.) Reflective Essay: With your final draft, I”d like you to include a reflective essay, which is an essay where you describe or tell the story of your process writing the essay. Using Bloom’t Taxonomy as a reference, speak to the ways you engaged in the different tasks throughout your paper.  

These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge. Think of the pyramid as a hierarchy of thinking which builds in complexity and specificity, and apply these concepts to what you have done in your paper. 

Please read out with any questions! 

16

Racial Prejudice and Police Brutality against minority
in United States of America Comment by amie hartman: Plural…I think you will eventually want a different title.

Minghuen Tai

Writing Workshop II

Amie Hartman

07/27/2020

Table of Contents
Introduction and Background Study 1
Objectives of the study 3
Problem Statement 3
Research Question 3
Method 4
Literature Review 4
Data Collection 7
Data Analysis 11
Conclusion 12
Recommendations 13
References 15

Introduction and Background Study

Police brutality is the act of use of physical violence, emotional violence and psychological intimidation. These are conducts done with intent to dehumanize as well as degrade. Racial minority on the other hand are members from communities with low populations in United States such as African-Americans, native Indians, and Hispanic/Latinos among others (Alang, et al 2017). The death of George Floyd led to widespread that spread not only in US states but also far wide across the world. On May 25th 2020, George Floyd, a member of the minority community of African Americans died after being taken into custody of police officers. Owing to the captured video footages of personal cell phones and CCTV cameras, the circulated images led to the conclusion that he was a victim of police brutality. This was collaborated medical findings that his cardiopulmonary arrest was as a result of being restrained with a knee by the neck (Mapping Police Violence. (n.d.). Comment by amie hartman: Something missing here

The protests and in some situations, riots spread throughout the United States waking up memories of similar instances such as deaths of Michael Brown in 2014, Michael Brown in 2014, Walter scott 2015 among many others all from black community. There is also Sean Monterrosa, Erik Salgado among others from Latino community. Controversial deaths of Paul Castaway and Corey Kanosh are also named among incidences where police did use excessive, unwarranted force that led to death of the two Native Indians (Mapping Police Violence. (n.d.).

Minority are increasingly the victims of the police brutality over the years. Since 2013 for instance, the black population forms 13% of the US population but one might be surprised to find that they were leading with 28% of those killed. The rate of those killed per one million populations 6.6 from African American followed by 3.8 for Hispanic while the rests are the last with 2.5. Majority of such incidents, there is no prosecution of these police officers who are killers and 99% of them from 2013-2019 managed to walk free. A comparison of where one lives matters on probability of being killed by virtue of being African American. For example, in Buffalo where there is 50% are African American had zero kills between 2013-2016 while in Orlando which has 42% of African Americans had 13 people killed similar period (Mapping Police Violence, n.d.). That just points to the fact that certain areas make the minority community more vulnerable to deaths by police. Comment by amie hartman: You can take more time and slow down here. You have so much information in this one paragraph…
Also perhaps this background information/summary with the specifics needs to be earlier in your essay . because this seems to be the Problem… Comment by amie hartman: As you revise work on clarity and sentence structure.

Apart from deaths, other health concerns have happened owing to the incidences of police brutality. It is however to determine some of the deaths are not immediate but resultant of the injuries that occur due to encounters with the police. Such was the case for Dondi Johnson in 2005 that became quadriplegic after being arrested and later died from such injuries inflicted in the police vehicle. Similarly, Freddie Gray and Sandra Bland were victims owing to ill treatment while in custody. Other health concerns such as psychological health due to such encounters, witnessing the encounters or even seeing videos of such nature have affected the health of minority communities. Racist public reactions further affect the minority where some people justify police actions which make the minority feel vulnerable (Alang, et al 2017).

