Police Brutality towards Racial Groups in the U.S. Criminal Justice System
One of the contemporary criminal justice issues in the U.S. criminal justice system is police brutality towards racial groups and ethnic minorities. This issue is particularly manifested through unlawful arrests of individuals from minority racial and ethnic groups and excessive use of force by police officers. This is a major problem in the field of criminal justice because police officers who ought to be custodians of human rights and law enforcement are the ones who violate and dehumanize those arrested for breaking or perceived to have broken the law. The general impact of this issue on the society is creating divisions and animosity between various ethnic groups in the American society, which can threaten social integration and co-existence (Dollar 2014). Ultimately, this issue needs to be addressed in an endeavor to promote justice and equality in the society.
The evolution of police use of excessive force towards individuals from ethnic minorities in the United States began way back during the slavery days. For so many years, Police officers have been implicated in the excessive use of force when handling African Americans and Latinos who are suspected of engaging in criminal activities (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). Excessive use of force in this context is characterized by the use of coercion and intimidation by law enforcement officials in an attempt to obtain information from the suspected individuals. This was particularly prevalent during the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by horrendous violence against individuals of color during the Civil Rights Movement (Dollar, 2014). One of the main factors that caused this issue to evolve is the willingness of the criminal justice system to embrace procedural justice, where police officers and all other law enforcement officers are compelled to make decisions that are in tandem with the applied legal principles as opposed to personal opinion and biases (Hall et al., 2016).
The evolution of the perception of this issue was triggered by activities of the civil right movements in the United States. This was particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by horrendous violence against individuals of color during the Civil Rights Movement (Dollar, 2014). The continuous killing of individuals from minority ethnic groups, especially African Americans and Latinos was one of the reasons why the perception of this issue has evolved. Technology has impacted public perception by allowing people to know when incidences of police use of excessive force occur according to Charney and Robertson (2013). For instance, CCTV cameras have captured events where people of the color are mistreated by the police. An example to illustrate this is where a videotape showing Rodney King, an African American taxi driver, being beaten by the police in 1991. In this connection, many blacks in America were able to understand that the police were using excessive force in their dealings with black citizens (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). Thus, technology has been effective in providing unquestionable and sustainable proof to the fact that the police use excessive force against minorities such as African Americans in the process of enforcing the law.
References
Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.
Dollar, C. B. (2014). Racial threat theory: Assessing the evidence, requesting redesign. Journal of criminology, 2014, 1-7.
Hall, A. V., Hall, E. V., & Perry, J. L. (2016). Black and blue: Exploring racial bias and law enforcement in the killings of unarmed black male civilians. The American psychologist, 71(3), 175-186.
