Police Brutality: a Negative Effect on The Black Community 

Police brutality has negatively affected the black community making them afraid, angry and cautious. Law enforcement is supposed to protect the citizens of the country. However, due to police brutality, the black community has a negative view of law enforcement because of incidents like the case with Sandra bland, Michael Brown, and many other victims of police brutality. Police brutality makes black people have a fear of being brutally shot or abused by law enforcement, which then makes other people of the black community angry and more cautious about coming in contact with policemen who abuse their power.

During the year of 2015 28-year-old Sandra bland who was an African American woman who was brutally beaten while incarcerated in her cell but why? Is it because she was black? Or is it because she had evidence that she was being harassed by the officer who pulled her over texas? Why do you think she was killed?In an article presented by Tim Elfrink on washingtonpost there was a video was uploaded. In the video of Tim Elfrink’s article, they said“Encinia was later fired and charged with perjury for allegedly lying about the reason for the stop. The jury charges were dropped in 2017”Do you think that he tried to cover up the fact that he may have killed Sandra bland himself by declaring what was originally said which was that sandra bland committed suicide in her cell? in the video of the same article Sandra bland’s sister said “ open up the case, period, that’s how I feel right now this is crucial to everything said in the report, in his report. This not only shows that he lied but that he had no business even stopping her, period. ”She is basically saying that sandra bland’s video footage was enough evidence to prove that sandra bland didnt commit suicide but that the officer may have killed her because of the fact that she was recording him harrasssing her and he knew that if that video ever got out that he could possibly lose his job.On the other hand, the officer could have been simply racists. Lastly, the video state, “ Texas officials denied those claims and say the cell phone

was given to the bland family’s attorneys. ”With that being said, around the time Sandra bland got pulled over, there were other police brutality incidents. Therefore, Sandra bland felt like she was in danger and decided to record the incident. Ultimately, this recording was meant to be used as a way to defend herself. Picture yourself being in her situation; would you have done the same thing?

in an article presented by apnews they said, “On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown and a friend were walking in the middle of canfield drive, a two-lane in St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, when a police officer drove by and told them to use the sidewalk. After words were exchanged, the white officer confronted the 18-year-old Brown, who was black. The situation escalated, with the officer and Brown scuffling. The officer shot and killed Brown, who was unarmed. In that same article, they say “Aug. 9, 2014:Browns bloodied body remains in the street for four hours in the summer heat.People in the neighborhood later lashed out at the police saying they mistreated the body.” Yes, this young man could have done what the officer said.However the officer was in the wrong as well because after a few times of michael brown refusing to do as he asked that is when the officer could have took initiative to either take him into custody or got in contact with his parents and handle the situation that way. Instead of bickering and going back and forth with brown which would not have led to him being shot by the officer. On the other hand, the officers of that area where michael brown was shot should have took the body to investigate the crime that the officer has obviously committed. Clearly the officers of that community did not follow proper protocol which led the black people of that community to be very angry. Afterall, in the same apnews article they say “Aug. 10, 2014: After a candlelight vigil, people protesting brown’s death smash car windows and carry away armloads of food, alcohol and other looted items from stores. Some protesters stand on police cars, taunting officers. A QuikTrip convenience store store on West Florissant Avenue, just blocks from where Brown was shot, is looted and burned. Other businesses are damaged or destroyed…” How would you feel if something like that happened to your child or a child in your community?Would you have been just as angry especially if you knew the situation could have been handled in a better way?

Therefore, many black people feel as if they have to be cautious when encountering any police officer, especially a racist one because of a fear of being shot or beaten to death. In an article presented by pbs they say “Be polite and respectful when stopped by the police...” You should always be polite and respectful to people but for black people more specifically police officers because sometimes police officers can take disrespectful attitudes as you coming off trying to “harm” them. Sometimes this rule can apply to police brutality because when black people are being stopped by policemen on videos they make sure that they have enough evidence that they were being polite and respectful of the law enforcement. Another example, is in mostly every video when a black person is getting stopped by a police officer they always make sure that they have their hands in the air to ensure the officer that they are not reaching for a weapon. This because is most of the police brutality cases the officers would claim that the only reason that they shot the person was because they felt as if they were in “danger” or that their lives were being “threatened” because you were reaching for a weapon when you obviously weren’t doing that at all. Another example, you got stopped by the police and decide to reach into your glove compartment, that would cause them to “fear for their lives” and shoot you because their lives were being “threatened”. In the same pbs article they also said “Avoid physical contact with the police…” In most videos containing police brutality, a lot of the times we see that black men try to avoid physical contact with the policemen in fear of being accused and brutally shot for no reason.

Although police brutality has made the black community angry because of the innocent people being shot and wrongly accused, it does have a good side to it. Just think about it, every time a black person is killed by a police officer it does helps the black community come together and come to an agreement on some things and it also makes our parents more involved in our lives so that they could teach the black you how to react to situations like police brutality. Think about it like this,one day you are on the highway getting ready to drop your kids off at school and all of a sudden you see a police car behind you of course they tell you to stop and you do it but you put your hands in plain site where everybody can see them including your children. Not only you do that but you have also managed to stay calm in a serious matter that could have turned bad very quickly. Lastly, it helps the black community to want to stop black on black crime and put the guns down so that they can face the real obstacles against them as a whole. It also helps the black community and many other minorities realize that we have to fight for our rigthts because if we dont stand up for what we righteously believe in than most like this country wont do it for us. In other words police brutality has made us stronger together as a whole and not each individual alone.

In conclusion, police brutality has had a very crucial impact on the black community. More specifically making black people scared,furious and cautious with the law enforcement because the police are the people who are supposed to help keep the community safe. Instead, they are making black people feel like they can not be trusted. This shows especially when the law enforcement is trying to basically hide evidence that could be used to solve a case, such as the evidence in Sandra Bland’s new video footage. Afterall, the only reason Sandra decided to record that video was so that the video could be used as a way to defend herself. Be honest with yourself, would you trust the policemen in your community after constantly hearing about how policemen shot an innocent unarmed black male or women. Especially hearing one like the Michael Brown case. He was just a young black male walking down the street with his friend and suddenly they got stopped and the officer told them to get out of the street with then led to bickering between Brown and the officer. Although, Brown was wrong the officer also played a part in the situation as well because he could have simply just took Brown into custody for not obeying the law if it really got that serious to him, instead of shooting him. On the other hand, police brutality could also have some positive Effects on the black community by helping black people come together as a whole community and stick together. Eventually making them put the guns down and stop black on black crime in order to face the real problems that are way bigger than just some petty beef that they may have between one another. Lastly it will help the black people and other minority groups to teach their children how to react to situations such as police brutality so that if they ever come in contact with officer like this no matter what color they are they will know how to maneuver through the situation and handle it as best as they can.