Black Lives Matter

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Institution

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Black Lives Matter and Use of Body Camera

Introduction

Black Lives Matter Movement was founded in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin. Talk of the killings and maiming of minority groups including statistical representation. 31% of police brutality cases accounts for killings related to African Americans.

Police brutality is the use of excessive force by police officers on its citizens. We live in a world where we thrive on law and order and part of the order is often maintained by law enforcers including the police. In a world where there is no law and order then anarchy would really thrive which may pose to be an unfavorable environment to live in. It is for such reasons that often law enforcers play a huge role in a country and they have been granted the power to do so. However, more often than not some officers often misuse their power by brutalizing the innocent. Police brutality is an issue that is often brought up in almost every country including the United States (Vanessa, 2018).

With the recants movements on black lives matter there is need to look on the matter. There are debates on all lives matter issue as well as black lives matter with all lives matter wanting to diminish all lives matter movement (Monica, 2018).

Thesis statement: This paper will generally examine Black Lives Matter movement, extensive research has been conducted on effect police brutality has on African Americans including fatal injuries inflicted, adverse psychological effect, racist public reaction, high incarceration rates and arrests and integrated oppressive structure.

Body: Extent of police brutality.

A good example is Dondi Johnson who was arrested in Baltimore and suffered injuries from police including broken limbs that he later succumbed from these injuries. Cases of African Americans that have succumbed from gunshots are quite too high as a result of brutality. The second reason is Psychological stress as most African Americans are often stressed if they may be the next victims. laws in place that seem to contribute of police brutality such as Stop and Search laws.

On the job trouble refers to the problematic encounters that law enforcers may encounter while carrying out their job. If protest occur, police are tasked with ensuring there is law and order and that protesters carry out the protest peacefully without causing harm or vandalism to others. In the job trouble refers to dealing with police as well as the legal bureaucracies where one has to explain their actions on the job. This may include an inquiry of police conduct after a protest. Police may create ‘in the job’ trouble for themselves when they become repressive as they try to maintain law and order avoiding “on the job” trouble (Jelani, 2017). In cases where police officers may avoid to use more of hands-off approach especially in a protest that has violent tendencies, then there is likelihood of lawlessness.

George Floyd’s murder led to a lot of protests all over United States most people stating the protests are no longer peaceful. Colin Kaeprick did a protest where he knelt and got a lot of back lash including the fact that it was disrespectful but now people believe he was right. He lost his job including the NFL for taking a stand and later on in life people do believe that he was right and needed to be acknowledged. This brings the discussion on peaceful vs. non-peaceful protests. People pointed out that police officers may be using force to try calm BLM movements yet while the whites were protesting on need for the border to be opened they were treated differently.

Incorporate ideas of Malcolm X and Martin Luther on peaceful protest when it comes to matters of racism. While Martin Luther supported Gandhi on peaceful protest, Malcolm was seen to support violent protest.

Implementation of body cameras to help reduce police brutality. These cameras have been suggested as best ways to capture brutality cases (Dorothy, 2015). Capturing how all police officers get to interact with the citizens may help reduce police brutality cases.

Most police brutality cases are usually the words of the officer against the police use of cameras would help. Use of body cameras will help show the side of the story if excessive force will be used. Blue Code of silence is the leading reason as to why most police officers get away with brutality (Anthony, 2017).

Police will respond to various protest with different force depending on a couple of factors. Law enforcers protect economic as well as political interest of certain elites. Depending on the issue being protested against the force may be minimal or brutal. Issues such as police brutality are sensitive issues these is because a country like America has gone through years of changes in a bid to achieve racial equality (Alese, 2020)

Conclusion

Although racism has greatly reduced the issue of systemic racism is now visible when it comes to police brutality. Media serves as one key role in looking at police brutality cases as well as their effects.

Achievements that have been achieved by the BLM including firing of police officers implicated in George Floyd murder. There are several petitions that are being signed pertaining black lives matter.

There is need to eliminate laws that are targeting the minorities. Although all lives matter there is evidence that black lives do not matter is reason enough to protest.

Social media and improvement of technology has also helped in dealing with police brutality as now evidence can be captured where police are using force thus promoting transparency and accountability

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Alese Wooditch, C. D. (2020). Perceptions of Body-Worn Cameras: Findings from a Panel Survey of Two LAPD Divisions. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 426-453.

Anthony Braga, P. J. (2017). The Benefits of Body-Worn Cameras: . National Criminal Justice journal, 45-50.

Dorothy Charlse, Kathryn Himmelstern, Walker Keenan Nicholas Baried. (2015). White Coats For Black Lives: Responding to Racism and Police Brutality. Journal of Urban Health, 88-102.

Jelani Ince, F. R. (2017). The Social Media Response to Black Lives Matter: How twitter Users Interact with Black Lives Matter through Hashtag Use. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 14-30.

Monica Anderson, S. T. (2018). An Analysis of Black Lives Matter and other Twitter Hashtags related to political or social issues. Pew Research Center, 50-62.

Vanessa Williamson, Kristella Trump and Katherine Levine Einsten. (2018). Black lives Matter: Evidence that Police caused Deaths Predict Protest Activity. Cambridge University Press, 400-415.