In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson against all odds, but the racial prejudices at the time caused him to be found guilty and executed. Atticus at one time states, “our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.” This claim can be disproven because some defendants are still treated as second-class citizens compared to those with greater privilege and influence.
Atticus’ statement that everyone is equal to the judicial system is incorrect because those who are privileged have more advantages and can avoid blame for their crimes. Many privileged individuals such as police officers can kill and beat unarmed black men and women based on “reasonable doubt” and are later freed of
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The worst punishments these officers receive vary from a demotion to discharge from the force. Zimmerman, a community watch member who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, was never treated as a criminal and although he was charged with murder he was eventually acquitted of all charges. Zimmerman was more recently accused of drunkenly boasting about his crime to strangers in a bar while using racial slurs when referring to Martin. Zimmerman’s privilege as a member of the justice system lead to an unfair sentence that caused Martin’s death to go unavenged. Another more complicated example of police privilege is police assisted suicide. Sandra Bland was pulled over for not correctly using her turn signal when changing lanes and an argument with the officer lead to her arrest. The video of Bland’s arrest has been proven to been edited and cut, causing conspiracies to form around her arrest. Bland was later found hanging in her cell with no report of movement outside her cell, although claims have aroused that the police covered up the real security footage. Close friends and family say she had no history of depression or mental illness which the police used to justify her suicide. Sandra Bland was a large supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which …show more content…
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was up against a powerful family in Maycomb and although Finch provided strong evidence he was found guilty. Robinson’s sentence can be attributed to the racial prejudices in the 1930’s and how the courts were ruled by white men influenced by Maycomb’s expectations. Similar in To Kill a Mockingbird, Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter was cruelly punished because of her society’s views on women. By Hester having sex as a widow and conceiving a child out of wedlock, she defied society’s expectations and was judged on her immoral behavior that contradicted the Christian faith. She refused to give up the name of her lover and was punished twice as hard. Both of these literary examples reject Atticus’ beliefs because the punishments of both Robinson and Prynne were based off of their society’s existing prejudices that were shown in the court’s
The Sandra Bland Case Sandra Bland was reportedly in Austin, Texas interviewing for a position at her former college. Sandra Bland was stopped July 10, 2015 by Trooper Brian Encia in Austin, Texas. She was originally pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. However, this simple traffic stop turned into an arrest and later a claimed suicide because Sandra Bland refused to put out her cigarette and supposedly assaulted the trooper. Did Sandra Bland commit suicide or was she killed to cover up a police officer’s unnecessary arrest?
Sandra Bland died from the injuries she sustained during the traffic stop beating. On the video, Sandra claimed she suffered from epilepsy,a neurological disorder, while being held down on the pavement. It was possible that Sandra received some brain damage after the assault, resulting in a seizure. This seizure, when left untreated, will result in death. In short, the Police department will and should be held responsible for Sandra 's death.
The deadly shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Wilson, unveiled numerous issues within local law enforcement, that resulted in social controversy aimed at all of law enforcement. According to the BBC news, Brown was unarmed when he was fired upon by Wilson (“Ferguson unrest”, 2015). A projection from this incident has emerged, claiming that African Americans are killed more frequently than other races when confronted by law enforcement. The statistics have revealed that African Americans who are unarmed have been victim to violence with
The Sandra Bland Suicide Case Is Now A Murder Investigation by Mark Reagon. Sander Bland was a 28 year old women from the Chicago-area was pulled over in Texas, Waller County to be exact for failing to signal as she was changing lanes. Highway state trooper Brian Encinia was the officer who pulled her over and he was also the arresting officer. That following Monday she was found dead in her cell hanging by a plastic garbage bag. The police announced that the cause of death was that she killed herself, because she was not able to make bail.
All people are created equally, but all people are not treated equally. This statement is represented during the trial of Tom Robinson. Tom is black and black people rarely ever win trials because people are racist in the town of Maycomb. People are put into groups based on the Maycomb Caste System which is most often key divided by ethnic, racial, or financial lines. For example, the white upper class is represented by Atticus, while the poor black citizens are represented by Tom Robinson.
