I need two power point topics completed for a team project

Professor Rosalind Raby

Week 3

Title: Equal Rights Proposition Outline: Police Brutality towards African Americans

A. Police Brutality Against African-Americans.

a. Police brutality against African-Americans is not a new issue. It has been happening throughout history and needs to be stopped. Police brutality is prematurely ending and/or effecting the lives and communities of many African-Americans.

b. This needless violence causes tremendous strain on the affected families mental and physical well-being, but also African-Americans as a whole. These actions bare the weight the United States history of violence against African-Americans and reflect the shortcomings of the criminal justice system.

c. Whether the brutality is intentional or not, it sends out the message that police does not value the health, well-being, and lives of African-Americans. This is not a message that should be sent and police brutality against African American must be stopped at all costs.

B. Issues, challenges, and opportunities experienced by this group in the labor force

a. Throughout history African-Americans have had a tough time in the labor force. There has been some progress, but unequal employment opportunities continue to be standard operating procedure for many African American men and women.

b. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the African American unemployment rate is the lowest in history. However, they continue to face problems and challenges which are often imposed because of a lack of understanding or negative attitudes brought on racial biases although they possess the same or higher-level education than their counterparts.

c. African-Americans must deal with being pushed into minority positions in meaningless jobs, not being given access to the same networks as their coworkers, working twice as hard for less wages, not being given the same opportunities for career advancements and promotion, and various other forms of discrimination.

C. How society has constructed this group's identity

a. The African American population in this country has always been a minority. African Americans started out in this country as slaves, and even with the abolishment of slavery and the civil rights movement, society still perceives this group as less than.

b. African-Americans are seen to be associated with drugs since many of this minority live in impoverished areas where drugs are abundant. In recent years, there has been a significant focus on African-Americans and the criminal justice system and police brutality (Taylor, 2013).

c. Society uses the “War on drugs” as an excuse for overtly racist behavior by law enforcement (Taylor, 2013). Today’s society associates African-Americans with being criminals and drug dealers, this is unfortunate since no matter what nationality, there are good and evil in each group. In society, this mentality is not exhibit by everyone of course, but many people have never overcome the unfortunate actions and beliefs of the past.

D. Legal Framework

a. The way the criminal justice system is set up has a tremendous impact on police brutality. It has been stated that a police officer’s behavior is heavily influenced by “the formal organizational structure”. A police officer’s behavior may also be influenced by the system of ‘incentives and disincentives’ and the ‘rules and regulations. (Maguire and Duffee p.155). Due to this, any police officer who has certain organizational styles and certain culture within the organization are more likely to react to situations in a more aggressive style. This is evident in places like Los Angeles. The LAPD's 'assertive style of law enforcement' is a reason for 'aggressive confrontations within the public'. This has been traced to a professional organizational culture that has been cultivated by LAPD’s administration. Officers in LAPD are rewarded for hard-nosed enforcement that is likely to (occasionally) produce arrests and (often) bring police into conflict with citizen" (Maguire and Duffee p.158).

b. This idea of police organization operating within the law and rewarding the officers for using specific tactics has it rewards. It has been stated that officers can use weaknesses within the rules to behave more aggressively whenever necessary.

c. Police brutality has been extrapolated towards African Americans because of the rise in population in the inner cities. If the LAPD’s insight is accurate, and they feel the need to have police brutality, then it shouldn’t only affect African Americans in inner cities. Not saying that people in general should become brutalized, however why does one category of people feel the worse wraths when it comes to law enforcement? If this is the case, then a strong police culture reform is necessary to change the mentality of police officers.

E. Summary of existing or proposed solutions for the same problem but focusing on differing groups. Consider the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, corporate human resource departments, state or federal laws and regulations, political strategies, government agencies, religious groups, and grass roots organizations.

a. State or federal laws and regulations. There are rules and regulations in which the police need to follow I order to do their jobs based off the information they are given. When an officer decides to let stereotyping and prejudice get in the way, he then turns his back on what he swore to do and takes the law into his own hands. In a study done by the U.S. Department of Justice, it was found that officers of all races felt the same in the way they did their job to serve and protect (U.S. Department of Justice, 2000). Law enforcement officers are not above the law, their job is to abide by rules to enforce it. When an officer arrests someone there are guidelines in which they need to follow (FindLaw, 2017)

i. The officer personally observed a crime;

ii. The officer has probable cause to believe that person arrested committed a crime

iii. The officer has an arrest warrant issued by a judge.