Police Brutality against racial minority has been fuelled by a police officer being assigned to a community where there had previous little or social contacts with such a community. Such an officer can hardly be able to handle such a community as the officer lacks specific training or knowhow of dealing with minority community. In addition, there is also negative perceptions against racial minority community have found their way to culminate to police brutality (Hall et al, 2016). For instance, stereotyping war on drugs dominantly on minority community neighborhoods such Hispanic/Latino and African American is act that has led to countless instances of police brutality. Such aspect coupled with stereotypes in some police acquired in the course of their lives just add up to police brutality acts. Comment by amie hartman: Well there is the assumption here that you are talking about white police officers specifically. But also, whose assumption or idea is this? Yours? Is this what you think “society” believes? Or is this an idea that is discussed in your sources? Be clear Comment by amie hartman: Comment by amie hartman: You need to be more specific and connect ideas more.

From the above assertions, it’s clear that police brutality has happened against the minority community. It’s worth investigating whether indeed its fuelled racial prejudice. The killings, injuries and other health concerns point to a pattern of racial prejudice. The minority community stand to be hugely affected by actions of police brutality has can be seen from the above statistics and instances. It’s thus worth researching the area. Comment by amie hartman: By.?
It’s just, how can you determine this exactly? Are you asking if it’s something besides racial prejudice? Comment by amie hartman: I just think that there is a pretty clear answer that yes it is fueled by prejudice. I don’ t think it’s really the kind of question you can debate. It’s too sensitive, for one, and what will you gain by researching this? Why do you want to know ? I think you need to get more specific here and interrogate your ideas more/
Do you want to know how this happened? How in the US we got to this problem? Do you want to know more about how this affects minorities? What people should know or do about it?

Objectives of the study

The heading comprises of the particular issues that seem significant to the topic. The issues are racial prejudice against minority communities and police brutality

The specific objectives include:

a. To establish whether members of minority communities feel prejudiced by police officers Comment by amie hartman: I think we know that they do….or research suggests such/

b. To examine the link between racial prejudice and police brutality against minority communities in United States of America. Comment by amie hartman: To what end? What aspect do you want to examine?

Problem Statement

There seems to have prejudice against minority race communities. Deaths, injuries and other health concerns of victims from minority race communities have been attributed to violent encounters of such community members with the police officers. The study thus seeks to establish if indeed prejudice as far as race is considered could have contributed to police brutality. The area is worth investigating in order to determine if indeed a clear link does exists that links such communities to racial prejudice by police.

Research Question

Is Racial Prejudice Fuelling Police Brutality against minority in United States of America?

Method

The study will use qualitative research approach to respond to the research question. To be precise, library research and the internet will be ones to be employed. There are various journals available that have studied the concepts of police brutality against the minority communities. The discussions and conclusions will be used. There are also articles posted online in newspapers, magazines among others from credible sources that will be used. Credible websites information such as the data on statistics will be used as well as analysis of information regarding police brutality, racial prejudice and minority community. In addition, books will be used that touch on areas concerning the issues. A thorough examination of aforementioned qualitative sources including the internet sources, books and journals will assist in addressing the question raised and help the study to arrive at conclusion. The method therefore will be going through the qualitative sources and examining their discussions as well conclusions. By doing so, it will be possible to determine if indeed there exists a link between racial prejudice and police brutality against minority communities. Substantial part of the sources to be used happens to have sourced their data from primary means which means their analysis will be useful for this research.

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. Comment by amie hartman: What are you trying to do or say with these two paragraphs?

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. Comment by amie hartman: I like that you have done all of this reading and excerpting from sources, but there is too much information without your own development and connection of ideas and information. You need to put this together more specifically for readers and help us understand more specifically how your reading and these ideas have helped you answer your research question

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. Comment by amie hartman: You need more explanation to show us how you’ve arrived at this conclusion

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. Comment by amie hartman: You don’t need all of these sections in your paper. You have too much repetitive information.

