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The social topic of race, ethnicity, and immigration is critical to discuss so that one can understand how these factors influence people in society. Race refers to the classification of individuals based on social or physical qualities. Ethnicity entails people’s categories based on their language, culture, ancestry, and history. In addition, immigration refers to moving and settling in a specific country temporarily or permanently. Many individuals consider race and ethnicity of residents in a particular area before migrating. In most cases, people move to places where they can find others who understand them. Currently, neighborhoods comprise of individuals who belong to the same race or ethnicity. That is why it is hard for whites to settle in areas where the majority of people living there are African Americans. Therefore, race and ethnicity are the two primary determinants of immigration in the United States of America (USA). Although many Americans have encountered police brutality, at some point in their lives, race, ethnicity, and immigration are some of the factors that determine the magnitude of the violence. The paper focuses on how race, ethnicity, and immigration influences police brutality in the USA.

Race and ethnicity significantly determine how law enforcers handle suspects or criminals on the street. Notably, police brutality refers to the excessive or unwarranted use of force toward civilians. The various forms of violence include assault and battery, murder, torture, harassment, verbal abuse, and intimidation. These are some of the areas of the social topic that will be discussed by taking into account different races and ethnicities (Wu 137). Traditionally, African Americans used to work as slaves in South America. These individuals were tortured, and even after working hard in the large plantations, they were never compensated well. After the civil war, slaves resisted being abused by landowners, and they started demanding better living conditions. Based on that history, African Americans survived during those times due to their aggressiveness. That is the reason why police officers have a negative mentality against blacks, which makes them use excessive force when arresting them. Their race or ethnicity is perceived as a danger to people in society, and that is why it is hard to eliminate police brutality against this group of people. Consequently, belonging to a particular race or ethnicity determines how police officers treat individuals.

People have different viewpoints on how race, ethnicity, and immigration influence police brutality. Some individuals believe that all Americans should be treated equally regardless of their skin color, race, ethnicity, and culture. In reality, the constitution grants citizens’ rights and privileges that should be observed by law enforcers at all the time. As such, police officers have no permission to use excessive force when apprehending suspects from a specific group of people unless the person is violent (Cesario). However, critics argue that some people are more dangerous than others. That is why cops torture or beat them since they are a threat to society. Specifically, laws enforcers perceive the failure to contain such individuals as putting their lives in danger. The majority of people get information about race, ethnicity, and immigration on social media. Such issues arise when police officers have mistreated or shot a criminal suspect due to their perception that the person is either dangerous or is armed. That is the only time that individuals call for the eradication of police brutality when an individual has already been injured or is dead. Some of the encounters that are not captured by social media go unnoticed. As a result, people have different perspectives on how police officers should handle criminals from various races and ethnicities.

From the previous readings, it is evident that police officers should be in the front line fighting all forms of injustices related to race or ethnicity. For instance, all criminal suspects should be handled well without the use of excessive force unless they are armed. I imagined that law enforcers are not biased in the way they treat individuals based on their race or ethnic background. Nevertheless, it seems that I was right by believing that police officers sometimes treat members of some communities violently as compared to others. For several cases, cops that shoot black men defend themselves by asserting that such individuals were armed even if they were not. The past research on the topic of race, ethnicity, and immigration portrays that law enforcers perceive some groups of individuals as more dangerous than others (Wu et al. 174). That is the reason why there is a high likelihood that police officers will mistreat a black man and handle a white man well even if both of them have committed a similar crime. Racial discrimination is also found in the justice system where black people receive harsh punishment as compared to their counterparts. Americans settle in areas where there exist other people of the same race. For instance, it is hard to see white individuals migrating to the black neighborhoods since they feel insecure. Therefore, research depicts that police brutality is determined by race, ethnicity, and immigration.

Some solutions have worked to eliminate police brutality associated with race, ethnicity, and immigration while others have not. Law enforcers have been warned against the use of excessive force on suspects who comply with what they are told to do. Those who fail to adhere to these regulations can be sued and jailed for their actions. Moreover, public awareness of police brutality on social media has made law enforcers not mistreat criminals on the street. Citizens understand their rights, and they know that no law enforcer is authorized to harass them. The use of body cameras is also another best solution since they record everything that is happening (Barlow and Hickman). For instance, they can reveal those cops who plant evidence on suspects and show whether police officers were in a situation to apply excessive force when apprehending criminals or not. Some of the suggested solutions that have not worked are community policing and the lack of prejudice when arresting black people. Law enforcers have not accepted to interact with civilians so that they can gather relevant information that would help them to come up with criminal profiles before the search and seizures. As such, some police officers torture or beat suspects without having proper evidence that such individuals have committed a crime. Furthermore, cops fear black people and continue to shoot some of them even if they are unarmed.

Some of the new issues that have developed include searching and frisking people from some races or ethnicities even if they are not suspects and planting evidence on individuals so that they can be arrested. For example, when police officers come across people from a specific race driving on the highway, they pull them over and search their vehicles without a hunch that such individuals have engaged in crime (Wu et al. 75). In addition, large criminal networks plant evidence on innocent people so that they can be arrested. For this reason, law enforcers stop investigating a particular case since they believe that they have criminals in custody. Indeed, doing this paper helped one to learn essential things related to race, ethnicity, and immigration (Painter-Davis 133). First, a person has learned that race and ethnicity influence how law enforcers handle individuals from different communities. Some people such as African Americans have a high likelihood to be apprehended by cops when found wandering on streets even if they are not involved in any crime. Such individuals are harassed for nothing since police officers have the prejudice that they are aggressive. Second, some of the things that people consider when migrating to a new region are race and ethnic background of people living there. In most cases, individuals settle in areas with people of the same culture.

To sum up, race, ethnicity, and immigration determine how police officers treat people. Some individuals from specific communities are considered more dangerous than others based on their physical appearances. The majority of people obtain knowledge about this topic from social media. Although law enforcers are expected to treat all suspects equally regardless of their race, culture, ethnicity, and skin color, sometimes they prejudge. Recently, the rate of police brutality has been decreasing since people’s perceptions of others are changing. Overall, race, ethnicity, and immigration should not divide people such that they handle their colleagues differently.

Works Cited

Barlow, David and Melissa Hickman Barlow. Police in a multicultural society: An American story. Waveland Press, 2018.

Cesario, Joseph. “A new look at racial disparities in police use of deadly force.” The Conversation, 2018, http://theconversation.com/a-new-look-at-racial-disparities-in-police-use-of-deadly-force-98681. Accessed 27 April 2019.

Painter-Davis, Noah. “Immigration effects on violence contextualized: The role of immigrant destination type and race/ethnicity.” Sociological Perspective, vol. 59, issue 1, 2015, pp. 130-152.

Wu, Yuning. “Race/ethnicity and perceptions of the police: A comparison of white, black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans.” Journal of Policing and Society, vol. 24, issue 2, 2014, pp. 135-157.

Wu, Yuning, et al. “Immigrant perceptions of the police: Theoretical explanations.” International Journal of Police Science and Management, vol. 19, issue 3, 2017, pp. 171-186.

Wu, Yuning, et al. “Race/ethnicity and perceptions of police bias: The case of Chinese immigrants.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, vol. 11, 2013, pp. 71-92.