Topic > Police Brutality as a Form of Racial Discrimination in America

Last year the New York Times published dashcam video of the confrontation between Philando Castile and a Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop. Castile remained calm and courteous throughout the meeting, but one statement determined his fate. He said, "Sir, I have to tell you I have a firearm on me." As respectful as it seemed, the officer went into immediate panic and abandoned all sense of rationality, and within seconds Castile had seven bullets in his body and the life escaping from his eyes. In the final frames, another officer opened the back seat of the car, pulled Castile's four-year-old daughter out and took her away. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Police brutality embodies a form of racial discrimination on a violent and mass scale, with disproportionate rates of murders of Black Americans and inherent racial bias within the policing community. According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black Americans are three and a half times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans, and fewer than one in three of murdered black Americans were suspected of a violent crime and allegedly armed. Some disagree that police brutality is a significant problem, given that the Constitution allows police officers to shoot under two circumstances: to protect their own life or the life of an innocent other, or to prevent a suspect to flee if the officer believes he is fleeing. a violent crime or poses a threat to another innocent party. However, the Constitution also provides the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees all people, regardless of race, the right to life, liberty, and equal treatment before the law. There is no denying that inherent biases exist within the policing community. Police officers tend to create a subconscious association between black individuals and crime, which often influences their behavior. In a psychological experiment called “The Police Officer's Dilemma,” participants were placed in a simulation and presented with images of young men, in black and white, holding guns or other various objects. The goal was to shoot at armed targets while refraining from shooting at unarmed targets. It turned out that participants shot armed targets more often and quickly if they were black, rather than white, and refrained more often when the targets were white. The most common errors involved shooting at unarmed black targets and not shooting at armed white targets. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The problem is real and terrifying. Some departments across the country have begun holding bias workshops and training, but more needs to be done. We must support and advocate for criminal justice reform as well as the humanization of Black Americans and police officers. Above all we must remember their names. His name was Philando Castiglia. Before Castiglia there were Trayvon Martin, Rodney King, Michael Brown and tomorrow another name will replace them.