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Racism Continues to Exists
Santi MansillaManagement 302
Professor Jordi ComasDecember 18, 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page..................................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents.....................................................................................................................2
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................3
Introduction..............................................................................................................................5
Mike Brown Case ....................................................................................................................7
1. Police Department’s Standpoint………….………………………………………………….…8
2. Victim’s Standpoint………………………...…………………………....8
Trayvon Martin Case
.......................................……………………………………………………………………….9
1. George Zimmerman’s…………………………………………………………...10
2. Victim’s Standpoint………………………...………………..................11
Eric Garner Case...................................................................................................................12
1. Police Department’s Standpoint……………………………………………….……12
2. Victim’s Standpoint………………………...………………...13
Recommendations..................................................................................................................14
1. Adopt UK Gun Policy ………………………...………………..14
2. Body Cameras ………………………...………………………..15
3. Police Interaction Education Program………...………,,……..15
References...............................................................................................................................17
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Executive Summary
On April 4, 1968 President Robert F. Kennedy stated,
“We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.” 1
After the death of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, it appeared that President
Kennedy and our nation were being proactive in regards to eliminating the existence of
racial discrimination issues in the United States. Although efforts from past presidents
and numerous civil rights figures have contributed to significant advancements in
equality for all individuals, it is unfortunate to say that forms of racism continue to exist
in the United States.
As a Hispanic college student, attending a predominantly white university, I have
gained a unique perspective on the evident existence of racial discrimination that
continues to occur in the land of the free. I have experienced racial discrimination on
campus due to my ethnicity, which were minor experiences, but still something that
should not occur in a modern society. After my own experiences I was not surprised
when racial discrimination publically appeared on the anonymous social media
application Yik Yak. This screen shot of the application evidently demonstrates that not
only does racial discrimination continue to exist but more importantly it is present on the
Bucknell campus.
3
Although it is unfortunate, but true, racism still continues to exist in this country. My
personal experiences and this screen shot may have been minor demonstrations of racial
discrimination, but recent deaths of black individuals have brought significant awareness
to the existence of this issue, specifically with police affiliated cases.
Although there are two sides to every story, it is hard to neglect that the deaths of
Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner were not a result of racial prejudice from
police officials. The deaths of these three individuals have provoked significant protests
throughout the nation in order to demonstrate the existence racial discrimination against
minorities, specifically by police officials. In addition to these killings, police officials
4
have contributed to the black incarceration rate being 6 times greater in comparison to the
white incarceration rate. In the United States, this rate has come to increase from 4 times
greater to 6 times greater since the 1960s and is estimated to continue to grow in coming
years2. Today, African Americans account for approximately 1 million of the total 2.3
million incarcerated population. Blacks are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of
Whites; if Hispanics are included in this minority group the rate is increased to 58% of all
imprisoned individuals in 2008.
For those of you who believe there is no form of racial discrimination still existent
in our country due to our policies, I hope this white paper will shed on some light about
the many issues that are significantly present within our own borders. The purpose of this
paper is to promote recognition and change in policies for the improvement of our
society.
Introduction
Within the past two years, the ironically multi-cultural accepting nation of the
United States has experienced perhaps three of its most controversial police cases
involving racial discrimination. The three victims involved in the cases were Mike
Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner. All three cases involved black individuals that
were killed by a police officer. The result of the deaths of the three individuals has led to
the emergence of other blacks and even non-blacks protesting against these attacks of
racial discrimination. Most recently, on December 13, thousands of individuals from all
races marched on the streets of Manhattan, New York in the Justice For All Rally in
5
order to combat racial discrimination. One specific protestor, Cynthia Howell shared her
thoughts on police officials and their racial prejudice actions by telling Al Jazeera
reporters that, "Enough is enough. This country cannot still allow these same police
practices and let cops get away with it. We love our loved ones as much as they love the
ones they go home to. It's not just an issue of black or white, it's about abuse of
authority."3 Howell’s aunt was killed about a decade ago after a police officer had thrown
a concussion grenade into her apartment during a mistaken drug raid. Events such as the
death of Howell’s aunt are the reason why today one of every six black men has been
incarcerated since 2001 and why 1 of every 100 African American women are in prison.4
If trends such as these continue, statistically one of every three black males born in 2015
can expect to spend time in prison at some point during their lifetime; and 10 of every
100 African American women will also be in prison at some point during their lifetime.
Although it is difficult to exactly determine that the actions of police officials that
contributed to these statistics were all due to racial prejudice motives, three specific cases
can be examined that do demonstrate the modern existence of racial discrimination,
specifically from police officials.
