Is Police Brutality The Main Issue In Today’s Modern Society?

📌Category: Government, Law enforcement, Social Issues, Violence
📌Words: 1515
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 02 September 2021

Police brutality has come a long way in killing innocent black lives, and this has affected those impacted families along the way, being frightened to live. Others who haven’t lost a member of their family due to police brutality would say that those families could be afraid of their life for other reasons. There are people in this world who chose to ignore the fact that George Floyd was murdered just because the police thought he was on something. The debate between whether families feel a certain way towards police brutality lingers for opposers who believe that these families wanted attention. Over the years, police brutality has been something that has been transpiring over decades. Police brutality has left the families in mourning, concern, and afraid of living because they don't know if it can be the next time. This is essential towards today's social issues because it reflects on the way people define freedom.

Debates revolving around George Floyd’s death have been going on ever since his death. According to A Reuters Staff, they claim that on a Facebook post, thousands of people shared what they are saying about his death and his family who mourn. In a Facebook post, someone said, “Someone sent me a message saying...the family of George Floyd was offered $25 million for exclusive photos of him in a casket….and they turned it down.” This quote signifies the lies that people tell in the media just to go viral. However, other people like this say that the family of George Floyd didn’t care about him because when they were given a lot of money, now they are living a time of their life. 

The comments continue to show George Floyd’s death, making even more suspicious of what happened between his family and what happened between George Floyd and Chauvin. Another post said, “VERY weird that upon arrival the so-called EMTs didn’t try ANY KIND of life-saving procedures whatsoever.” Again, this comment sparks a lot of suspicion of what has been going on with the government and George Floyd’s death. A response to this comment summarizes that the EMTs couldn’t waste time unloading equipment when all they had to do was just load him in the van and take him to the hospital. Some people wanted to see the EMTs save George Floyd’s life in front of everyone, but because of this not happening people won’t accept the fact that George Floyd's body was actually in a casket. 

Although there were rumors about this, there was also evidence that George Floyd did die from Chauvin based on a transcript. Based on local news, CBS Minnesota, it was said that “there’s no evidence Lane played a...role or knew Chauvin was committing a crime, namely assault.” This piece of evidence shows the truth behind the murder of George Floyd. The action that Chauvin took further reveals the bigger picture to the world. Chauvin did this on purpose because he was black and a man. The cause of this murder in the Washington Post, Holly Bailey stated, “... pressed his knees into Floyd’s neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds…” This murder shows how men, especially of color are treated. 

In “Derek Chauvin trial: How oppressive police systems define themselves,” Deana Heath argued, “Victim Blaming.” In her subheading, this foreshadows the main idea of the whole Chauvin trial and the world seeing the true sides of the policing system. Victim blaming was used in the trial, and this related to what she says about the police system characteristics, “Their purpose, instead, was to serve as ‘violence workers’ to protect colonial regimes from perceived threats...” This quote is essential to the thesis because it relates to the reason why so many people, especially of color are afraid when they are encountered by a police officer; they are served as “violence workers”. Even though police officers are hired to serve their countries and protect them from harm’s way, they are the ones who someone needs to put down for the rest of the citizens to be protected in a police officer’s hand. To expand, the policing system is like criminals; people who just murder innocent lives for no reason. The catch is that half of these cops who do commit a crime don’t get put down easily like someone else would as if they were to murder an innocent. 

Black male death is something that happens every day, and let people see that as the victim problem, as Heath said in her conversation, “...the defense also portrayed George Floyd as being responsible for his death.” This quote relates to a Tommy Curry essay and expands on the argument about Black male death and how it is portrayed in the world that we live in. In The Eschatological Dilemma, Dr. Tommy J. Curry made a claim, “...Black maleness is altogether ignored and erased specifically.” The Black maleness that is mentioned here is George Floyd compared to a “patriarchy” system or as they say a “white supremacist state”. These types of systems take advantage of their power and treat blacks as someone lower than them, which in their mind black men are lower than them. The fact of how “Black maleness” can be erased or ignored especially in the Chauvin trial when the defense was trying to blame Floyd for his own death reveals unjust laws that these victims may have including their families or other black people in general. Another main idea being expressed in Tom’s Curry essay, “...we conceptualize the imagines, and remain trapped into the imagines narrative of Black masculinity.” This quote is how Chauvin viewed Floyd along with the defense team. Chauvin from this quote felt as though Floyd was a threat somehow; no one knew what was going through Chauvin’s mind when his knee was on Floyd's neck, but from the judge of it, Chauvin was trapped in the narrative of Black masculinity like Curry mentioned. This correlates to racial stereotyping along with racial stereotyping. This is because, from the previous sources used in this research paper, people believed many things about George Floyd and his family. After all, they were black.

Not to get into talking about one gender, but mostly black males are killed by police officers. Michael Brown was a victim like George Floyd was, but this was different. The police officer who shot and killed this 18-year-old boy who had his hands up didn’t have any charge towards him. According to The New York Times, John Eligon wrote, “Mr. Bell said that although his office could not prove that a crime was committed, the investigation did not exonerate Mr. Wilson, who resigned months after the shooting.” This news outlet summarizes the fact how this was a crime that was committed but Darren Wilson wasn’t seen as a murderer for this; he got away with murder. 

There were things that Wilson could have done differently but Wison chose to take the life of an innocent. This death sparked the police killings of Black people. Body cameras as presented in this outlet were also said to have come out at this time, yet body cameras didn't do anything. This case on Darren Wison and the policing system also defending those cops who kill innocent life telling the court not to charge the murderer because apparently, he didn't commit a crime. Police crimes don't just involve black men, it also involves black women who lost their lives because of no reason. Breonna Taylor, Atatitana Jefferson, Ma “Khia Bryant were also victims of police brutality. 

In 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed when she was asleep at home when the officers, not in uniform went into her house to execute a search warrant for a drug case which the cops somehow wanted to believe was a break-in; the officer shot Taylor 8 times and she was unarmed. In 2019, Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed because there was a call from her neighbor that her door had been left open while she had her nephew in the house. This year Ma’Khia Bryant was shot by a police officer while she was holding a knife. The cops were called because there was an older women who wanted to beat up Ma’Khia but the officer was afraid of this little girl who had a knife to defend herself from the older women.

In a Judith Butler interview, she states, “...we get to make a political claim to live freely and without fear of discrimination and violence against the genders that we are.” This quote partly signifies the main concern many have about being discriminated against. Oppression correlates to discrimination and misogyny. Women, African Americans, all are victims of police brutality. In Butlers’ introduction, she discusses the fact how people tend to focus on political identity and the issue instead of focusing on the bigger issue, which is fear, the war against one another. In a way like Martin Luther King Jr., he announces the fact how white and black people need to come together because of the segregation between the two. Black people weren’t accepted because of their color back in the 20th century. 

In modern society, there is still segregation in some cities, but we might not know because a lot of people focus on one identity instead of focusing on the problems that aeffect everyone. However, the focus police brutality and discrimination as described in previous pages, and every day a black person walks outside, there are some who pray to live the day without getting shot or murdered by a police officer. Other blacks just hope they don’t encounter a cop like Darren Wilson or George Floyd who obviously had intentions of taking away an innocent life. 

To respond to the question of whether police brutality is really the issue today, the answer will be yes, it is. 



 

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