Police Brutality Is Not Just A Criminal Justice Issue

Out of all the social justice issues in the world, there are many that stand out. Many of  these issues aren’t dealt with. The social justice issue, police brutality occurs to many citizens  such as blacks, minors, and the deaf. Police brutality against blacks has occurred throughout history since forever ago.  Research shows, “The analysis also showed that Latino men and boys, black women and girls  and Native American men, women and children are also killed by police at higher rates than their  white peers”  (Amina, 2019). This explains that compared to brutality against whites, other races/ethnicities  have it way worse. Laws are in place to protect equality for everyone in the U.S and yet nothing  is done about police brutality (usually white officers act this way) towards other races. Another  quote from the same site states, “A new study finds that about 1 in 1,000 black men and boys can  expect to die as a result of police violence over the course of their lives – a risk that’s about 2.5  times higher than their white peers” (Amina, 2019). The fact that black men/boys have to worry  about coming in contact with the police due to abuse just because of their color goes against  every right that protects a U.S citizen. Another situation where police brutality comes in would  be to minors.

Police brutality against minors can occur anywhere, even at school… A video from  August 27, 2019 showed abuse from a white police officer and sources said, “Video of a school  resource officer wrestling with and restraining a crying 11-year-old girl is getting new attention  this week after it was announced that the officer resigned amid continued criticism over his use  Maciel, 2  of excessive force on a child” (Lockhart, 2019). Excessive force by a grown man to a minor that  didn’t deserve it isn’t okay, which is why the officer ended up resigning. This force only is  necessary when someone has committed a crime with proof and is refusing to cooperate with the  police. Another quote about the same story states, “Zachary Christensen… tried to force the girl’s  arms behind her, pushing her into the side of the school building and slamming her to the ground  in the process…Christensen said the girl had violated several school rules after standing on a  school bus, taking too many milks at the school cafeteria, and picking at a sign taped to a door”  (Lockhart, 2019). The 11 year old girl didn’t commit any crimes, just broke a few school rules  which resulted in abuse towards her by a police officer. Besides police brutality against blacks  and minors, it also occurs to deaf people.

When pulling over a deaf person, there are many difficulties that could occur such as no  response, not seeing a deaf sticker or card, etc. Sites say, “…list of deaf people who have been  brutally assaulted by police officers for what has been described by officers as failure to respond  to officers’ verbal commands, aggressive hand signaling or resisting arrest” (Lewis, 2015). This  basically says that police officers describe situations with deaf people as they were unable to  respond to an officer’s orders (they’re deaf which means they can’t hear), hand signaling (deaf  people communicate through sign language which uses excessive hand movement), or resisting  the arrest (how would they understand?…). If a police officer is screaming at a deaf person, they  have no idea what’s going on because they can’t hear which is why if someone isn’t responding  at all, the officer should assume they’re deaf or give them a chance to show their card. A scenario  from the same website states, “This January, Pearl Pearson, a 64 year-old deaf man, was  attempting to show patrolmen a placard saying ‘I am deaf’ when they pulled him from his car,  brutally assaulted him, dislocating his shoulder and swelling his eyes…following Pearson’s  assault, the officers’ dashboard camera reveals officers cursing after they run a quick check of his  license and find out that he is deaf” (Lewis, 2015). This scenario explains how horrible police  brutality towards the deaf is. The police officer gave the man no chance to prove he was deaf  they just assumed he was refusing to comply.

Some people might say that police officers are doing this as an act of self defense.  Sources say, “An officer’s force response must be made from the perspective of the officer and  the totality of the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time. It is not made from  the perspective of the subject. It would be impossible for the subject to fully understand the  officer’s perspective and therefore impossible to determine if the force is excessive (Flosi,  2017).” This basically says that when an officer pulls someone over, the amount of force that  they think is needed depends on how much they already know about the person. The arrest or if  someone is getting pulled over is never from the civilians point of view, it’s whatever the cop  knows.

This evidence may be true, but to an extent it’s not in a few ways. If there is a racist cop,  they will treat people how they want to, so when it comes to other races getting in trouble, that  racist cop will treat them worse than needed from his opinion. This is something that any human  does when it comes to their opinion, they act on how they feel about something. Overall, police  brutality is a big problem in the world today.