Taylor Madden

Mr. Sanford

ENGL 1302-025

21 September 2020

Issue Proposal

Since the dawn of slavery, racism has been embedded into the foundational structures of

American society. It was an era that indoctrinated generations of white citizens into believing it

was right to own human beings because of their race, and became a stain on this country as soon

as it started, spreading further and further. Even after slavery was abolished, racism continued to

manifest itself at both a political and social level, as evidenced with the Civil Rights movement;

the races were legally segregated from each other, and black citizens had to fight laboriously for

basic human rights. Currently, despite decades of progress, racial bigotry remains ingrained in

society, most potently shown in the issue of police brutality. Abuse of power against African

American citizens is a reality that has existed since the formation of slave patrols, in which

enslaved people were heavily monitored and disciplined by law enforcement; they also carried

guns and wore badges, returning runaway slaves back to slave owners. This may be a more

extreme and archaic version of the plight brought to black citizens by law enforcement today, but

the motivations are the same - police brutality is a relic of slavery, a result of centuries of

oppressive bondage. Although an issue of old, conversations surrounding police brutality have

become especially prolific as of late, following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Despite the outspoken denial of police brutality by the opposing side, African Americans get

targeted by police officers discriminately, the Black Lives Matter movement has been opposed
because of internalized prejudice, and the issue as a whole could benefit from reform if everyone

addressed it first.

Law enforcement targets African Americans more than it targets Caucasian Americans,

not only according to the shared experiences of the black community, but to statistics as well.

“Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White,” one must analyze population

percentages in order to fully grasp the disproportionality of the number of black deaths by the

hands of the police (Washington Post). White Americans make up the majority of the United

States population, totaling 2,573 white police killings between 2015-2020. If Black Americans

were targeted proportionally, theoretically, the amount of black police killings would be much

lower in comparison; they make up thirteen percent of the US population, so they’d be

considered part of the minority. However, statistically, black people are killed by the police at

double the rate white people are, with a total of 1,335 victims between 2015-2020. These

numbers, of course, leave out a wide margin of victims, since the Washington Post only started

recording the killings in 2015 and they leave out the people who couldn’t bring themselves to

report their experiences; in fact, one of their investigations “found that the FBI undercounted

fatal police shootings by more than half” (Washington Post). Opponents of black activists who

cry out against this blatant injustice tend to either misinterpret the statistics they’re given access

to or resort to victim blaming. The misinterpretation goes back to the aforementioned statistics;

typically, they’ll see the information about white people who have been killed by police officers

and then argue that police brutality isn’t a problem, ignoring the rest of the study. They also

argue that black citizens take up thirteen percent of the population but commit the most crime,

which ignores the nuances of not only racial profiling, but related issues such as mass

incarceration and the use of the arrest quota system by the police. Listening to the oppressed
community, African Americans in this case, and thoroughly researching the topic is crucial when

it comes to police brutality, because ignoring the reality of systematic injustice does more harm

than good.

Since its creation, Black Lives Matter, a movement dedicated to calling attention to

police brutality, has been subject to much controversy. The amount of supporters of the

movement has increased over the years, but the opposing side remains adamant in their stance

that the movement is harmful; some, usually far-right politically, even go as far as to call it

terroristic, akin to the Ku Klux Klan. The origins of the Black Lives Matter movement date back

to 2013, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed a black teenager named

Trayvon Martin; in its infancy, the movement was merely a hashtag (#BlackLivesMatter) used to

enlighten others on the racism embedded in the justice system. However, BLM didn’t expand

beyond its hashtag until 2014, following the deaths of Michael Brown (Ferguson) and Eric

Garner (Staten Island). Protests began in earnest, activists and ordinary citizens alike going down

the streets with signs that had a variety of slogans - “Black Lives Matter” included. Although the

officers that murdered Brown and Garner were never indicted, the black community in particular

found their voice, determined to this day to get the justice they deserve. The beginnings of the

movement saw the vast majority of its support coming from black citizens, the other racial

groups either hesitant to join or flat-out against everything it stood for. A great deal of the

backlash aimed at Black Lives Matter was due to the name itself, which was thought to be

exclusive of other races; opponents often used (and still use) silencing tactics such as “All Lives

Matter,” a slogan that implies that the movement isn’t legitimate. The actual meaning of “Black

Lives Matter” is one that reflects the injustice African Americans often face, and communicates

that they have to cry out that black lives matter because those in power seem to think that they
don’t; it’s not a slogan that implies that black lives matter more than others - it’s one that implies

that they don’t matter enough. As of this year, the amount of opponents who share this view has

decreased significantly, more non-black Americans joining the protests than ever before. The

Black Lives Matter protests “peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly

550 places across the United States” (The New York Times). The months following this day saw

protests as well, millions of people demanding that the police officers who killed George Floyd

and Breonna Taylor be arrested. The current opponents of Black Lives Matter have retained

much of the rhetoric they used when the movement was first created, continuing to argue that

victims of police brutality were at fault for provoking the officers who killed them; these people

tend to be white conservatives who are stubbornly attached to the police force. However, it could

be argued that black citizens don’t have to show utmost respect for the police in order to be

treated with dignity. Regardless of how a police officer is talked to, their first instinct should not

be to reach for their gun. Claim of fear is often used by officers to justify their excessive force

against African Americans, which reveals a myriad of structural flaws in law enforcement.

Police brutality is an issue that harbours so many complexities that it’s difficult to know

where to start regarding reform. Due to this, social justice activists have started calling for the

defunding of police departments, the more left-leaning ones even suggesting that they be

abolished. The former is much more agreed upon than the latter, because the police have existed

for such a long time that many Americans cannot fathom a world without them; thus, “Defund

the Police” has become a new slogan of the Black Lives Matter movement as of late, posted all

over social media and illustrated on signs at protests. What defunding the police entails is the

reallocation of funds “away from the police department to other government agencies funded by

the local municipality”; this strategy has the potential to decrease both police violence and crime,
because the money would go to social services (Brookings). In addition, drug addicts and the

mentally ill would be potentially destigmatized, because they would be to seek the help of a

readily available social worker, rather than a police officer who’s not formally trained in those

areas. This is a response that publically calls out the inadequacy the police force has exhibited,

especially as of late; in the technological era of the United States, during which possessing a cell

phone is commonplace, something as simple as a camera can reveal the brutality doled out by

police officers with a new level of clarity. The protestors, who are also taxpayers, have witnessed

time and time again the corruption of the system their money goes to, and defunding the police

has become the route of reform they’re willing to experiment with in order to see a decrease in

police brutality. While lawmakers may not be so easy to convince regarding police reform,

persistence and public unrest in the face of racial injustice could lead them to reconsider what

would be best for their respective communities.

In conclusion, police brutality is an issue that feels simultaneously archaic due to the

violent racial history of the United States and shockingly fresh as incidents of state-sanctioned

violence continue to pile up. Anti-black racism is an institution of oppression that’s far from

disappearing from the collective hive mind of American society, but the progress that’s been

made over the years is evident in the way people of all races have stood up to protest a system

that allows law enforcement to murder African Americans with little to no consequence. More

people than ever have been driven to educate themselves on the plight African Americans face

on a daily basis, and the support behind the Black Lives Matter movement will increase even

further if people continue to defend victims of police violence. Although the future of police

reform is unclear, it’s comforting to know that there are millions of people who will push to

make sure it goes down the right path.