Law Enforcement Stereotypes

Being an adolescent, who is in fact african american writing this essay, of course the first case which caught my attention was the 2012 Trayvon Martin case. Note, Trayvon was not killed by a member of law enforcement, rather, he was killed by a vigilante. But although Trayvon was not killed by a member of law enforcement this stirred up attention across america especially in the african american community concerning the law and members of its enforcement (judges, lawyers, police officers etc.) Following Trayvon’s death, deaths of other african americans by police officers started receiving national attention. Deaths of victims such as Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and others were being talked about nationwide following the death of Trayvon.

The issue group I’ve been assigned to weighs in on race relations and law enforcement. My specific stakeholder involves cops perceptive. There have been many cases where cops feel attacked, and are feared by the public for many reasons. I want to know what the police in general think about this subject that has been so prominent in our lives and in the media lately. In my rhetorical analysis essay I will be going in depth on a video showing police officers trying to find common ground with ex felons.

No one sees it but it happens. Police officers are characterized as enforcers with actions of tyranny and usurpations, to hold our rights or enforce power wrongfully. No one likes no one.

These attitudes are especially horrendous for the law enforcement to support since cops have so much power in a community. Yes, police officers are human, but due to the immense power they are granted, they should be held to a higher

There were cars and buildings being lit on fire, looting, harassing of cops, peaceful protest and in response to some of these actions, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and other methods to regain control. All of this led to a massive media attention and firestorm with future media coverage being given to other “cop killings”. I believe that the actions of certain police officers around the country has led to the blanket perception that all police officers are bad and not there to “protect and serve”. Sociologically speaking, my “location” or what I am in comparison to other people in the world,

Furthermore, according to research conducted by the United States Department of Justice, communities with high levels of disorder possess a more negative outlook on the police (National Institute of Justice, 2003). With Flint being one of the more violent and dangerous towns in Michigan, this further decrease the trust in the police to act impartially and to protect them. This also reaffirms my changed perspective on the police in being appreciative for their incredible efforts and

Society as a whole thinks more of police officers than it does of citizens that are accused of breaking the law. Society trusts officers’ words more than normal people. They think that because someone is a police officer they are more trustworthy. This bias was evident when, “The judge told the court that the police officers' version of events was more credible than the victims' version…”(NPR). The judge felt that because they were police officers he could trust their account of the incident more than the victims’.

This has been a huge problem with police and citizens for decades with the mistrust of police, especially in urban areas where there is a lot of racial tensions. And according to Ariel, Farrar, and Sutherland (2014), theorized that since there is that “big brother” concept with someone always overlooking the police and citizens, which lead to police tending to be more civil and try to be less aggressive. Also, the citizens tend to be me more respectful and comply more to police when the police officers show more respect to the citizens during their interactions. Otu, (2016), also theorized that the quality of policing builds a better relationship with citizens and police which reduces the need of excessive force. BWCs also may deter potential offenders who don’t want to be arrested when there is clear evidence against them that they cannot dispute (Ariel, Farrar & Sutherland,

Are Police Racist On April 29, 2017 Jordan Edwards, unarmed, was leaving a house party that was getting “out of hand”. He was fatally shot and killed while in the car leaving with his brother and three other unarmed teenagers. Jordan was considered a great student and he was liked by many of his teachers and classmates. This is just one of the many times police officers have fatally shot someone that was unarmed and just happened to be black.

There are good police officers who still believe in what is right. But the ones who do take the lives of innocent victims and disobey their code of conduct makes other police officers who do, do their job look bad. Those police officers who goes against their conduct make other police officers look bad especially white officers who have no intention of killing someone over that person's race. Many people use to look up to the police and view them as perfect role models who follows the law and always do the right thing but now many of those who use to look up to officers now fear them and take caution with every move they make because they fear for their lives. And that problem is not okay because citizens should not fear law enforcement because their race is not white.

Headstrong in the face of adversity, they took an oath and they will uphold it. At least a vast majority of them. Officers have achieved a bad rap in the past couple years because of a few legitimate bad apples and primarily the media trying their damnedest to paint a poor picture wherever possible of police. The false misconception created from this narrative has garnered enough attention that the positive and hard work officers do everyday seems to have been forgotten. People hastily right officers off as it seems so easy and then when they need them the most, they are left no choice but to ask for help from the same officers they just wrote off.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.

Police officers have been used for a long time and have always been very highly respected and looked up to. That is until recent. Over the past 10 or so years, officers have been ridiculed, scapegoated, discouraged, and most importantly disrespected. 100 years ago, the public supported officers in just about every way they could. It just seems the complete opposite now.

Recently there has been a lot of bad press on police officers with what citizens deem as unnecessary force or abuse of power. These remarks are coming from the shootings of several unarmed civilians by police officers. There have even been retaliations where civilians are opening fire on police officers. We cannot function as a society if we cannot trust the people that are appointed to uphold the law. The hatred is understandable towards police officers, but you can’t judge all officers by a few mistakes done by others.

The community has a negative outlook on the law enforcement because they don't take the time to look at the bigger picture and they are brainwashed by the media and they blow it out of proportion because they don't tell the people how this come about or why it happened all they see is the narrow minded part of it the media blows the whole thing out of proportion the police could have been completely in the right but because the police have such a bad name the community looks at it like they did it to make a statement. The community has a negative reaction because how the media presents the law enforcement as a whole force. The law tries to do things to show how good they are behind the curtain and behind the mask the media gives them. If the community would look pass the media's lies and false say so or hearsay.