During American slavery, white criminals did not face justice for their victimization of slaves. Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass became aware of the victimization of slaves and how white criminals were not brought to justice since slaves were not allowed to testify in court. In his narrative, Douglass states that his wife’s cousin was murdered when she was watching the child of a couple on the plantation, while the wife, known as Mrs. Giles Hicks, was present in the room with the female slave. Upon hearing the baby cry, Mrs. Hicks noticed that the slave was slow to get up to attend to the crying baby. Furious, Mrs. Hicks immediately rose from her bed and viciously attacked the slave breaking her nose and breastbone, so that she died…show more content… Tamir Rice, a twelve year old boy from Cleveland, Ohio, was playing at the park by himself with toy gun. Seeing Rice with what appeared to be a gun, someone called the police and said they had seen someone with a gun at the park. When the police arrived, they shot Rice within seconds of seeing him. The police car had not even stopped before Rice had been shot, nor was there an ambulance called to attempt to save Rice’s life; Rice died soon after he had been shot. The officer who killed Rice was not charged with the murder of Rice, since the officer’s actions were deemed justifiable because the message that the boy may be holding a fake gun was not relayed to the two officers. When the case was brought to a grand jury, the prosecution used “expert” witnesses to exculpate the police officers. As a result, the grand jury elected their was not sufficient evidence to take this case to court even though the security footage clearly shows the officers immediately shooting the twelve year old boy without analyzing the situation. In the wake of injustice and shootings from the past and present, certain regulations need to be put in place in order try to address, improve, or solve these prolonged
