I
grew up in Brookline Massachusetts in one of the most liberal towns in the
entire state. Throughout middle school
and High school, the appreciation for diversity was something that was
constantly engrained. In my own
experience, it was very rare that I ever encountered any true racism that I
felt was threatening. However, this wasn’t
true for everyone living in my town, one of my best friends Kervin was someone
who moved from Haiti in order to go to school in America. As a black male living in Brookline, he
experienced frequent discrimination from cops living within our area. On Friday and Saturday nights there were times
where he would get randomly stopped by cops as opposed to my friends and
I. These “pat” downs were always
extremely unnecessary and honestly very eye opening. It was something that he simply had to live
with, and accept. I would always feel terrible
that this would happen, but there was nothing I could do. Although he never got into any major trouble,
I believe it was because he was such a laid back kid. I believe this police profiling needs to stop
but unfortunately this has been going on for so long, I can’t see an immediate
future where this would happen. Police
profiling is a very real and concerning issue within our country. African Americans are put into jail at astonishing
rates as “African Americans make up 1 million of the total incarcerated
population.” (NAACP) The war on drugs has also created an engrained stigma
where African American impoverished communities are targeted and thus, bring
upon this idea that African Americans are criminals. While I am all for police officers keeping
communities safe, I truly believe that it should be very rare where use of a
deadly weapon is required. Police
officers should be trained to only use their gun under the most extreme of
circumstances. Did the police officer
have to kill Michael brown? No, he should of subdued him with physical force
and brought him to jail. In this day and
age, are all cops bad? No, I still believe there are so many good cops out
there who save lives on a daily basis.
The problem of police profiling creates a double edged sword in America. It paints minorities as perpetrators of crimes while also painting police officers as corrupt and racist. While there are minorities who do commit crimes and police officers who are racist, the vast majority of these groups do not adhere to these stereotypes that have become ingrained into our society through years of racist practices and the war on drugs. The death of Michael Brown by a police officers highlights the growing public distrust in police to properly do their jobs, with new incidents of police brutality and misuse of power garnering national attention almost regularly, with a disproportionate amount targeting minorities.
ReplyDeleteOur legal system continually passes harsh swift judgment on minorities for relatively petty crimes. The sale of crack in particular is characteristic of our corrupt legal system. Just a small amount of crack cocaine can acquire a lifetime in prison, and this law is upheld with extreme prejudice. Just as many whites consume crack cocaine as blacks, and some may argue that more whites abuse crack cocaine than blacks, yet more blacks are in jail for the sale and possession of the illicit drug.
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