Police, Brutality is has been around eventually just in different ways. Police officers are said to be some of the most trusted individuals within communities. Gaining trust from members of these communities makes their job effective. Because they are expected to protect the public and confront violent individuals, they can use physical, and sometimes even deadly force under certain circumstances. However, an officer who uses force uncalled for, or uses more force than necessary, may cross the line of police brutality. In the United States, many different people been exposed to police brutality. The vast majority of these victims have been African American. Experts say, a factor to explain the predominance of African Americans among other victims of police brutality, is because of anti-black racism amongst members of predominantly white police departments. It has been a repeated cycle for generations.
Slavery was the beginning of it all. The slaves had zero rights. The owners had open season to do whatever they wanted to the slaves they owned. Even the ones they didn’t there was no real punishment. Any white person had open season on anybody black.There was no consequences for killing anybody black. The most that would happen is an argument probably. Even though slaves had no rights,, some slaves were able to go back and forth to see there family if they were on different plantations. Just incase they tried to run there were “Slave Patrols” they very first form of police. These men were armed and enforced their will on slaves. The first group was established in 1704 in South Carolina. They even patrolled the waters just incase skates tried escaping by boat. They were in every state that hadn’t got rid of slavery already. Slave patrol had free range to go in anybody’s home even if they had a thought you were housing run away slaves.
However slavery was one of the worst times in America’s history the reconstruction era wasn’t any better. This was the start of the Radical Republicans takeover, many ex slaves we’re looking forward to starting a new life, get a better shot at life but this wasn’t reality. African Americans had rights. They had a chance to really do whatever, the things stopping them would be Lynching, Black Codes, and Dehumanization. There were a lot of black crimes violent crimes such as lynching and those types of things. Lynchings were to scare and control the African American community. The. “Lynch Mob” were mostly officers and if not the police officers would help set them up. The officers would open a inmates cell and leave it open for the mob to come and get them before the start of any trial. Most lynchings took place because of sexual contact of a white woman and a black man. There was no punishment for these actions either because the mob was usually approved by law enforcement. Claude Neal was a 23 year old man who was arrested for allegedly killing and raping 19 year old white woman. Claude was tortured for 12 hours then later he was grabbed from the police by the lynch mob and lynched in public. Black codes were laws to control the black community. These codes were for the white to remain in control while having the Africans Americans complain in reality. These codes replaced the slave code low-key. The codes restricted freedom, for example “Race was defined by blood” if there was any sign of black in you, you were considered a negro. Another example would be “Freedman were not taught to read or write”. How were they supposed to advance in life without knowing how to do those two thing’s? Blacks were “free” but not all the way. Dehumanization left physical and mental trauma on the black race. Witnessing all the different types of punishment does something to a person’s mind and soul. All of this to control the race they knew the trauma would scare and control them. These things would break them down mentally, they had Post traumatic stress disorder without even knowing what it was. Everyone had a chance to become a victim of emotional pain.
The civil rights movement was the end to discrimination and racial segregation in the United States. It was a lot of non violent act’s because they wanted to create equal opportunity by spreading peace. It was mostly peaceful even though it was some violent acts by some groups. Even though the civil rights movement was successful it was because of the killing of Emmett Till. Emmett Till was a catalyst in the civil rights movement, he was a 14 year old boy visiting his cousins in the south from chicago and he whistled at a white woman while buying gum. Four days later the woman from the store husband’s and brother in-law came and took Emmet from his cousins house. They beat him senseless and made him strip then shot him in the head. They tied and industrial fan around his neck threw him into the river. The husband and brother in-law were tried by an all white jury and they walked out the courthouse free men. They confessed later that everything they did was true and nothing happened. This was the start. The Ku Klux Klan aka the KKK is a white supremacist hate group. There targets where African Americans and they used terrorism to put fear In the hearts of people. The Klan members would hide their identity because half of them would be judges, police officers, or state officials. Behind those white robes and hoodies they would express there ignorant hate for black people. Some even went as far as dressing their children up. Throughout all the racism and segregation the Black Power Movement stayed strong.
The Black power movement started things inside their neighborhoods. Black owned everything, The Black panther party was their police, they protected the community. They wanted to protect the black people in their neighborhoods from police brutality. The panthers became a revolutionary group that thought it white america vs black america. The panthers were founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in california. They wanted to arm all African Americans and wanted no parts with “White America”. The panthers were involved with many incidents with the police most of them violent. Newton was charged of manslaughter and given 15 years in prison. The FBI considered the panther party as communist organization and the biggest threat to society. Chicago police killed two members of the panther party while they were sleep to set an example. They described it a shootout but nobody from the panther party shot back and it was really an execution. The Black Panthers were separated in 1982 because they became weak.
In conclusion Police Brutality is now just getting all the attention of the media because of all the new technology and we are actually seeing the actions of the officers. From slave patrols killing slaves to releasing german shepherds on innocent protesters and water hosing them. There as never been real punishment for police brutality and the most that would happen is them losing their job for punishment. It has affected the African American community for to long every generation has gone through a type of police brutality, it’s the same thing in different ways and it needs to stop. A gun a badge shouldn’t male one feel as if they are in control but as if they should lead and set an example of how to treat people that are human just as they are.
