Article: Police don’t like black people: African
American Young men’s accumulated police experiences by Rod Brunson
This article focuses on a study of 40 black men performed in St. Louis, Missouri to understand black men's experiences with police. The target was young black men because research has identified them as the group for whom involuntary police contacts are most frequent and salient in the United States. Brunson did the study to show how the mens patterns of events and experiences shape the way that they view the police, and the way that it affects others views and vice-versa. In the study, most of the men interviewed had negative views toward police because of them being explained as "Almost never easy to talk to", "Almost never polite", and often because they were harassed or mistreated. They also felt that police resources were directed disproportionately toward specific neighborhood problems such as drugs and gangs instead of assisting crime victims. Many times they also explained being targeted and searched because of the way they dressed, who they hung around with, or how much money they had. THey also continued to explin that officers lacked the physical evidence to arrest them and would put them in patrol cars and drive them to other neighborhoods. Sometimes some even explained being filed for resisting arrest charges to conceal use of excessive force.
Some instances explained in the interviews for heard from by friends, family, and others in their neighborhoods but some experienced these events. Brunson explains at the end that citizen complaints against officers could be initiated in the prosecutor's office rather than in police stations.
Personally, I have never been physically abused or pushed by force from any cops, but I have heard plenty of stories and seen videos of events like these. I feel like many cops abuse their authority, and I have been verbally attacked by a security guard/off-duty police officer before. I have also seen police target certain communities and people on a regular basis.
My question for discussion is how do you feel about police and how are your encounters with them? Have you experienced or seen first hand any events like the ones explained in the article? Can a continuous cycle of stereotypes and retaliation be occurring? How does it affect the way African-Americans view police in their communities?
--An interesting thing I picked up from researching for this discussion is the history of police and blacks. How does history of oppression towards blacks with police violence have on this?
--An interesting thing I picked up from researching for this discussion is the history of police and blacks. How does history of oppression towards blacks with police violence have on this?
I definitely feel that the history that black people have experienced in this country have everything to do with the parallels in racial discrimination through law enforcement on the black community. It isn't the jobs that force these individuals to racially profile, it's the person that places judgment on a group of people that they don't see as equal. I feel that it all comes down to the source of oppression, because it's involves law enforcement we can choose to see it as an issue in itself, but it stems down to the same oppression.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question: I've never really encountered or witnessed racial profiling by police officers, however, my brother has been in the navy for four years now and I have witnessed his digression to racial acceptance. I feel that the military has given him this mindset that all muslims are dangerous or a threat to America. This idea has even begun to rub off on my mother. I am so ashamed of some of the things that are talked about between them. I was once in a really dingy bar back in my hometown with my mother and a racist old man began saying awful things about Muslims. I lost it right there and began to defend them with the simple fact that Muslims make up a HUGE percent of our world's population and that it is the most practiced religion as well. I will never forget the ignorance of that man.
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