To Kill a Mockingbird shows that while justice will always exist, it often isn’t distributed fairly. Harper Lee shows this in the book through Mr. Ewell and Mayella’s reason to accuse Tom Robinson, Atticus’s closing argument about how
Justice is seen in all aspects of life, and some may pursue justice while others will try anything on their favor to surpass it. Wrongful convictions haven’t been anything new, The Crucible takes place in Salem and occurs to present the Salem Witch Trials, while To Kill A Mockingbird, explores the 1930s from the view of a small girl named Scout, living in Maycomb in a racially divided town in where Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping a white woman. In To Kill a Mockingbird and The Crucible, both John Proctor and Tom Robinson are victims of injustice and convicted of crimes they never committed and so they are looked down upon by the townsmen. Despite all of this, Reverend Hale and Atticus try to change the town’s bias even though
Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on August 9, 2014 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting prompted protests. When it was announced that Officer Wilson would not be indicted, the announcement set off another wave of protests. Not all police officers are dishonest and abuse their power but It 's obvious that today 's community of people has a suspicion of officers true intentions. The idea of cops and cameras has been around for a while but ever since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown the debate on whether police officers should be required to wear body cameras has been the center of attention.
Although the numbers have kept increasing, there had been eight confirmed law enforcement officers that were killed during separate shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, LA. These shootings were committed by African American assailants who were angry with the treatment of the African American community by law enforcement. What was ironic about the Castile shooting was that the police officer who shot him arrested him before for mistaken identity for an armed robbery while he was wrongfully booked to a Minnesota county jail. Despite the details about Castile’s tragic death are unclear, what is known for certain is that four days after his release, the exact same police officer saw Castile driving with a broken tail light and the at the next traffic light, the officer stopped, shot, and killed him while it was aired live for the world to see on Facebook by his girlfriend. These shootings in particular sparked nationwide protests and tension and hostility between law enforcement and the people of the
In society there are many young black males and females that have been killed in the past years due to police brutality. Michael Brown was one of these young people. Thousands of people were protesting against the police after this shooting, saying how outraged they are that this happened and also how they targeted him because of his skin color. Michael Brown was shot dead on the day August 9th, 2014. The police
One example that will remain prevalent for years to come is the killing of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African American male. On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin wearing a black hoodie walked back from a convenience store through a predominately white neighborhood in Sanford, Florida was gunned down by George Zimmerman; a neighborhood watch volunteer because he looked suspicious (Dahl). Unfortunately, due to Florida’s “Stand your Ground Law,’’ Mr. Zimmerman was able to portray himself as the victim and used deadly force as self-defense. After one year of investigations and interrogations, George Zimmerman was found not guilty. This was a huge concern not just for African Americans, but people of other minority
This book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is all about racism. There is one character that fights for equality, Atticus Finch. Atticus represents the desire for fairness. He proves some of it in his speech he gives at the courtroom. An example/quote, of his desire for equality is this quote, “…Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury.
Through the trial she shows how the caste system impacts the outcome of trial. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that a caste system corrupts the justice system because a caste system generates a blurred image of the truth that creates inequality. This caste system can be seen during Tom Robinson’s trial. Tom Robinson trial is about Tom a black man allegedly rapeing a white girl named Mayella Ewell.
This behaviour is deemed as natural, and few people question the roles put in place, this is truly terrifying so we are lead to wonder if what we accept as normal is perhaps corrupt instead. Race is the dominant cause of inequality in To Kill A Mockingbird, thus Maycomb’s views on race heavily influence every aspect of life. Although racial inequality is clearly illustrated in the in the injustice, prejudice, discrimination and antagonism surrounding the Tom Robinson trial, it is also shown more subtly throughout the novel. In Chapter 25 Atticus Finch is quoted disclosing that the corrupt justice system is a direct cause of a racist society. “In our courts, when it 's a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee, 295).
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb Alabama. He Has two kids, Scout and Jem. His wife died when Scout was only two years old. Atticus is not only respected by his children but his community. Atticus teaches his kids valuable lessons throughout the story.