Data Collection

The methodology employed uses examination of statistical findings from databases on police use of force, brutality and violence. The Washington Post database which has recorded around five thousand incidents of shootings by police from 2015. Such records are done on the basis of state, gender, race, age, mental illness, whether the victim was fleeing the scene etc. The statistics from this database will assist in responding to the research question whether racial prejudice contribute to police brutality. Secondly, there is also mapping violence website which gives reports on police violence in United States.

According to the data gathered from MappingPoliceviolence.org, 598 people have been killed by members of the law enforcement in the year 2020. That aspect points to the existence of use killings by the police. African Americans make 28% of those killed despite the fact that the community makes up to 13% of the population. That has happened since 2013 (Mapping Police Violence, n.d.). In addition to that, a comparison among the various races reveals that for every one million population, African Americans are three times likely to be killed than White people. That is followed by the Hispanic.

From the above graph, the number of homicide rate by police per one million of such population. The minority communities is the highest.

Similarly, the study reveals that there is 1.3 times chance for an African American to be unarmed than do white people. That just means the number of those killed while armed more from the white community than African American community.

From the above graph, the highest percentage of those killed unarmed per one million population by the police comes from the minority communities (Mapping Police Violence, n.d.).

A good comparison among the regions is done between Buffalo in New York and Orlando in Florida shows there is no excuse for violence. Some cities have high population of minority communities and none or less killings by police. The percentage of African Americans is cited as 50% while the one in Orlando is 42%. However, the number people killed in Buffalo by police from year 2013 to 2016 is zero while Orlando has 13 during the same period (Mapping Police Violence, n.d.). There is thus no excuse since some cities are going on without such killings. The graph next page shows the difference in the two regions. Comment by amie hartman: what Comment by amie hartman: do you mean by “no excuse”?

The Washington Post database reports data for every 1 million population of African Americans, 31 have been killed by law enforcement. Moreover, 23 per million for Hispanic while the white population has 13 per million. In addition, majority of the victims happen to be male who account for around 95% of the victims (Washington Post. n.d.). The graph below shows the rate of killings of Minority communities which is higher compared to the majority white community.

From the graph, it’s evident that indeed minority communities are ones that have highest number of being killed between 2015 when the Washington Post database started collecting information till 2020.

Data Analysis

From the data above, it’s clear that a correlation does exist between the police violence and race. To start with, it’s quite evident that indeed police killings do exist within our society as evident from figures. The year 2019 recorded 999 cases where in 2020, we are already at 598 cases. That aspect depicts existence of police of brutality. However, a further look at the incidence reveals another issue which is the basis of this research paper. That police racial prejudice has fuelled police brutality. That aspect is depicted clearly by the data gathered from the two databases. Minority communities despite being the lowest number in the population happen to have highest number of victims. The African American population makes 28% of the victims despite it being 13% of the total US population. It can’t therefore be argued that the high number is due to the population being high but rather, it’s a classic case of race being the target. It is also quite clear that the Hispanic come number two as the victims of police brutality. That aspect further points to the aspect of the race being the factor.

The African Americans and the Hispanic population make the largest number of the victims. Race can thus be seen as the factor that has contributed to them being affected. There potentially seems to exist a certain bias which leads to the members of the two races being ones on the victim’s list. It is more aggravating to see instances of even unarmed persons being killed. The way victims from the minority race are mishandled by the law enforcement points to race bias. It is evident from the chances of being armed among the white community is higher than the black community. However, the fact that minority communities are the victim just shows how the members of law enforcement are biased towards them. Comment by amie hartman: Minghuen you are kind of saying the same thing over and over again. Really work on focusing and organizing this. You are saying that from what you’ve read, you conclude that police officers are biased toward minorities. You can take your reader more specifically through your thought process and explan how you make this determination. And now what?
does existing research resolve the issue completely? How does it cause you to adjust your original question? What other questions need to be answered in order to address your inquiry?
Conclusion: Where has your thinking led you? What connections have you made among your research and experiences? What implications do your conclusions have? Once you have articulated how your research question is answered, devote some careful thought to the significance of your answer.

