The Problem Of Police Brutality

Racial profiling and police brutality have been happening for centuries and continues to happen today currently. Research has proven that people of color get treated differently and people stereotype others by their skin color. People judge others by racial profiling them by their ethnicity, studies have shown that this has lead to a negative impact on society today. The article, ‘Confronting Colorism: Interracial Abolition and the Consequences of Complexion’, states in the 19th century and their struggles of being a person of color. African Americans weren’t treated equally, as for white people they had more privileges, and power than people of color. ‘Historians have noted how society’s tendency of eliding refinement and whiteness made the pursuit of respectability an imperfect means of achieving acceptance for people of color’ (Bell). The quote from the article tells how people of color had to work harder for them to gain respect for society because of one’s skin color. In the article, ‘Challenges Faced by African American Golfers Pursuing Professional Careers’, explains how males and females of color that want to pursue professional playing career is in the challenges that they face giving example of African-American golfers pursuing professional careers. ‘Macro-level factors emphasize the broader historical, societal, and structural elements that are external to and often beyond the control of individual African Americans and the Black community as a whole,'(Rosselli). However, African Americans during the 19th century were barely getting set free from being slaves to the white people. African Americans had a much harder start in society and still, today continue to suffer because of their race. African Americans, today continue to have a target on their back from being race profited from the police. Law enforcement has killed incident people of color because they were being racially profiled and thought they were bad people because there were judged for their skin color. The article, ‘Police-Related Deaths and Neighborhood Economic and Racial/Ethnic Polarization, United States, 2015–2016.’ stated many people that have died in past years was men and boys of color inflicted by law enforcement. ‘More than 1100 persons’ died in the United States in 2015 from injuries inflicted by law enforcement, and police-related mortality rates are disproportionately high among men and boys of color, ( Feldman). This event was a fact that 1100 people have lost their lives because of police brutality. The article, ‘The Black Lives Matter Movement, Crime and Police Brutality: a Comparative Study of New York Post and New York Daily News.’ explains how a young boy that was killed by a police officer and how the movement black lives matter continues.’ Crime news is also featured frequently, with high numbers of blacks as perpetrators and whites often as victims’, (Chama). This quote states how white people are always set as the victims but most of the time there guilty of the crime and they’re the ones that should be punished not African Americans. In the movie I will be analyzing, ‘ American Son’ on Netflix and it’s about how a teenage boy goes missing and his parents are trying to find him with being his mother is African-American and his father is white. In the movie, it talks about how the young boy is only 18 years old and is missing. However, being that the mother is African American she already knew the severity of her son being missing more than two hours would end in a result in him being killed by the police because of current events that have happened to African American men. Later to find out that the mother was right and her son was killed by a police officer. However, police brutality needs to be stopped, and the black lives matter movement uses ethical appeal that such as ethos, pathos, and logos to help them promote to end police brutality.

First, ethos was used in the movie ‘American Son’, Kerry Washington was the lead actor in the movie. Kerry Washington is a famous actor that is African American women that stand for Black Lives Matter. Washington was a perfect fit for this role being that she was able to use her audience/ fans that look up to her to share a message to end police brutality. In the, in the article, ‘Our Brown Skin Makes Us a Target for Hate.’ States how ‘It is not so much the powerful leaders that determine our destiny as the much more powerful influence of the combined voices of the people themselves.’ (Arce). The powerful influence that Kerry Washinton has from her fans that support her, she was able to use her platform and tell a story of what happened to incident African American men, especially young men. Washington is using her platform to show how police brutality is and to end segregation and contest police. In the article, ‘They Were Looking at Us Like We Were Bad People’: Growing Up Policed in the Gentrifying, Still Disinvested City.’ talks about how young people of color and there challenges that they face in their everyday lives and how growing up of color and isn’t easy. ‘Centering young peoples’ knowledge and stories about their personal experiences with the police in their everyday lives, our research engages an analytics of desire (Fine 1988; Tuck 2009), countering the hypervisible violent imagery and racialized stereotypes that circulate in the public (Cahill). Kerry Washington used her platform in the movie by sharing to her audience of a personal story of incident young African American boy is getting shot by another police officer and no justice was served.

Second pathos is being used in the movie ‘American Son’, by looking at the cover page for the movie you can see the star actor Kerry Washington who is African-American women having a scared look on her face as if she is frightened of something. And, the cover page of the movie also has two white men behind her one being a police officer and the other one being her ex-husband. The type of emotion that the cover page of the movie portrays draws attention to people of color by having an African American woman scared and afraid with a police officer in the background can be related to a young African American woman in society today when seeing a police officer being scared by the police. In the article, ‘When Protesting Police Violence Puts You in the Crosshairs,” explains the significance and power of the black lives matter movement when protesting against police violence.’I carry [jail] with me like a backpack. Much whenever I see a police, I [wonder]: Am I about to get in trouble for something that never happened?’, ( Meyerson). This event was a direct quote from a young lady and how she frightened to have a police have because she doesn’t want to be put in jail or killed because she is African American.

