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Cydnee Parrish

Professor Victoria Brandenburg

English 101

13 October 2020

Police Brutality

As of early October, in the year 2020, there have been 826 reports of police killings.

Police everywhere in the USA use deadly force almost daily, some necessary and some not. As

US citizens, recognizing this and taking it in as pleased. Police brutality in this day in age has

been a heated topic, racial or not.

With the police brutality going on in the world as of now, defunding the police has been a

major thought. With the police having the power to take someone’s life and it sometimes being

unjust, that is not something people can sit and just be okay with especially in racial

communities. “Why would we rely on an institution that has consistently proven that it is rife

with systemic anti-Blackness and other forms of discrimination that result in certain communities

being deemed unworthy of support?” (Alternatives To Police Services). Throughout many times,

police have proven that they can use deadly force when they please with no consequences.

Defunding the police can create many positive and negative alternatives to society. Second, it has

been stated that defunding the police can do good for city streets making them a safer place with

the expansion of funds (Defunding the Police).This is proven to be a positive result of defunding

the police. It can make lives better and safer for the people, there are so many extracurricular

activities that can be better using the extra funds. Many innocent people have been victims of
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police brutality and most end in death. In the second week of June, three men of color were

killed or injured by police officers. Their names were trending on twitter to bring awareness to

their deaths (O'Kane). Men and Women have been killed by officers of the law for reasons that

no one can understand because there was no logical meaning behind them. Citizens should not

have to mourn their loved ones because police are murdering people for no reason.

There has been a wide controversy on the topic of protests and riots, some people don’t

understand the difference and believe it’s all bad, which it is not. Additionally , looking into the

Black Lives Matter movement, people see any type of protest as rebellion and that’s not how it

should be. There have been plenty peaceful protesters who have been treated cruelly for no

reason other than accessing their right to protest. “The vast majority of the Black Lives Matter

protests- more that 93%- have been peaceful…” (Mansoor). People see that citizens are taking

their own power to protest against what they believe is wrong and choose to see that as a

negative thing. Whether it is racial or not these people want to go out and peacefully stand up for

what they believe in, but others want to call them thugs for that. Moreover, the Black Lives

Matter movement is about the innocent lives that have been taken by officers of the law and have

had no justice brought to their names. This movement had begun in the year 2012, some people

choose to believe that this movement is encouraging crime and neglecting all lives (What does

Black Lives Matter hope to accomplish?). This movement is quite the opposite. During the years

of this protest it has never been about subjecting out one race to be more important than others. It

is about all races being equal and there has been plenty of evidence to prove that African

American lives are still not as equal as they should be. As the United States of American it

should be a citizen's job to create an equal environment for everyone. This should not have to be

an argument. Lastly, there have been many communities such as the NBA, WNBA, and MLB
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teams who stand up and act with this movement as well. A good example of this is when the

Milwaukee Bucks spoke out about beginning a strike through their basketball team (Sanchez).

These people who are highly known in many communities are taking the power that they can and

putting it to good use to bring awareness to these causes. There have been many ways that this

movement has been brought to life peacefully.

With everything going on with the law enforcement today it is hard to understand who

can be trusted to save citizens and who is going to put people in more danger. People of color go

through there life scared of the consequences they might have to face because one day when they

are in trouble and needy help, they don’t know whether or not calling the cops will benefit them

or make it worse. “Nearly half of black Americans have very little or no confidence that police

officers in their community treat people with different skin colors the same, according to the

latest PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist poll.” (Santhanam). Knowing this type of information is

heartbreaking. African Americans genuinely live in fear of the people who are supposed to

protect citizens the most. They shouldn’t have to go through that just because of the color of their

skin. Moving along, there’s also the simple case of being pulled over. “Stanford researched

found that Black and Latino drivers were stopped more than white drivers, based on less

evidence of wrongdoing” (Ortiz). Black drivers don’t even feel safe leaving work and heading

home. Every time they see those blue and red lights with the loud blaring sirens, fear takes over

and so does the question of making it home safe. Due to, living in fear of the police, this

obviously has a lot of negatives to it. When put into a position of fear in this case involving the

police, it may end up hurting personal lives more and that isn’t good for anyone. (Ortiz). If the

police can’t even give a sense of protection when that is their job who else is there to turn to?
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There are plenty of ways all of this can be resolved. It’s just a matter of will US citizens take

those steps?

Police brutality shouldn’t have to be a concern for US citizens, police are supposed to

protect and enforce the law, and lately they have not proven to be living up to those

requirements. US citizens shouldn’t have to be scrounging for funds to create better communities

and safe ones as well. If police can’t make it safer and are only making situations worse,

defunding them has a lot more benefits. People should be able to protest what they need in

society without hazing from police. No one should ever have to fear the people who are

supposed to protect lives and keep people as safe as possible. Accordingly, this topic is so

important to take an interest in because this has to deal with more than just the people affected.
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Works Cited

“Alternatives To Police Services.” Defund The Police, 20 Sept. 2020,


defundthepolice.org/alternatives-to-police-services/.

Mansoor, Sanya. “93% Of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful: Report.”
Time, Time, 5 Sept. 2020, time.com/5886348/report-peaceful-protests/.

O'Kane, Caitlin. “‘Say Their Names’: The List of People Injured or Killed in Officer-
Involved Incidents Is Still Growing.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 June 2020,
www.cbsnews.com/news/say-their-names-list-people-injured-killed-police-officer-
involved-incidents/.

Ortiz, Erik. “Inside 100 Million Police Traffic Stops: New Evidence of Racial Bias.”
NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 17 Mar. 2019,
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/inside-100-million-police-traffic-stops-new-
evidence-racial-bias-n980556.

Sanchez, Chelsey. “Why NBA, WNBA, MLB Teams and Athletes Are Striking for Black
Lives.” Harper's BAZAAR, Harper's BAZAAR, 27 Aug. 2020,
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a33821128/nba-wnba-strike-black-lives-
matter/.

Santhanam, Laura. “Two-Thirds of Black Americans Don't Trust the Police to Treat Them
Equally. Most White Americans Do.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 5 June
2020, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/two-thirds-of-black-americans-dont-trust-the-
police-to-treat-them-equally-most-white-americans-do.

“What Does Black Lives Matter Hope to Accomplish?” ABC13 Houston, KTRK-TV, 12
July 2016, abc13.com/black-lives-matter-racism-police-shootings-civil-
rights/1423168/.

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