Police Brutality and the inner city - Book Report/Review Example

Order 525079 Police brutality thrives in the inner regions where minority communities live and work. Police brutality is a crime punishable by law and is often instigated by law enforcement officers who are either racially biased or prone to authority abuse and violent (re)actions. Allegations abound concerning police brutality with police officers using unnecessary or excessive force, committing battery, conducting illegal body searches and bullying. Minority communities suffer most from the effects of police brutality because they have the least power and face detrimental consequences from law enforcement authorities.

The antagonism between minority communities and law enforcement agencies is well-known. The strained and volatile relationship erupts through police crackdowns and hostile patrols. This rift is historical since customary human rights abuses, perpetrated by the militia and law enforcement dating from the times prior to the Civil Rights Movement, give legitimate and lingering suspicion of targeted tyranny. “Police minority tensions stem, inevitably, from enduring racial and ethnic divisions in American society that cannot be addressed simply by altering the organization of policing” (Smith 2003).

The segregated system of society has filtered down to infect the methods of policing, directed according to ethnic populace. Inner city crime rates exceed those reported rates in suburban and rural regions. For example in California, the California Department of Finance, Demographic Research Unit conducted a ten-year survey from 1987 to 1996 which announced that California urban areas account for 98 percent of the crime. As a result, the high concentration of crime in inner cities incurs much of the observed police terrorism.

Altogether, these California inner cities are peopled with about 97 percent of the state population (Nance 1997). In New York City, 64% Blacks and 52% Hispanics view police brutality in New York as a major problem (Fine 2003, Johnson 2003). St. Louis, Birmingham, Kansas City, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Miami and Minneapolis are positioned among the worst inner cities in America (CQ Press 2009). In all these cities, minority populations actually comprise the majority where Blacks and Hispanics rank high among these inner city inhabitants.

At the same time, the inner city is the nesting ground for criminal elements. Based on multiple surveys, inner city neighborhoods breed the most crime than any other area. As a result, law enforcement officers regularly patrol the inner city and target lower-class urban dwellers. The tough approach on crime in the cities is a backlash resulting from the spiraling crime concentrated in poorer colonies of racial minorities. The illegal drug trade, firearms trade and gangsterism that prevail in the inner city are some reasons that legitimize the police’s systematic clamping down on minority inner city residents.

“Police brutality, especially towards members of ethnic minorities, is widespread and severe, resulting in death in many cases. Although it is probably not .due to official policy, it is undoubtedly able to occur so frequently because it is officially tolerated” (Sparks 1994). The police system conscientiously protects fellow officers from public prosecution as brutal police officers end up with reduced sentences and slighter penalties. In the classic Chad Holley case of March 2010, in which six officers of the Houston Police Department, kicked and beat to a pulp a fifteen year old juvenile delinquent, the offending officers were charged for official oppression which is a lesser degree than police brutality (George 2010).

Also, the Houston District Attorney and senior officials of the Houston Police Department ensured that concealment of the videotape. After the initial outrage at the police cruelty, accused police officers are paroled and released from further prosecution. Because of this tolerant and indulgent attitude and the habitual cover-up of guilty parties, the police department encourages officers to consider themselves above the law, giving tacit consent for abuses to persist. The "Chicago Police Department's own data make clear that Chicago police officers can perpetrate abuse without fear of consequence.

Chicago data reveal that discipline for the abuse of a civilian is rare" (Futterman 2007). Statistics reveal that the probability of meaningful discipline against a police officer with a charge of police brutality is less than 3 in 1,000. Further, the records from the Chicago Police Department disclose that 1 of 3,837 charged illegal searches led to significant countermeasures. This disclosure testifies to police immunity in which police are released from serious crimes with impunity. Some criminologists observe that police brutality spawns from application of the conflict law theory in which police exert tighter pressure on poorer classes on behalf of the elite.

Unwanted elements are intimidated by subhuman violence or unjustly committed to prison en masse. Another famous inner city neighborhood supports the police department vigilantly shielding law enforcement assaulters. Racial identities of police officers are vital information in discovering the primary offenders. The NAACP and other groups take action against police officers who adopt a strong hand with minorities. Police brutality happens at the hands of white police officers. (Homer 1991) proves that integrating minority police officers into the service does nothing to minimize police brutality.

Minority police officers see themselves obligated to (re)act similar to their peers and remain subject to superiors. Since police brutality is a crime sanctioned by the authorities, it is more difficult to rein in. To stem the tide of police brutality, the solutions are to make the ethnic communities and police force accountable for their actions or lack thereof. Equality is the right of all – inner city populations or not, ethnic minority or majority. The aforementioned grave revelations on police brutality betray high levels of discrimination and bigotry.

(Meares 1998) observes that so long as poor minorities continue to involve themselves in crime, whether petty crime, misdemeanor or gross misconduct, they are most vulnerable to suffer as victims of police brutality. However, this statement does not mean that all police brutality occurrences are provoked. References: Futterman, C.B. H.M. Mather, M. Miles (2007). "The Use of Statistical Evidence to Address Police Supervisory and Disciplinary Practices: The Chicago Police Department’s Broken System" DePaul Journal for Social Justice, 251. . George, C (2010).

The Houston Chronicle "NAACP official: Houston police a problem" . Homer, H. Thomas, R (1991). “White Policing of Black Populations: A History of Race and Social Control in America” cited from Out of Order: Policing Black People by Ernest Cashmore Johnson, K. R (2003). The Case for African American and Latina/o Cooperation in Challenging Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement. Florida Law Review. Meares, T. L. D.M. Kahan (1998). "Law and (Norms of) Order in the Inner City". Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, Faculty Scholarship Series.

Sampson, R.J. W.J. Wilson (2005). “Towards a Theory of Race, Crime and Urban Inequality,” Race, Crime and Justice: A Reader by Shaun L. Gabbidon, Helen Taylor Greene, Routledge. Smith, B.W, M.D Holmes (2003). “Community, Accountability, Minority Threat and Police Brutality: An Examination of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints,” Criminology Journal 41(4), 1035-1063. CQ Press using reported data from the F.B.I. "Crime in the United States 2009 .