Conclusion

The study contributes to the area of study concerning minority and police brutality. Since the brutality that has been brought to light by the killing of George Floyd who belongs to the minority community, the matter has increased attention to the issue. Minority communities have been victims of police brutality as can be seen from the research. Even though measures such as protests, databases with records of such killings and violence among others, the matter still remains unaddressed. Killings have been happening. For instance, protests such as those of Michael Brown in 2014 seem not to have taught the policing institution enough since killings such as George Floyd did happen anyway. From this research paper, minority communities such as African American, Latino, Native Indians among others happen to have the highest number of victims. That shows that indeed there exists a racial bias on the part of the police when dealing with such communities. It is thus important for some steps to be taken to correct that.

Recommendations

1. Racial prejudice should be addressed at Younger age. Various influences in the society may substantially contribute to the racial prejudices of the police officers (Hall et al, 2016). That aspect instill stereotyped belief which may even be unconscious to the officer as it’s normalized in the society that the officer lives in. Therefore assumptions such as the criminal nature of members of minority community may be instilled into the minds of officers before or while in the force. That aspect makes them violent and brutal while dealing with persons from minority community. It’s thus important as a society to address the issue of racial prejudice in settings such as education, police academies, social forums etc.

2. Intensification of cross-racial engagement (Hall et al, 2016). This can be done both at the societal level and institutional level (police departments). Acts such as pairing officers from minority communities with the rest will eliminate racial prejudice one community has from the rest. It will be thus a step towards eliminating bias from the officers.

3. Community policing is another important recommendation (Hall et al, 2016). It will enhance healthier contact between members of the police and the minority communities. As community policing is a partnership between the police and civilians, police officers will be more embedded into the minority communities thus bridging the difference divide. That aspect will eliminate racial prejudice which leads to violence and brutality of the police. The minority community and police officers will work mutually for the greater good of the society. Comment by amie hartman: I would focus on some of the initiatives in place that are trying to combat this problem and research them a bit more. To what extent do you think how we are responding to this problem is working???
I think you mainly need to tighten this up and then figure out what you are going to do from here…you need to add this whole conclusion ( ideas above) really focus on the implications of what you’ve found out . You might want to do further research on the solutions as I’ve mentioned here.

4. Rotational assignments. These assignment will eliminate the monotonous experience that makes police officers develop a certain perception towards the minority communities (Hall et al, 2016). For instance, being assigned to certain street which is mainly occupied by African American street gangs might lead to perception of blacks as criminals. Being rotated to other units can assist in seeing such minority communities through different lens thus eliminate the racial prejudice thus eliminating killings.

5. Diversity Training. This can be done as mandatory and continuous to all law enforcement officers. That aspect will kept all officers in touch with various diverse cultures, eliminate their prejudices and lead a bias-free police force.

References

Alang, S., McAlpine, D., McCreedy, E., & Hardeman, R. (2017). Police Brutality and Black Health: Setting the Agenda for Public Health Scholars. American journal of public health, 107(5), 662–665.

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.

Hall, A. V., Hall, E. V., & Perry, J. L. (2016). Black and blue: Exploring racial bias and law enforcement in the killings of unarmed black male civilians. American Psychologist, 71(3), 175-186.

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.

Mapping Police Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2020, from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

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.

Washington Post. (n.d.). Retrieved July 26th, 2020 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/

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

Police Homicide Rate Black Hispanic White 6.6 3.8 2.5

Percentage killed by police unarmed 2013-2019 Black Hispanic White 17 14 12

Graph of People regions against People Killed by police

Percentage of people of color Buffalo, NY Orlando, FL 50 42 People killed by police Buffalo, NY Orlando, FL 2.4 13

Rate of Killings by police per million African Americans Hispanic White 31 23 13 Series 2 African Americans Hispanic White Series 3 African Americans Hispanic White