...joins beliefs and value judgments with positive or negative emotional predispositions. Prejudice is a thought of racial or other form of inequality, not to be mixed up with discrimination, which is the action, or practice, of inequality based on prejudice.However that doesn't justify the victimization of innocent individuals who have ended up dead or in jail due to this stereotypical view. Therefore there is a need to constantly educate people about how detrimental these stereotypes are to the community is very important. this paper intend to discuss the current crisis in Ferguson which stemmed from the killing of Michael Brown and explore the elements of racial profiling and discrimination surrounding the event. In recent times there have been high levels of gun violence but the death of Michael Brown is one of the few exceptional cases. The killing of Michael Brown sparked up wide outrage within the black community in Ferguson due to the failure of the grand jury for the indictment of Darren Wilson the police...
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...Additionally, deductive logic is a science based argument that concludes if the premise is true then the conclusion must also be true. An example of deductive reasoning can be seen in the Michael Brown case. Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department shot and killed 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Ultimately, the United States Department of Justice determined that Wilson's use of force against Brown was defensible, and he was not indicted based on physical evidence that supported the officer's account of events. Wilson testified that Michael Brown reached for his gun and a struggle for the weapon followed, during which Wilson fired two shots. Wilson then pursued Brown, who turned and charged toward Wilson. Officer Darren Wilson fired multiple shots bringing Brown to the ground. Physical evidence supports Wilson’s account of how the incident took place as the Medical Examiner concluded that the wounds on Brown’s right hand occurred within 6 to 9 inches of the barrel of Wilson’s firearm (Department of Justice, 2015). Additionally, the Medical Examiner confirmed that Brown was, in fact, moving towards Wilson when he was fatally shot (Department of Justice, 2015). The examiners findings were essential in the decision to not indict Darren Wilson, because unlike witness testimony, physical evidence cannot lie or be accused of...
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...Theoretical Perspectives of Michael Brown’s killing Saturday, August 9, 2014 officer Darren Wilson fires shots killing 18 year old Michael Brown in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, definitely a tragedy for society as a whole. Questions now arise such as; Was it because he is black? Did he disrespect the officer by grabbing for his gun? Did they tie him to a theft? Many theories can help suggest what might of happened during the confrontation that led to Michael Brown endless minutes and what theory has caused society in such an uproar. Will one theory explain the nature in which Michael Brown was a youth of color being harassed and/or considered a clear picture of racial repression? The functionalist perspective explains that if an aspect...
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...Michael Brown and the 1st Amendment “A shot rang out in the Ferguson sky”. Although this line resembles a line from a song, the events that unite the two are real. Happened August 9th Michael Brown was shot by an officer in Ferguson named Officer Wilson. Michael Browns case didn’t go unheard from the, the main story, violate protests and witnesses comments and the prosecutor’s story will be mentioned in this paper. Officer Wilson violated the first amendment by not reading Michael Browns rights so the situation was not dealt with appropriately. The main story has so much detail that makes it sound so true. Michael Brown was an 18 year old teen and was unarmed and this event happened or occurred on August 9th. Wilson left an apartment he...
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...Zimmerman claimed that Martin assaulted him, even though he was unarmed, and acted in self-defense. The following year, Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the case (Black Lives Matter). Outraged by the results of the case, Alicia Garcia and Patrisse took to social media to voice their opinions on the matter, saying, “black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. #blacklivesmatter” (Black Lives Matter). The match of the movement was struck; however, the fire did not truly burn until a series of deaths later starting with Michael Brown. The Historic U.S. Events, published an article called, “Police Shootings Against Black Community Members Draw Criticism and Legal Action Against Law Enforcement,” noting the death of Michael Brown and its impact between the police and the community. In 2014, a white police officer in St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Missouri, shot and killed an unarmed black eighteen-year-old named Michael Brown. Witnesses claimed that Brown raised his hands up and was trying to surrender when he was shot. While the officer said Brown assaulted him and was charging at him when the shooting occurred (Historic US Events). Baltimore, April 2015, after Freddie Gray died in a police van...
