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African American Police Research Paper

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History of African Americans and the Police The relationship between police officers and the African American communities can be understood by first understanding the policing history in the United States. Blacks were reminded of their inferior social standing through public spaces during segregation (Berrey and Foley, 2006, p. 81). African Americans were clearly suppressed by the justice system. It protected White male landowners. Experiences of African Americans led to their resistance that challenged the Jim Crow perspective of separate being equal (Berrey and Foley, 2006, p. 82). Separate but equal was merely a theory. However, in practice, the government treated Black individuals in the country as second class citizens in various settings, …show more content…
This interpretation is especially true when there is an increase in police presence. The racial factor creates uneasiness in minority communities because they fear the police. (Daniel, Lewis, and Kalalea, 2016). African Americans become scared of continued governmental oppression. In areas where the officers are more proactive, citizens may think that they are racial profiling (Gau & Brunson, 2010). Profiling is evidence-based targeting. In other words, if the data shows that a certain racial group is more likely to commit crime than others, this group should be policed closely to prevent crime and maintain public safety. (Thomsen, 2011). Police should observe the behavior of the individual more closely instead of targeting a whole racial …show more content…
As a result of the targeted oppression, a federal judge ruled against the New York Police Department's practice (Fratello, et al., 2013). The judge decided that the practice was infringing upon the rights of the people. Stop and frisk was also a form of force. The use of force continuum usually starts with presence of police officers. The practice of stop and frisk at least involved verbal communication or verbal commands. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the practice on the city's crime rate is debatable. If profiling does not significantly help to reduce crime rates, it should stop. Stop and frisk can be practiced but in a way that does not specifically target minority groups. Since the focus of officers was on the African American community, it seemed that citizens in other neighborhoods could get away with crimes. In fact, Miller et al. (2016) found that Blacks were arrested and stopped at higher rates than other racial groups even though the officer-inflicted injury rate was approximately the same across racial lines. With the change in stop and frisk policy, African Americans could have a little more peace in the reduced odds of being wrongfully stopped or harassed by

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