Lastly, the rhetorical appeal being, logos was used in the movie by them taking a life experience that was a victim of police brutality and making it into a movie. The movie ‘American Son’, tells a story about a missing African American boy and later finding out that the boy was found shot dead by the police. The article, ‘The Cutting Edge of Confession Evidence: Redefining Coercion and Reforming Police Interrogation Techniques in the American Criminal Justice System’, tells different incidents that have happened in the American criminal justice system, this event includes murders, injuries, etc of victims that have been hurt. ‘Not because officers are intentionally ignoring the warning signs that a suspect may be innocent; but rather, because they are not even l (French). This event goes to be proven how police assume people are always suspect and continues to ignore the fact that some suspect or actually incident people. In the article, ‘Protesting the Police: Anti-Police Brutality Claims as a Predictor of Police Repression of Protest’, said ‘Police are trained to be neutral when policing protests, to not take sides on the issue in question. While police may not always live up to this ideal, they may be especially unlikely to maintain such neutrality when policing protests against the police’, (Reynolds). Police are trained a certain way by law enforcement some types of changes need to be made is that incident, people have died because of the police not being properly trained and killing incident people. In the article, ‘How Police Culture Affects the Way Police Departments View and Utilize Deadly Force Policies under the Fourth Amendment.’ explains how we should trust and feel safe in our community because of the law enforcement, however, the police department hasn’t shown or made us feel safe because of the past/current incidents with people of color. BPD was accused of making unconstitutional arrests, discriminating against African Americans in enforcement activities, and using an unreasonable force. This event is a proven example for the police offers that use force onto people of color for no reason.

In conclusion, police brutality and racial profiling have been happening long and being that innocent people have died because of law-enforcement not enforcing punishment on police officers that have injured and killed innocent victims of color. However, everything in today’s society involves rhetorical appeals being ethos, pathos, and logos. First, for ethos was used in the American Son movie having Kerry Washington an African American actor play in the lead role of the movie. The second pathos having the movie page cover page draws an emotion by having an African-American woman being scared and frightened in the center of the photo and two white men in the background one being her ex-husband and the other one being a police officer. Lastly, logos having the movie are based on a real-life experience of a victim of police brutality and trying to shed light and promote the public eye about police brutality.

Work Cited

1. Alonso, Jesus A. “How Police Culture Affects the Way Police Departments View and Utilize Deadly Force Policies under the Fourth Amendment.” How Police Culture Affects the Way Police Departments View and Utilize Deadly Force Policies under the Fourth Amendment, Jesus A. Alonso, Dec. 2018.
2. Arce, Julissa. “Our Brown Skin Makes Us a Target for Hate.” Our Brown Skin Makes Us a Target for Hate, Aug. 2019.
3. Bell, John Frederick. “Confronting Colorism: Interracial Abolition and the Consequences of Complexion.” Confronting Colorism: Interracial Abolition and the Consequences of Complexion, Aug. 2019, pp. 239–265.
4. Cahill, Caitln. “They Were Looking at Us Like We Were Bad People.” They Were Looking at Us Like We Were Bad People, Sept. 2019.
5. Chama, Brian. “The Black Lives Matter Movement, Crime and Police Brutality: a Comparative Study of New York Post and New York Daily News.” Sept. 2019
6. Feldman, Justin M. “Police-Related Deaths and Neighborhood Economic and Racial/Ethnic Polarization.” Police-Related Deaths and Neighborhood Economic and Racial/Ethnic Polarization, Mar. 2019.
7. French, Dylan J. “The Cutting Edge of Confession Evidence: Redefining Coercion and Reforming Police Interrogation Techniques in the American Criminal Justice System.” The Cutting Edge of Confession Evidence: Redefining Coercion and Reforming Police Interrogation Techniques in the American Criminal Justice System, Apr. 2019.
8. Meyerson, Collier. “When Protesting Police Violence Puts You in the Crosshairs.” When Protesting Police Violence Puts You in the Crosshairs, Dec. 2017.
9. Reynolds-Stenson, Hedi. “Protesting the Police: Anti-Police Brutality Claims as a Predictor of Police Repression of Protest.” Protesting the Police: Anti-Police Brutality Claims as a Predictor of Police Repression of Protest, Jan. 2018, pp. 48–63.
10. Rosselli, Anthony, and John Singer. “Challenges Faced by African American Golfers Pursuing Professional Careers.” Challenges Faced by African American Golfers Pursuing Professional Careers., Dec. 2017.