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...In this world, people are quick to react first and then ask questions later. In the past few years that have gone by we seen a lot of unarmed black males killed by white police officers and how the police officers got a “pat on the back” and let go. This caused an uproar among the black community and it caused them to come together and protest that justice be served. It all started back in 2012 when George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But before Trayvon there was Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old who got shot by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009. Oscar and his friends were involved in an altercation on the train which needed the police to get involved. He was then...
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... Police tactics and training are in dire need to be revised in order to avoid fatal shots and unnecessary deaths. Some of these brutal scenes that show how the training of police departments is needing to be revised, are the cases of Michael Brown in Missouri and Rodney King in Los Angeles. The most recent death by an officer is the murder of Michael Brown, a resident of Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was shot in the back three to eight times by Officer Darren Wilson after Wilson had abused Brown and almost hit Brown with the police car he was driving at the time. This brutal killing of Brown begins when Officer Wilson rolls down his window and says to Brown and another man, Johnson, “Get the f*** out of the street.” The boys then respond that they will be both get out of the middle of the street in a few minutes, as they were just a few blocks from their destination and Wilson pulls off only to put the car in reverse and crash into Brown. As witness Johnson states, Officer Wilson attempted to open the driver’s door, hitting the two men. As he is unsuccessful, Wilson closes the door, rolls the window down, Wilson begins to pull Brown into the car physically assaulting him, all while...
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...Missouri, in August, September, and now currently. The unjust murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson started more public discussion about racism and police brutality than since the 1992 Rodney King riots. With large groups of protesters in Ferguson living under de facto martial law, it was obvious that something needed to be done. Many suggest that with video monitoring of police, the rates of violence would drop. Widespread, regulated police surveillance creates more video evidence to aid police in conviction of guilty people, and subsequently leads to much less police violence and a higher conviction rate of guilty officers due to being watched and having all their actions recorded and reviewed. It is a common known phenomenon within the psychiatric community that people often change their behavior when they know they are being watched. Instead of acting violent or aggressive, humans tend to...
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...marches across the US were shut down by police officers and caused many violent conflicts. One example of why people are protesting Black Lives Matter is Michael Brown. Michael Brown was a unarmed teenager who was murdered by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, on August 9, 2014 in Missouri. Michael Brown and his friend were walking in the middle of the street when a white police officer approached them and said “Get the f*** on the sidewalk.” The two young men replied “[we’re] not but a minute away from our destination, and we would shortly be out of the street.” The officer drove the vehicle forward but stopped and backed up, almost hitting the pair. Still in his car, the officer grabbed Brown’s neck, Brown tried to pull away but the officer drew his weapon and shot Brown. The two young men took of running, Brown’s friend, Johnson, hid behind a car while Brown ran 20ft from the car and was shot once more on the back. Brown turned around with his hands up, but the cop continued to fire until Brown dropped dead. The officer claims it was self defense but he had barely any injuries and there was no solid evidence of a physical altercation. Wilson was not charged with any crime for the case of Michael brown and was ruled not guilty by the jury. This caused outrage across the nation, protests and marches for Michael Brown’s murder were everywhere. Police brutality is just one example of how the US still isn’t equal to all and we have a lot to work on as a country if we don’t want...
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...the main focus. Privilege as defined by Shaw and Lee is defined as “Advantages that people have by virtue of their status or position in society.” For example males have advantages that are inherent just because they are males that females do not have. In the case of my topic I focused mainly on the privilege that white people have over black people. In early August in Ferguson, Missouri, 18 year old Michael Brown, an unarmed African American male was shot multiple times and killed after a confrontation with a cop. The officer, Darren Wilson, drove by the boys walking in the road and told them to move onto the sidewalk. Wilson then reversed his car back to the two boys where there was an apparent confrontation as Wilson recognized Brown as a suspect for a convenience store robbery days prior and the boys split off running in separate directions. It later became known that the robbery was not the reasons for the encounter that led to Brown’s death. (Washington Post) When Brown was killed there was a public outcry for him because he had been unarmed and was shot by a white police officer, Darren Wilson after what witnesses say looked like Brown surrendering with his hands up walking to Wilson. Shortly after Brown was shot protests and riots began and lasted for several days. This is not the first time that an unarmed African American male had been shot and killed. A few years ago George Zimmerman shot and killed an African American teen, Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was...
