The Issue of Police Brutality in Correlation With Racial Profiling Without a Probable Cause

An African-American male was driving down an urban street in Savannah after work one day. As he knows it, it is just a regular day, however, for the Police Officer who passed him at a red light, it is about to become his worst nightmare. The cop, who already had a previous disposition about African-Americans from what his parents taught him, automatically assumed that the male was bad. So he stopped him without any probable Cause.

“What seems to be the problem, Officer?” says the male. “Step out of the car right now!” the Officer screams with rage in his eyes. The male then steps out of the car, only to suddenly get slammed down to the ground, the officer furiously beating him with his issued baton stick. As he officer calls for backup, he continuously beats the male, until his face is unrecognizable. As the other officers race to the scene, the previous officer proceeds to throw cocaine in the front seat of his car and says, “This male had cocaine in the car and he wouldn’t comply to my instructions, so I had to do what I had to do.”

This is a mere example of many situations and egregious issues that are occurring more frequently throughout the world. Police Brutality and Racial Profiling are two of the most discussed situations today. From Rodney King to Trayvon Martin, Police Brutality, mainly upon African-Americans and other minorities, is showing up on the news more than ever in history. The worst part about this issue is there has been various types of evidence, from direct to testimonial to documentations, but the same outcome always happens: Either the officer gets suspended with pay, or is found not guilty and keeps his job, but leaves the victim and their family with questions and possibly a dead family member. Why aren’t these issues addressed more openly and seriously?

Take the Rodney King case that happened in 1993 for example. Although he was driving under the influence and got the Los Angles Police Department involved in a High Speed Chase, they did not have the right to beat him and his friends to a pulp. As I was taught in my Criminal Justice classes over the years, the Police is always suppose to respond to whatever type of situation they are in at a reasonable level higher than what the suspect is doing back, or also known as Use-of-Force-Continuum. In this example, as soon as Rodney King stopped the car, the surrounding officers began to beat him. Why did they not order him to step out of the car, and if he did not comply then, use the next safest level, which is pepper spray or a Taser gun?

Racism also has a big role over how an Officer responds to certain situations. Racism that an individual is accustomed to can derive from many different situations. I personally believe that Racism is something that is taught, not something someone is born with. A person may was taught from his parents that minorities are inferior to Caucasians and grew up with a predisposition that never changed. Or a minority may have received racism or racial profiling before and from that point on, they grew up thinking that all of those certain types of people, whether it may Caucasian or a Hispanic, are racist. It also may be an officer is around some coworkers that are racist and choose to portray themselves as a racist in order to “fit in” so that they will not be shunned or negatively thought of by his coworkers. Ethics plays a big role in both of these issues, mainly Racial Profiling.

I personally believe that there can be many solutions to these types of problems. Upon recruitment and employment, there should be a bigger emphasis on the psychological process. They should ask questions on their past, from previous jobs, to previous experiences and how they feel on certain issues. There should also be a bigger emphasis on the polygraph test. Instead of most questions being about drug usage and theft from a workplace, it should be more questions on the racism and different aspects of it.

Also I feel as if there should be better consequences on Police Brutality. An officer should have a clear Probable Cause on why they stopped or searched a suspect. If they don’t, then there should be a videotape showing everything that happened, from the time the officer stopped the suspect, to the time they either let the suspect go, or detains or arrests the individual.

In conclusion, Racial Profiling is a direct correlation to Police Brutality. If the state and federal level start decreasing the amount of close-minded and racist individuals that are in the Criminal Justice system and look at everything from a legal aspect, and not a personal aspect, then the amount of cases concerning Police Brutality will lessen. In doing so the world will be a safer place for all races and ethnicities.

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