Is Police Brutality Based on Racism?

Being a police officer isn’t always easy. Day by day crime is growing all around leading officers to be more aggressive making them feel more powerful. However, many people believe some officers take advantage of their power, and use unnecessary aggravation in situations where it is not needed. Police brutality too many seems to be targeted against minorities and has been seen as racism. If it’s racism or not is still not clear, in many people eyes it is, however, many think criminals induce officers to act in such violent ways and don’t seem to think this is a problem.

Depending on certain situations many believe that police officers have the right to be somewhat aggressive, however they not only act more violent towards certain races but what’s gotten them in trouble lately is the comments they have made. A great example on why many people believe their acts are racist is a video recorded by a cameraman in Seattle on April 17, 2010 where police responded to several 911 calls near the China Harbor Restaurant on the west side of Lake Union, later in the act a white male officer brutally kicked a Hispanic man on the head and clearly stated that he was going to beat the “fucking Mexican piss out of him” (www.kirotv.com). As though the kick on the head wasn’t enough later in the video it is seen how a female officer stomps on the guys knee. In this case the officers later realize they had the wrong man and let him go without giving him any medical assistance. To many the most offensive and discriminating part of this whole scene is the nasty comments the officer spits to the victim. The officer showed no professionalism and clearly assumed the man was Mexican and hammered him without being certain if they had the right man. If this doesn’t seem to be racist I don’t know what is. Many questioned this video and think the cameraman only videotaped the beating; leaving out the part where the victim might have done or said something to the officers, causing them to beat him. However, in my opinion there is no reason for someone to say such racist comments like that, especially authorities because people will loose their trust in them, and also officers like this hurt the image of good officers.

Another act that shows excessive police force is in Houston, Texas where in a 2008 study revealed that Houston Police officers have used their tasers on African American suspects more than any other group of people. Authorities defense to this statistics were that African Americans tend to be more aggressive and more confrontational than other races. The study also showed how though the white officers claim that blacks are more aggressive, black officers have tasered less African Americans than white officers (http://proquest.umi.com). Still, many people think that most likely black people don’t act and or respond the same towards black officers as they would with whites, clearly not seeing any racial link to the study. To certain individuals this seems as a regular part of an officer’s job, others see how some officers use extra force on certain races, calling this racist and prejudice. Though these actions are just a few from hundred of similar cases it is clear how there is definitely some racism in these acts.

Many people who consider such acts racist wonder to themselves what is being done to punish these officers so others can see and learn from these mistakes. Many victims of racism and brutality are afraid to step forward and accuse officers of such acts because they fear authorities, and feel like nothing will be done. Many others however have stepped up and filed lawsuits against officers; from this they seek the end of racism and also peace between general public and authorities. Unfortunately the public doesn’t have a say on whether or not police officers have used excessive aggressiveness or if their acts is because of racism. In a case like this the officer’s act goes through the police department or the FBI to see if they consider any violation of civil rights (http://proquest.umi.com). A way many civilian can help the numbers of police racial brutality to go down is by reporting anything they’ve seen and or experienced.

I don’t think that police should ever act under the color of a person nor basing their decisions and actions on nothing more than someone’s race. In many cases authorities believe it is their role to act with violence because they deal with violent and crazy people on a daily basis, it has recently been seen how officers are targets to criminals as well. However since when do cops have the right to beat someone because of their race and say nasty comments? One thing is acting with violence to protect one and others, it’s a whole other thing to yell and spit nasty comments based on ones ethnicity.

Whether or not racism causes police brutality one thing is for sure, and that is that somehow this has to end. Racism should no longer be seen especially in a country like the U.S where there is a variety of nationalities. Also authorities should have limits to what they can do to a person, why should someone have the power to hurt someone else, since when was their job to hurt and signal certain people.