Police brutality is one of the biggest traumas in our country. It is “One of several forms of misconduct which involve undue violence by police members.” In other words, officers take advantage of their power which in result causes injustice for the victims of police brutality. Although it is illegal, police tend to get away with almost any wrongdoing. Leonard Moore’s article Police Brutality in the United States, reads that “Americans among victims of police brutality are African Americans.” They are at a higher percentage of being victimized by police brutality, in comparison to Caucasian Americans. There has been many cases of police brutality against minorities; however, there is little justice being served. Brutality results in the fear of citizens because of the harm that they portray on people.
The population of African Americans in the United States is 39.2 million, which is 12.6%. Four months into this year, 2018, there has been 466 people murdered due to police brutality. “In the year of 2017, 987 people were fatally shot by police 25% were African Americans.” (Moore) The harm of these crimes leave a sense of trepidation not only for African Americans, but also many other nationalities in our nation. The number of incidents caused by brutality is growing at an alarming rate. As a result of action not being taken, officers feel that they have a right to take advantage of vulnerable citizens. Each year in America there are roughly 1,000 people injured by cops, which is far to many. That number could easily decrease if affirmative action were taken.
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The question at hand is why are police allowed to do these crimes to our people? There have been years of protest, and many riots against this atrocity. However, there hasn't been a change in the system, nor has there been justice to those who lost their lives due to cops. In 1991 four white police officers from Los Angeles pulled Rodney King over because of a high-speed chase. Without remorse, all four officers beat 25 year old Rodney King on a 81 second footage. Police were captured kicking and clubbing Rodney King 56 times. Rodney suffered 11 skull fractures. This erupted into the biggest riot in US history. The Los Angeles Riot had “63 deaths, over 2,000 injured people, 1200 arrest, and $1 billion worth of damage.” This wasn't the only riot because of police brutality. Back in 2014 once again a white officer Darren Wilson not only shot, but killed 18 year old Michael Brown. Officer Wilson claimed that Brown was acting violent towards the officer and charged at him. However eyewitness stated that Brown was trying to depart from Wilson, he also tried to surrender by raising his hands. Brown turned his back and began to run, then stopped and turned back around facing the cop to surrender. Brown was shot six times to death. This corrupted the people of Ferguson, making it top 7 on the most eruptive riot in the us. However in 2014 another riot approached making this the top 4 in the US. This time, the officer shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy. The officer was reacting to a 911 call stating that there was a man with a gun at the park. Rice had a fake toy gun and had done no harm to anyone. In every case that was just stated, not one police officer was fired, or prosecuted for the crimes they had committed to each African American male.
In conclusion police brutality has been an ongoing problem in America and has yet to come to an end. Regardless of the amount of riots and protests, it seems as if there is little being done by the government to lower this drastic number of deaths and injuries. Many victims run or react out of fear. If there were laws and consequences put in action then the number of deaths and injuries would drastically go down. More must be done in order to protect African Americans from the horror of police brutality.
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