Reading reflection 6 - Essay Example

Race, Police, Punishment Race and Police From the early 21st century, there has been an increase in rate crime and police misconduct. This misconduct mostly cases involve Blacks, Latinos and other minority groups. Racism, xenophobia, and concerns about undocumented immigration collectively lead to law enforcement incidences. Incidences by law enforcement agencies include harassment, racial profiling, and brutal acts. All around the country police departments have hit the news headlines for mistreating minority groups.

Immigrants as well as native minorities are targeted. Diverse states like Arizona and California have seen minorities face in the hands of the police. According to the article, the police generally will associate certain crimes with a certain race. The police have a set mentality on a crime committed. The will go to brutal lengths in order to prove that certain minorities commit crimes more often. Police brutality will usually occur because of a number of reasons. The most common one is racial discrimination.

Between 1990 and 1994, 89% of reported custody deaths involved Hispanics or African Americans (Elisha, Joshua & Zenobia 2010). These are examples of police brutality cases that are reported. Such examples include those involving Patrick Hall, Rodney king and Oscar Grant. I concur with the author’s views on Police brutality and racial discrimination. Police brutality especially towards the minority is not always physical. This is best illustrated by the case of a Patrick Hall. Patrick Hall, an African American who served in the US army.

He then enrolled at Illinois State University from where he started his own business. Hall employed most of his friends who were also black. The police started harassing him as soon as they discovered his progress (Elisha, Joshua & Zenobia 2010). The police would humiliate Hall with random checks for illegal activities. They went as far as surveying and intimidating Hall. This forced him to shut down the business and leave the city. This is a classic case of emotional and verbal abuse among minorities.

Police brutality will happen for a number of reasons. Chief among them is racial discrimination. Use of excessive force is described as police brutality. By 1999, 75% of males who were African American are pulled over because they were Black (The Struggle Against racial Profiling). Law enforcement officers will verbally, emotionally and physically offensive to citizens of race. However, the number of such incidences is decreasing constantly in the wake of human rights awareness. The Coupling of Criminal Justice and Community InstitutionsA criminal justice system is characterized by a set of social and legal institutions.

These institutions set of limitations and rules. Some of these institutions cater for adults, and the underage referred to as juveniles. The justice system is characterized by discrimination of the colored minorities a system supposed to protect them.The justice system is such that it wants to impose a crime on innocent colored whites. This may be because they come from gang-infested neighborhoods or are close to criminal activities. The justice system is of such an opinion and, they insist on it being the reality.

The justice system is supposed to protect the very people that it is intimidating. The reality is that an individual from a minority group may be the victim in an incidence. Community institutions have also played a role in aiding the judicial system. Spider and other six boys were already viewed as deviant resulting in them attending a school viewed to accommodate deviants. They were seen as being unruly such that they could not attend the normal schooling system. This school is depicted as a place where the youth who are deemed to have no future are welcomed.

The likelihood of minority groups going to prison is higher compared to white people ending up incarcerated. Most of the people incarcerated comprise of lower class individuals and the minorities. Those that happen to be related to the convicts feel the effect by their incarceration. Family breakdown and cases of single parenting are on the increase. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of children going to jail early. The reason is that single parented children are usually less supervised.

The justice system has made young minorities feel criminalized from an early age. They are made to pay for the mistakes of their parents, elders, or community. The situation in the criminal justice system is complex resulting in a ‘punitive’ appearance. Mass incarceration is now responsible for sobriety problems. Studies have shown changes in behavior due to prolonged institutionalization. Imprisonment will serve to undermine the social life of those incarcerated. It impairs their ability to interact normally with others.

The system, when it is done with the minorities incarcerated, has destroyed them instead of changing them to be better people. If there is no change, the media will continue to uphold racial stereotyping of minorities. The image of colored minorities in terms of culture, ideologies will continue to be upheld. The media will continue depicting colored minorities as the perpetrators of criminal activities. Those that are arrested will be punished as opposed to undergoing rehabilitation. Consequences occurring will be the consequence of the initial act.

ReferencesElisha, J. & Zenobia, M. (2010). Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System. London: DIANE Publishing Inc.