Ethnicity & Police

People are under an impression that all the police are corrupted. Police have created a negative image in front of the people that all the police are bad and all of them do not follow criminal justice system. This impression should be removed and the police should try to create a positive impact upon the people. Only few of the people seek well about the police. They say that police is working fully and is creating peace in a nation. They have full trust in police.

Lack of society support gives rise to more crimes. In this situation than the police is also not interested to make peace; police will not put their utmost effort to remove crimes. Peace-making is the basic and most vital responsibility of the police. If they perform any non ethical capture or does anything discriminately not considering the actual laws they will lose their trust. A better police will be formed only when there is cooperation between the police department and the society itself.  Criminal justice system of a country should create collaboration with the police as it will help making the police more efficient. The police should not treat the crimes brutally or abusively as in an instant a police cannot know whether the person captured is criminal or not, and if they will treat every other person abusively the perception of the people about the police will come true; that the police are all corrupted and abusive.

Mostly the people of America complain that the police treat the African American more brutally than the whites or Hispanics. While the vast majority of Americans that are the whites have full confidence in the police. They completely trust them for their lives and areas. They have no problem against the police. Only a few of them have very little or no confidence at all in the police department. But a racial gap is always present there. When surveying the people it was found that as compare to the whites, African Americans have very little trust over the police. This was all because of the attitude of police that they mostly treat the blacks abusively as compared to the whites. More than half of the African American i.e. roughly 58% is of the opinion that they are not treated fairly. Justice is not being done to them as compare to the whites. They usually report negative reactions from the police while the whites do not. The whites are mostly satisfied with their police. (Howard Giles, 2002)

            Mostly the black people are the victims of stop and search. People who live in highly crimes areas are mostly the victims of these searches and it is usually observed that they are mostly blacks. Therefore the African American state that they are treated unfairly and are searched more brutally than the Whites.

A famous occasion is also known of the ethnic behavior of the police. This incident was placed on 3 March 1991. In this event an African American named Rodney King was caught by the police and was brutally beaten. The police was of Los Angeles. The beatings of Rodney King went on air by some person and were then broadcasted all over the America. A major riot was established. A mutiny came into America due to the arrest and killing of a black by that police. The term Rodney King became the main term to say police abuse. Police officers were convicted of many civil rights charges due to this.  Reforms were also introduced under the Christopher Commission Report (1991). This became a major incident in the police as it was clear racial discrimination of the Blacks over the Whites. The African American presented themselves as the 10- 12% of the population in 2008 but the police arrests made in those period represented the Africans in arrests in robberies and other crimes  more than 40%. It means they were mostly arrested due to the crimes. They were the major victim of being questioned. Racial and ethnic communities mostly become the prey for the most police abuse. Blacks are killed four times more than the whites. (Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, Miriam DeLone, 2011)

            It is seen in everyday practice that police is treating the racial and ethnic groups more violently than the others. They treat them as they are their slaves. They are abusive to them and stop or search them whenever and wherever they like. They question the Blacks more as compare to the whites. The African Americans always complain that the police treat them more abusively. The police are creating the view that they are the corrupted organization. They always treat the people as per racial discrimination. A racial gap is significantly always present in between the police and the people of America. (Stephen K.Rice, Micheal Douglas White, 2010)

References

Howard Giles (2002), Law Enforcement, Communication, and Community,  John Benjamins Publishing

Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, Miriam DeLone (2011), The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America, Cengage Learning

Stephen K.Rice, Micheal Douglas White (2010), Race, Ethnicity, and Policing: New and Essential Readings, NYU Press