Mike Brown
6
On August 9, 2014 an 18-year-old black male, Michael Brown was shot and
killed by a white male police officer, Darren Wilson. The shooting occurred in the town
of Ferguson, Missouri at approximately noon. The altercation between Brown and
Wilson was the result of an emergency call regarding a robbery that took place in a
convenience store. Officer Wilson was within the vicinity and responded to the call after
receiving the description of the suspect. As Officer Wilson made his way to the
convenience store, he encountered Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson not knowing
they were the alleged offenders.
Brown and Johnson were asked to move to the sidewalk after Officer Wilson has
found them walking in the middle of the street. Both Brown and Johnson refused officer
Wilson’s demand, which resulted in Wilson reversing his vehicle to pin both individuals.
This shortly led to an altercation between Wilson and Brown that resulted in the firing of
Wilson’s gun. Brown was able to flee the scene, but was pursued by Wilson. During the
pursuit of Brown, officer Wilson fired a total of 12 rounds. Eight of the rounds struck
7
Brown, which resulted in his death. Various witness reports differ on whether Brown had
his hands raised surrendering himself or whether Brown was moving towards Wilson to
attack him after the shots had been fired. Although it may not be clearly evident that
racial discrimination was a motive in this event, both sides of the story must be
examined.
1. Police Department’s Standpoint
In defending officer Wilson, there are a few aspects of the event that the police
department argues. To begin, the commencement of the event was after Wilson had
approached Brown from his car for walking in the middle of the street. This led to a
dialogue between Wilson and Brown, which resulted in a physical entanglement. Brown
had assaulted Wilson and this provoked a battle for the grasp of Wilson’s gun. The gun
was inadvertently fired and resulted in Brown fleeing, at which point Brown could be
found as guilty for physically harassing an officer and trying to manipulate his weapon.
After Wilson had chased Brown and asked him multiple times to stop, Wilson released
fire several times. Wilson then commanded Brown to go down, but Brown appeared to
continue to charge Wilson. At 6’4’’ tall and 290lbs, Brown may have significantly
intimidated Officer Wilson as he continued to charge. This concluded with Wilson firing
a few more times and the death of Mike Brown. However, was it the correct decision of
Wilson to kill Brown in this situation?
2. Victim’s Standpoint
Although there are a few aspects of the event that can be argued in favor of
Wilson, there are many more that can be argued in favor of Mike Brown, which
demonstrate a form of racial discrimination. To begin, Wilson chased Brown with his gun
8
opposed to simply his baton or mace, which demonstrates that he never intended to stop
Brown, but possibly seriously injure or kill him. After initially shooting Brown, various
suspects state that Brown approached Wilson with his hands raised, surrendering himself.
Wilson had used a total of 12 rounds to kill Brown, but officers are only authorized to use
deadly force if they truly believe their life is in danger.
Even more shockingly, after the death of Mike Brown more racial discrimination
continued to be de displayed. At approximately 12:07PM Mike Brown had been
pronounced dead and it wasn’t until 2:30PM that the forensic investigator arrived but was
unable to take pictures of the scene because his camera batteries were dead. Not only was
it unusual that the investigator was unable to take pictures, but that Mike Brown’s body
was not escorted until 4:37PM. Therefore, his body was lying in the middle of the street
for approximately 4 ½ hours. Most importantly, the most significant display of racial
discrimination was showed when the police report of the event was not filed until 10 days
after it had occurred. The report was then approved and released as a solved case the day
following its report.
Trayvon Martin Case
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On February 26, 2012 a 17-year-old black male, Trayvon Martin was also shot and killed
by a police official. The event occurred in the town of Sanford, Florida where Trayvon
Martin was killed by neighborhood watch official George Zimmerman. Before the death
of Martin, Zimmerman was reporting a call to the police regarding suspicious activity
within the Florida neighborhood. Zimmerman continued the phone call with the police,
but as Martin began to ran Zimmerman pursued him. Within the chase Zimmerman ended
his phone call with the police due to an outbreak of a physical altercation that took place
between both suspects that resulted in the death Trayvon Martin.