b. The Conciliation Approach. The U.S. Department of Justice put out a handbook to combat the use of excessive force by the police. It is in this handbook that many terms are used like conciliation, bridge-building, and community cultural diversity training. In this report, A Conciliation Handbook for the Police and The Community, the Conciliation Approach is when community leaders and a police hierarchy communicate to resolve issues within the community (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002). The handbook also talks about the police department being more active in the communities they serve.

c. Grass roots organizations. With every case of police brutality against an African American, the United States becomes more hostile. There have multiple cases where an African American has beaten badly or killed by the hand of the police whether it was intentional or on accident, these incidents need to be brought to light. Grass root organizations are a collective action that helps change local, regional, or at a national level. Leaders like Dr. MLK and Malcom X were considered grass root organizers.

i. A grass roots organization called We Charge Genocide out of Chicago went to the United Nations Committee Against Torture to discuss the growing problem of The Chicago Police Department and their abuse towards youth of color (Graef, 2014). In this report, Erbentraut explains the high percentages of police issues that involve excessive force and even death (Erbentraut, 2014).

F. Does Police Brutality against African Americans exist in other Countries?

a. Here in the United States Police Brutality is common, especially towards blacks. Historical evidence of public harming of black bodies by police dates to slavery, when police disciplined blacks and recaptured those who escaped slavery (Alang, McAlpine, McCreedy & Hardeman, 2017).

b. Police brutality that blacks are facing goes beyond physical force but includes emotional, sexual, verbal and psychological intimidation (Alang et al., 2017). Police Brutality is not only prevalent in the U.S but, France as well. The French Police has a reputation for using excessive force against African Americans.

c. In February of 2017, a young black man by the name of Theo was assaulted by three police officers and raped by another police officer. When the police officers asked Theo for his ID and after resisting, he was forced to the ground and beaten (“French police brutality in spotlight again after officer charged with rape,” 2017). This is not the first incident of police brutality in France. A year before Theo incident another black man died after being arrested for interfering in his brother’s arrest. Family members stated that Traore entered the police car alive but found dead at the station (Madhuri, 2016).

d. The people in the community and most African Americans are not taking this lightly; they are fighting for justice. The protesters have set cars on fire and attempting to set buildings on fire. The government is silent towards these deaths. The police officers deny any allegations and are usually suspended but eventually start back working as an officer.

G. The team's compromise or alternative to existing solutions

a. It has been stated we have come to agree that police brutality has been an issue of the past and is still current in our day and age. Facts have produced that African American males are the sole priority when it comes to police brutality. We all agree that there is an underlining issue and better results need to take place to control the situation.

b. As children growing up, we were taught that any type of law enforcement was there to protect and serve. As children we looked up to police officers because they were brave enough to fight crime and protect everyone who needed protecting. Now we are all afraid!

c. We are afraid of being misunderstood and fearful of our lives, which can possibly be taken by the hands of someone who were supposed to protect and serve us. On the flip side all policemen and women are not bad. However; when we refer to police brutality, we are only referring to the bad apples in the barrel.

d. We all know that all African American males aren’t good guys but we aren’t talking about those bad apples either. When we mention police brutality we talk about the unfair and the unjust.

H. Conclusion

A. Even though police brutality does not only affect African Americans, social media and the society portrays images to make everyone believe otherwise. The daily issues and challenges African Americans are faced with at work, in the community and in schools are still a problem that has not fully been dealt with.

B. Also, the legal framework that’s put into action barely protects an individual’s rights. In other countries police brutality exist as well towards African Americans. As a society in order to get the change and respect that is well deserved, we all need to play our part and take responsibility for our own actions. It’s not right to be brutalized for no apparent reason; however, we need to make sure that the laws “just Cause” actions are a result for real crimes that need law enforcement to act for.

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. http://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303691

Maguire, E. R. (Ed.), Duffee, D. E. (Ed.). (2015). Criminal Justice Theory. New York:

Routledge.

Taylor, C. (2013, April). African-Americans, Police Brutality, and the U.S. Criminal Justice

System. Journal of African American History, 98(2),