Today we are in the middle of a seeming “race-war” between civilians and law enforcement. Allegations are flung wildly, almost on a daily basis, concerning the use of excessive force by police officers as headlines continue to report abuse, and even deaths at the hands of those who are sworn to protect. It is considered more disconcerting because it is over twenty years after the 1992 L.A. riots, which brought the public’s attention to serious issues within law enforcement, and demanded change.
Today, we are not seeing much of that change and the majority of the violence, if not all of it, is being directed toward minorities. While research suggests that minorities often have a distrusting view of authorities, compared to whites, there is arguably a reason for such views. For example, in November of 2014, Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old child playing in a park was shot and killed by local authorities who assumed he was armed and dangerous. Rice was black and, sitting on a swing in a park, had been playing with an airsoft replica that was lacking the orange capped safety feature which set it apart defiantly from a real gun. Responding officers, one twenty-six, and the other, a seasoned forty-six, were unable to distinguish a fake gun from a real gun. They shot him and killed him.
Many other men and women of color have been killed under law enforcement supervision, sometimes while in custody. There are the deaths of Freddie Grey, deceased April 2015, as well as the death of Sandra Bland, who was killed in July of 2015 when stopped for not using a turn signal. Many others, such as Kindra Chapman, Joyce Curnell, Ralkina Jones, and Raynette Turner were four other women who were found deceases in police custody just in July of 2015. Their deaths were suspected to be caused by mistreatment, abuse, and neglect.
As one can see, a racial minority’s perception of police is then often shaped by their various individual interactions with them, but also by the entire community’s interaction with them. Children from the black community have been shot indiscriminately in parks. Women have died in custody based on cases of abuse and neglect, as have men from the black community. As stated, in the case of Sandra Bland, she was pulled over for not using a turn signal and it lead to her death. Tamir Rice was playing in the park with a toy gun. These incidents can easily lead to distrust of law enforcement, and this view can have consequences. As the community’s animosity grows, it begins to undermine police authority, as well as their capacity to do their job efficiently. Much like the Black Panther movement, a type of vigilante law enforcement could emerge.
While some data shows that the majority, or whites, are consistent in believing police are honest and law abiding, race has not officially been found to directly influence how an individual views law enforcement. There are still many minorities who, despite headlines over the years, hold law enforcement in high esteem, showing there is no direct correlation between the two. Moreover, researchers have found that if a neighborhood has a high level of crime, research shows that it is not race that gives individuals a negative view of law enforcement first, but rather age, followed by education, and finally income bracket. Therefore, while race does appear to be a definable issue, for now the two are not directly relatable.
References
Epp, C. R., Maynard-Moody, S., & Haider-Markel, D. P. (2014). Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tolliver, W. F., Hadden, B. R., Snowden, F., & Brown-Manning, R. (2016). Police killings of unarmed Black people: Centering race and racism in human behavior and the social environment content. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment , 279-286.
