14th Amendment Research Paper

In the past decade, the amount of police brutality cases had increased drastically due to the police force suspecting many black men and women of being criminals. When the news report shows a police officer hitting a black man who was suspected of a crime, there are many people quick to point out police officers as racists. Usually, the police officers would say something along the lines of, “He attacked first and would not comply,” or “I thought he had a gun.” Now in some scenarios, this may be true as the suspect might have tried to fight back, but most of the time, it is not. Many police officers in these cases try to make up lies to get out being known as a racist. Thankfully, there are many witnesses and with the simplicity of a phone …show more content…
Police would act violently with African Americans as they were the minority who had limited rights. When they committed acts of crime, it had a large article on newspapers. This is what originally caused many white people to associate African Americans with criminals. As the years progressed, the idea that African Americans are criminals became a growing belief among police officers. This crude form has racism clearly goes against the principles of the fourteenth amendment as all citizens, no matter what race should have equal rights. The fourteenth amendment states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This quote says that the state cannot take someones life without a fair trial but the in the police brutality cases of the past decade, many African Americans were deprived of their life through unfair circumstances. There has always been a common assumption from the police and society that minorities, primarily African Americans, are associated with criminal activity, in turn causing police brutality …show more content…
The issue of segregation in the 1960s has slowly evolved into police brutality today as society believed that African Americans were always rebellious and involved in crime. This has led to numerous deaths of innocent African Americans such as Philando Castile and Tamir Rice. The initial solution of the racism issue was solved with the fourteenth amendment. But because people still had the racist mindset and the belief that African Americans were associated with crime, the fourteenth amendment is of no use in trying to spread equality among all races. If police today realized that crime is not related to race, America would be a much safer place for African Americans. But because of this racist bias, many African Americans are associated with crime, in turn, causing them to be victims of police brutality. The political cartoons show the difficulties that African Americans face and if the police would take time to understand these images, the many lives of innocent African Americans can be

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