1. George Zimmerman’s Standpoint
Although this event attained the most public attention regarding racial
discrimination, first the standpoint of George Zimmerman must be examined. To begin,
Zimmerman was working as a watchman for a neighborhood that frequently reported
criminal activity. Zimmerman had spotted Martin as he appeared to be committing some
suspicious activity. When Martin began to run, Zimmerman felt responsible for not
allowing Martin to leave after acting suspiciously. Zimmerman then chased Martin, but
was told by the police officer he was speaking to over the phone that it was unnecessary.
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Zimmerman was attempting to do the right thing, but perhaps he did too much. When
Zimmerman found Martin, a physical altercation began. In the physical altercation,
Zimmerman feared for his life after being punched in the face and drew his firearm. He
shot Martin once, which resulted in his death.
2. Victim’s Standpoint
Although Zimmerman claims that Martin may have been guilty of acting
suspiciously through the neighborhood, was simply because he was a black male?
Additionally, that does not mean that Zimmerman was racially motivated to catch Martin.
Prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, Zimmerman had made nearly 50 phone calls to the
police regarding break-ins, loud music, and disturbances. However, in each of these
phone calls Zimmerman specifically reported the race of all suspects. Before the shooting
occurred, Martin had been visiting his father’s fiancé who lived in the same
neighborhood of where the shooting took place. When Zimmerman called the police from
his phone he was asked to provide the address of the location, but never asked to pursue
the suspect. Zimmerman did not follow orders and continued to look for Martin until he
was found. Essentially, Zimmermann instigated all that followed. Also, would
Zimmerman have pursued the suspect if he were white? Upon the meeting of both
individuals a physical altercation erupted. Martin was unarmed throughout the entire
altercation and was perhaps provoked due to Zimmerman being racially motivated to
catch his suspect. However, Zimmerman claimed that his life was at risk against an
unarmed man, which resulted in shooting Martin.
Eric Garner Case
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The last case involves the death of a black male named Eric Garner who was also killed
by police officials. Eric Garner was choked to death on the streets of Staten Island, New
York after he was surrounded by numerous police officers for allegedly selling cigarette
packs without tax stamps placed on them. Garner was originally approached for
suspiciously selling these cigarettes so he began to be questioned by police officials.
Garner denied the accusations and began to make a scene by yelling in response. After
the yelling, officers began initial attempts to arrests Garner. The 43-year-old black male
resisted the arrest, which drew the attention of numerous officers towards helping in the
arrest of Garner. White Officer Daniel Pantaleo was the individual who placed his arm
around the much taller Garner and began to choke him onto the ground. As Garner was
choked towards the ground he repeated 11 times the words, “I can’t breathe.” This
resulted in Garner becoming unconscious and led to his death about an hour later in the
hospital.
1. Police Department’s Standpoint
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To begin, Eric Garner was a 6’4’’ tall and 350lb black male, which can be
understandably intimidating. Prior to the altercation, Garner yelled and complained,
which drew much public attention. After the altercation began between Garner and the
officers, one may assume that there was something suspicious regarding the victim. After
the yelling, Garner proceeded to be choked and although he did mention he could not
breathe, police assumed he could because he was still speaking. No officer performed
CPR at the scene because they believed Garner was able to breathe because of his
speaking, but he shortly died an hour after the event.
2. Victim’s Standpoint
Eric Garner was perhaps the most innocent victim of the three cases and the one
most victimized by racial discrimination. Garner was well known within his
neighborhood as a peacemaker and a good man. Garner who seemed to be minding his
own business prior to the event even stated, "Get away [garbled] for what? Every time
you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today. Why would you...?
Everyone standing here will tell you I didn't do nothing. I did not sell nothing. Because
every time you see me, you want to harass me. You want to stop me [garbled] Selling
cigarettes. I'm minding my business, officer, I'm minding my business. Please just leave
me alone. I told you the last time, please just leave me alone." After this statement by
Garner, Officer Pantaleo began to apply a chokehold. However, this had to be evident
racial discrimination because chokeholds have been banned from the New York Police
Department since 1993. If you need even more clarification that Eric Garner was a victim
of racial discrimination here is the video of the complete event.
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http://time.com/3016326/eric-garner-video-police-chokehold-death/
Recommendations
These three cases all demonstrate some form of racial discrimination. This form
of discrimination is specifically from police officers against black males. Although the
United States prides itself as a multicultural accepting country, the three cases prove that
not all individuals are accepting of others. Due to these unfortunate truths, I propose
three changes in polices in order to help reduce deaths due to racial discrimination.
Although it would be difficult to change or terminate all racial discrimination with a
single policy, the purpose of these policies would be to avoid the end result of racial
discrimination such as death.
