Police Brutality Research Paper

Police brutality is a topic mentioned frequently in the media, and news today. However, despite the world’s awareness, an end to this issue has yet to take place. Police brutality is defined as “the excessive, unreasonable, and unjustified use of force by law enforcement that often causes long-term physical and psychological trauma and, in some cases, death” (Kaufman EJ; Feldman JM; Tate J; Fuller DA). It’s an often occurrence that victims of police brutality are minorities. This is an issue because society is shaped in a way where minority stories and voices are silenced. An end to police brutality is a much-needed societal change, predominantly within America. Police brutality is overlooked because many people believe this issue doesn't directly …show more content…
In the United States, 1247 people were killed by police (“Police Violence Report”). 95 of these people were unarmed, most of them were people of color (“Police Violence Report”). This is the highest number of police brutality-based deaths within the past decade (“Police Violence Report”). One percent of these cases lead to charges against officers involved (“Police Violence Report”). Specifically, less than 3% of police killings each year lead to officers being held accountable (“Police Violence Report”). In her song “Perfect Way to Die”, Keys explicitly mentions the story of a mother receiving the heartbreaking call that her innocent Black son has been shot and killed by officers. She is then told to calm down and brush it off by police. “Simple walk to the corner store/Mama never thought she would be getting a call from the coroner/Said her son's been gunned down, been gunned down/ "Can you come now? "/Tears in her eyes, "Can you calm down?/Please, ma'am, can you calm down?" Keys to the XML file. Racial stereotypes are one of the leading problems of police brutality (“The History of Police Brutality, and What It Means for You”). Other factors include rampant discrimination, and different treatment of minorities within the judicial system (“The History of Police Brutality, and What It Means for You”). This forms the belief that certain minorities are more likely to engage in criminal activity than others (“The History of Police Brutality, and What It Means for You”). Leading to the statistic that “Unarmed Black people are over three times more likely to be shot and killed by police compared to white people” (Kaufman EJ; Feldman JM; Tate J; Fuller DA). Police brutality continues to take place because lethal altercations tend to rule in the favor of law enforcement officers over the victim, allowing them to remain on duty despite killing an unarmed individual (“The History of Police Brutality, and What It Means for

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