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...to carrying myself in the way a man should within a matter of months. All of my methods and realms of thinking had no choice but to be elevated. My name, Marcus James Evans, went from being a simple source of identity to being my title that I live to define everyday I wake up. August 9, 2014 African American teen Michael Brown is shot dead in the street by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Just days later almost the entire community of Ferguson, Missouri turned to complete riot. These riots raged so violently that United States military troops were called in to contain the upset crowds. And for 4 long months millions across America were highly enraged by this unjust murder....
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...of African-American civil rights movements have been the post-Civil War constitutional amendments that abolished slavery and established the citizenship status of blacks, and the judicial decisions and legislation based on these amendments, notably the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These legal changes greatly affected the opportunities available to women, nonblack minorities, disabled individuals, and other victims of discrimination. The Brown decision demonstrated that the litigation strategy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) could undermine the legal foundations of southern segregationist practices, but the strategy worked only when blacks, acting individually or in small groups, assumed the risks associated with crossing racial barriers. Thus, even after the Supreme Court declared that public school segregation was unconstitutional, black activism was necessary to compel the federal government to implement the decision and extend its principles to all areas of public life rather than simply in schools. The initial phase of the black protest activity in the post-Brown period began on December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider, thereby defying a southern custom that required blacks to give seats toward the front of buses to whites. When she was jailed, a black community boycott...
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...reality of what truly happens. Many people only see the side the news or the public wants them to see and they do not dig any further to reveal any other known facts about the case. In today's time what people see on the news is what they think "actually" happened. The news has the ability to change and edit videos to show what they want to be seen. The news fuels the public into thinking that racism is the only thing that is being produced from the villainous acts they are reporting on, but ignorance is also a prime outcome from these acts. The news fails to report on ignorance because they want stir the public's emotions. Stirring the public's emotions give the news another story to report on. With the recent verdict in the Ferguson Vs. Missouri case, the public demonstrated un-peaceful protest. This give the news a story for every night of the week. The more the news reports on racism, the more the crowd protests. These protests are based on the news report of racism in the death of teenager Michael Brown in the suspected "race crime shooting" by a Ferguson Police Officer. The Police Officer was called to the scene of a robbery where he then confronted Michael Brown. Brown then proceeded to reach for the Officer's gun which resulted in the Ferguson Police Officer firing upon Brown. The media portrayed Brown as an angel child, when in reality he was a thug. He was a part of a gang, did drugs, and participated in many crime filled activities. The media also portrayed this as a...
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...opportunities. However, to this day, that is not the case. For decades and arguably centuries, African Americans and other minorities have continued to fight this ongoing battle against racism and prejudice. This struggle is also very prevalent in police and judicial affairs. With the recent racial tension going on in the United States, it is important to understand why African Americans are still feeling this way in order to find ways in which to eliminate police brutality. Using Weber’s theory of authority, one can apply his ideology to the recent events in race relations and police officers in order to understand the ongoing tension and divulging into the reasoning behind people’s reactions to these events, emphasizing the issue is centralized around power and authority. There are everyday events that occur that highlight the ongoing racial tension between African Americans and police officers, showing that discrimination and racism is not dead here in the United States. For example, take the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. There is major controversy in the telling of the Michael Brown shooting. Michael Brown was shot and killed on August 9th by Officer Darren Wilson (Clarke). Brown was unarmed when the incident happened and the witnesses’ testimony and the officer’s account contradict the actual events. Brown was shown stealing a pack of cigarettes from a convenient store when Officer Wilson first encountered Brown (Clarke). Both parties agree that there was...
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...The jury is made up of 6 people, all of which are female. Eventually George Zimmerman is found to be non-guilty of second-degree murder and of manslaughter. He’s acquitted of all charges and is free to go on his merry way. After some time, one of the jurors does an interview detailing the process of finding George non-guilty. She said that in the heart of all the jurors, it was obvious that he should be found guilty. However, by the law of Florida, there was no way that they could convict him. It’s the sad truth, sometimes guilty people walk free because of a loophole in the...
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