1. Adopt UK Gun Policy
The first policy would be to adopt the United Kingdom’s gun policy. Opposed to
most developed countries, the majority of British police officers do not carry firearms.
Officers simply carry batons and maces in case situations do become hectic. Additionally,
attaining a gun in the United Kingdom is much more difficult than it is in the United
States. The process is significantly more complicated and very few citizens actually own
their own guns. If individuals do become allowed to own their own guns, a police officer
can evoke their rights if they feel they can no longer be trusted with possession of their
weapon. By adopting the United Kingdom’s gun policy this would mean that attaining
gun for all individuals would also become much more difficult. After the adoption has
been made the goal would be to reduce the quantity of guns and firearms owned by
individuals, which could eventually lead to our own police force decreasing the quantity
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of guns American officers would carry. As seen from the three cases, two of the deaths
were caused because of the use of guns. If these laws were instated the homicide rate in
the United States could be significantly reduced. Due to these laws the United Kingdom
has resulted in having one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world. Additionally,
gun homicides accounted for 2.4% of all homicides in the year 2009 for all nations.
2. Body Cameras
The second change in policy would be to require police officers to wear body
cameras at all times. The purpose of this policy would be to have all of police officer’s
actions consistently under surveillance. This would prevent inaccurate testimonies of
criminal events by providing proper evidence that could not be disputed during the
occurrence of an event. This would also propel police officers to carry out the best course
of action in order to prevent any criticism of their actions.
3. Police Interaction Education Program
Similar to sex education programs, a Police Interaction Education Program should
be implemented into high school education curriculums for the purpose of educating
individuals on what actions they can legally do, cannot do, and what they should do when
interacting with a police officer. The initial step of the program would be to teach
individuals their constitutional rights so that they are properly equipped when confronted
by government entities. This could be educational program could be supplemented by
adding a scenario-based learning component to its structure. The scenario-based learning
would incorporate teaching individuals what are the appropriate actions to be taken given
a set of circumstances in a given situation. The ultimate goal of the program would be to
provide individuals with appropriate steps to take when they are placed in situations of
15
adversity with a police officer, such as in the Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Eric
Garner Case. This would eliminate any sort of unpredicted altercation that could possibly
save an individual’s life.
In conclusion, by adopting and or incorporating the mentioned recommendations
into current policies, individuals of all colors and ethnicities would be more protected
against acts of racial discrimination. In taking into consideration the statistics of black vs.
white incarceration rates and deaths caused by firearms it would be in the American
society’s best interest to improve its current state by adding these recommendations. The
implementation of these policies would not create an immediate change, but as the
policies become more developed and acknowledged there will be a reduction in homicide
rates due to reducing the variables that contribute to the deaths of minority individuals.
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References:
"Behind the Video of Eric Garner's Deadly Confrontation With New York
Police." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014
"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. N.p., n.d. Web. 14
Dec. 2014.
"Gun Control and Ownership Laws." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec.
2014.
Ian fisher (November 24, 1993).”Kelly Bans Choke Holds By Officers”.
NYT. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
McLaughlin, Eliott C., Joe Sutton, Faith Karimi, Mayra Cuevas, Ben
Brumfield, Catherine E. Shoichet, and Jason Carroll. "What We Know about
Michael Brown's Shooting." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 15 Dec.
2014.
“NYPD Strips Badge, Gun From Cop Involved In Fatal Chokehold, Gothamist.” July 20, 2014
"The Actual Facts of The Eric Garner Case." Breitbart News Network. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014
"Trayvon Martin Shooting Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 22 Feb.
2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
Sullivan, C. (July 18, 2014). “Man dies after suffering heart attack during
arrest”. New York Post (New York City: Jesse Angelo). Retrieved August 10,
2014.
“Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability With Police
Commissioner Bratton On The Death of Eric Garner” Nyc.gov. Retrieved 13
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December 2014.
“UNODC Homicide Statistics”. United Nationals Office on Drugs and Crime.
Retrieved 8 August 2013.
Waldren, Michael J. (2007). Armed Police, The Police Use of Firearms since
1945. England: Sutton. p. 224
United Kingdom – Gun Facts, Figures and the Law. Gun Policy.
"Gun Control and Ownership Laws." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec.
2014.
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1 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/heroesvillains/transcript/g6cs4s1t.htm22 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/incarceration-gap-between-whites-and-blacks-widens/33 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/enough-us-anti-racism-protests-2014121472141788252.html44 http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet
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