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Arlene Contreras
Professor Turner
English 114A
6 November 2016
Police Officers Picking and Choosing
Visual images can hold more than one meaning to it, it can have a broader statement
behind it. In this image there is an American officer who has handcuffed a white male for
murdering nine people at a church, and instead of reading the suspect his rights and taking him
into custody, the officer is asking him if he would like fries with his order. In the other picture
officers have shot an African American because he was driving without a license plate. This
visual image depicts how police officers treat people differently based of their ethnicity. Police
officers are trained not to discriminate, but they still will rely on their instincts towards peoples
characteristics and will act upon it. The visual is presented to be humorous because police
officers are supposed to treat everyone equally, and instead we see in this image how police
officers choose the way people should be treated by their skin color. Police officers are expected
to protect everyone equally and fairly; they are the last people that should be discriminating.
Peoples skin tone should not be a factor in the way that people are being treated by officers. The
media also takes part in this situations because what they broadcast, can have an impact in the
way people view officers.
Although people are aware that police officers do discriminate, others believe that its
because they deserve to be treated in that way based on their personality, characteristics, or
actions. For example, officers analyze the way people dress, and their attitudes towards them as
well, if they are defiant they assume they are hiding something. I argue that people are never

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meant to be treated based of their characteristics or personality, yes they can be treated based on
their actions but basing it off of how someone looks is unjustifiable. Police officers often put an
ethnicity into one category, they assume that because on race acts a certain way that everyone
will as well. Therefore, I believe that officers should investigate before they stereotype people,
and act upon their assumptions. If someone were to use physical force upon an officer then I
understand why an officer would do the same, but often officers use physical force just because
their African American; they assume that they are carrying a weapon and which they will act
upon that theory. There have been several cases in which Americans have been given lesser
sentences, compared to African Americans who can commit the same crime but serve a harsher
sentence. Discrimination is a factor that will always be an issue in the world, because people are
often categorized and even in todays world are officers doing it as well.
There have been several cases in which police officers were involved in an altercation
with African Americans, which have been broadcasted and have caused riots. The case of Eric
Garner is one of many cases that has received negative attention. In a video that has spread
worldwide, Garner was put into a choke hold by NYPD, put to the ground and repeated 11 times
to officers that he could not breathe before he died. This case drew protests of alleged police
misconduct nationwide; people began rallying who claimed a pattern of misconduct towards
African Americans. Officers approached him for a suspicion of selling untaxed loose cigarettes,
Garner never performed actions in which officers would feel the need to use physical force upon
him. In the Gary Kleck journal titled Are Police Officers More Likely to Kill African-American
Suspect? the research he conducted stated that 29.1% of persons killed by police in 2002 were
African-American(440). In the article Police Shooting Statistics 2016 by Janice Williams she
presented a five-year study report released by the FBI that stated 12,765 people were killed by

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police officers between 2008 and 2012 in which 51.1 percent were black men. This research
shows how the killings of African Americans have increased throughout the year. There is always
going to be a higher percentage of an ethnicity that has been killed by police officers, and in this
case its the lives of African Americans. Wesley Lowery stated in his article that Police are still
killing unarmed back men at higher rates than whites. Political conservatives as well as police
unions have argued that the reason behind this is because black Americans commit more violent
crime.
In certain situations, police officers will act upon their instincts based on the suspects
characteristics or appearance. In the journal Confounding influences on police detection of
suspiciousness by Richard Johnson he stated that Police must interpret the situations they
encounter using all of the clues at their disposal. Now in days, I dont believe that police
officers really focus on a suspects actions, because all of the police shootings that have been
occurring have just been based on an assumption that the suspect is carrying a weapon. There has
been a lot of incidents that have occurred in which officers shot an unarmed man, and most of the
time the victim is African American. Based on the videos that have been broadcasted officers
seem to handle situations direct with physical force instead of taking the time to analyze the
persons motives. It is not common to hear of police encounters like this with Americans, in
which I believe it is because officers believe that Americans are superior then African Americans.
I believe that officers do treat others unfairly, compared to Americans and I think this is due to
stereotyping and discrimination.
People believe that the media does have a role in how police officers are viewed because
everything they put out in social media, the audience will see; which I agree with. All the videos
of police officers treating people unfairly, have an impact in the way that people will view

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officers. If the media puts out information of corrupt officers, the audience will find it harder on
trusting police officers with their lives. With everything that has been spreading worldwide, such
as officers shooting African Americans, it makes them re-think if police officers are really there
to protect them or to make it seem as if they deserved to be pushed to the ground and beaten.
Because of the media, African Americans say they cannot trust police officers, compared to
Americans who say police officers do their job well and feel safe. What the media puts out for
the audience to see is very important, because the audience bases their judgment on people by
what they see and what they hear. If police officers are always being portrayed to be the bad guy,
this will and is affecting their image. With technology advancing in many ways it is much easier
now to capture everything that happens at any given moment, in which police officers should be
careful because this is a factor that can affect them greatly as it already is. Everyone has their
different views on officers which I mostly based of what they see on television.
People may view officers to treat everyone fairly and equally, but discriminating is still
something that has not been overcome. It is very rare to hear of a police officer in gun battle with
an American. I believe that police officers approach a situation with an American more
appropriately then if they were going to approach a different ethnicity. Police officers may find
that Americans are more controlled then African Americans, which is why they dont approach a
situation with direct force. If police officers do not feel that they need to approach a situation
with them with caution, then why would they approach a situation with an African American
with these expectations that they are carrying a weapon and need to be handcuffed before they
can try to do anything. Not everyone in the world has bad intentions, everyone is different and I
believe that police officers should think twice before acting on their assumptions, because their
actions are what will reflect upon them and the department. If an officer is caught on tape

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treating an individual unfairly, this will cause law enforcement to lose creditability as well as
trust among the community.

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Works Cited
Johnson, Richard R. Confounding Influences on Police Detection of Suspiciousness.
ScienceDirect. Journal of Criminal Justice, 2006. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Kleck, Gary. Are Police Officers More Likely To Kill African-American Suspects? College of
Criminology and Criminal Justice Florida State University, 2007. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Lowery, Wesley. "Arent More White People than Black People Killed by Police? Yes, but No." The
Washington Post. N.p., 11 July 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Williams, Janice. Police Shooting Statstics 2016: Are More People Killed by Officers Then
Other Races? IBT. N.p., 25 Sept. 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.