Paper Example on Black Lives Matter: Policing in Black America

Introduction

Black Lives Matter is a contentious topic that sparked in 2014 when Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown and killed him. As a result, the extrajudicial killing led to a national discussion on police violence against the African Americans from a racial perspective. Such excessive use of force by the police against the African American youths led to the public having dissimilar views on the policing context in the United States. Consequently, most of the African Americans alleged that their life is usually undervalued. Therefore, the African Americans' extrajudicial killings by the police fueled the establishment of the Black Lives Matter movement that protested against racial prejudice in law enforcement.

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In the past decade, several racial disparity allegations have been made against the United States police using excessive force on African Americans. Hence, the police are more likely to shoot the African American youths compared to their White counterparts. Vox's Dara Lind 2012 analysis confirmed that the American police killed African Americans at disparate rates. For instance, approximately 31% of the extrajudicial killings reported in 2012 were from the African American community (Chernega, 2016). However, the statistics were considered incomplete given they were obtained from voluntary reports recorded by various nationwide police agencies. Such reports illustrate the huge disparities in the excessive force used against the African Americans. Moreover, the racial disparities were even apparent among the unarmed suspects. The Guardian's 2015 assessment of police killings, revealed that 46.6% of the unarmed and armed victims shot by the police were from the minority ethnic backgrounds (Smiley & Fakunle, 2016). Besides, the African Americans accounted for roughly 62.7% of the unarmed victims shot and killed by the police. Hence, the high percentage of unarmed victims from the African American society killed by the police exemplifies the police's prejudice against the Black community.

Biased racial views have been exploited by the police to justify their illicit drug usage allegations against African American youths. The racial disparity associated with the police's extrajudicial killings demonstrates the prevalent racial inequities in the American criminal legal system. For example, the police are likely to arrest African Americans on drugs allegations although some of the Black youths arrested do not sell or use illicit drugs. Consequently, the African Americans inmates dominate the prison population in most of the states. Several socioeconomic factors, for instance, segregation, unemployment, and poverty have influenced the police's assumptions that most Black youths indulge in violence and crime (Carbado & Richardson, 2018). Consequently, the police have increased their surveillance in most suburbs where the African Americans reside. For that reason, the police are more likely to execute strict policing actions such as arrests and shootings to eliminate drug trafficking and crime in society.

The Sentencing Project research established that the prejudice against the high crime rates among the African American community has led to their incarceration and shootings. Therefore, roughly 39% of the African American imprisonment rate is based on previous criminal records or probable racial prejudice views that usually influence the prison sentence (Smiley & Fakunle, 2016). Similarly, Cody Ross's 2015 research, revealed that there is an insignificant link between the crime rates and county-level racial extrajudicial killings from the police. As a result, racial biasedness does not provide justifiable explanations on the police shootings as an appropriate response to the county level crimes (Kuo, 2016). Furthermore, other factors have promoted the disparities against the African Americans' extrajudicial killings. For example, subconscious racial prejudice is a major factor that has led to the African American killings. Psychology critics claim that the police are likely to shoot or arrest African American victims even in various video game simulations exposing the officers' biasedness against the Black community. Therefore, the subconscious racial prejudice among the police has led to most Africa American youths being arrested or shot based on ethnic partiality and previous criminal records.

The complaints about police abuse have been raised by various African American families from various cities across the United States. In case, the allegations against the police extrajudicial killings were from one region, state, or city it could be possible to defend the officers on preconception claims. However, the numerous inquiries by the United States Department of Justice and the media have exposed the skewed excessive force usage and abuse patterns against the African Americans countrywide. Such racial inequalities have stimulated law enforcement protests in the past years that culminated into the Black Lives Matter Movement. The movement rose to public prominence because of the contentious extrajudicial killings of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice (Chernega, 2016). The high-profile killings and racial disparities have nurtured the perception that African American lives are not valued the police in the United States. Hence, the several national complains from the African Americans indicate the next extrajudicial killing victim is likely to be a Black youth.

Conclusion

The Black Lives Matter Movement was formed after various extrajudicial killings against the African American youths from several cities with the United States. The movement believed that the African Americans' life had been undervalued by the officers. Moreover, the African American youths constitute most of the unarmed victims killed by Police in the American jurisdiction. The extrajudicial shootings against the African American community are mainly due to racial prejudice allegations. For example, the law enforcers have the perception that most African American youths indulge in illicit drug sale and other crimes. Hence, the perceived high crime rate among African American youths has led to their shootings or arrest. For that reason, the subconscious racial prejudice fostered by the police has led to high extrajudicial killings against the African American in various states and cities in the United States.

References

Carbado, D., & Richardson, L. (2018). The Black Police: Policing our own. Harvard Law Review, 131, 1979-1985.

Chernega, J. (2016). Black Lives Matter: Racialised policing in the United States. Comparative American Studies an International Journal, 14(3-4), 234-245. doi: 10.1080/14775700.2016.1267322

Kuo, R. (2016). Racial justice activist hashtags: Counterpublics and discourse circulation. New Media & Society, 20(2), 495-514. doi: 10.1177/1461444816663485

Smiley, C., & Fakunle, D. (2016). From "brute" to "thug:" The demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(3-4), 350-366. doi: 10.1080/10911359.2015.1129256