Living Life in Black and White

Is there a racial recurring bias in police altercations in our country? The question cant
really be avoided anymore. With so much proof, video evidence and public opinion leading
towards yes, theres no way to dodge it. The question now has to be asked, but not everyone
has the same opinion on that. Depending on who you ask the answers may vary between
people. The answers could vary based on where people live, or what political party theyre
affiliated with, or maybe even with who they live. This report will help you figure out the answer
to this question.

In a recent conversation I had with my African American neighbor about this subject he
asked me a pretty obvious question that I had never really thought about. How come police are
so quick to pull the trigger on a black person that may or may not be armed thats running from
them, or maybe has a knife at a distance where they could taser them? And then he we talked
about Dylann Roof, a young man who opened fire on a historically black church and killed 9
people. He was taken into custody alive. Why would police be so relaxed approaching an active
shooter that has already shot at least 9 people? He was pulled over and ask for ID, they didnt
even approach his vehicle with guns drawn when it was believed he was armed and dangerous,
he even had a .45 caliber pistol in his car. He said its just interesting and really shows you
something with the vast differences between these kinds of incidents, how much more
threatened a police officer will feel by a person of color.

There are many examples that have happened just in recent history in our country that
get people thinking about this subject. Remember Trayvon Martin? The seventeen year old boy
who was unarmed and had gone to the store for some snacks in a hoodie who was then
followed chased and shot by a white man? Now this isnt an example of police brutality, but now
in 2017 we see George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon walking free. The US
Department of Justices reports that he was found innocent based off of lack of evidence.
Everyone knows the story and knows that Zimmerman got off Scot free. A little over a year late
Zimmermans estranged wife claimed that he punched her father in the face and proceed to
threaten her with a gun. This is a very unstable and angry man who got away with murder
because his victim looked was African American in a hoodie, there for making him lake
suspicious.

I found some statistics on how many people have been killed by police in the past years
and it was really interesting. You can see on a graph that between May 2nd, 2013 and April 8,
2015 one thousand five hundred and fifty four people had been shot by police officers. Of those
shot 302 (19%) were Hispanic, 464(30%) were black, 782(49%) were white and 26(2%) were
Asian. At first this can seem to deny the fact that more people of color are shot every year than
white people.
 The thing is, however, if you take these numbers and tie them in with the populations of
each race in our country here are the more realistic numbers. For white people on average 3.87
out of a million will be shot by police each year. 5.29 Hispanic people per million will be shot per
year by police, and 10.08 African Americans per million will be shot every year by police on
average. The population of white people in our country is by far the highest and thats why its
able to skew graphs like that, and statistics like those first ones I found could be the reason
some people dont see or acknowledge the problem our country is facing. Black citizens are
almost three times as likely to be shot compared to white citizens. This is a huge discrepancy
that cant be ignored.

Another example we have is was a little over a year ago. On september 16th, 2016 in
Tulsa Oklahoma an African American man was shot and killed by a white police officer. He was
pulled over for driving erratically and was speaking with two officers, he at the time was on the
drug called PCP. He began walking to his car and began to put his hands on the car when he
was shot and tasered for not obeying orders. This makes you think why would one officer follow
training, and even in a stressful situation, opted to not use lethal measures. It also makes you
wonder why officer Shelby decided to shoot an unarmed African American man. There was time
to think and react and one officer did appropriately while the other did not. Surprisingly enough,
officer Shelby was found innocent and was not charged with any crime after this debacle. This
reminds me of a quote I read before that said Who gave police the right to be the judge and
jury to take people's loved ones?" from a black woman named Antoinette Harmon, in a related
article talking about her brother who was shot and killed by police officers.

These are just very few of the many examples we have in this day and age of police
brutality involving people of color. We have eyewitness accounts but we also have video
recordings in this age of technology we have bystanders recording and we also have police
being ordered to wear body cams. There are also still many times when we see our justice
system fail people of color in dealings with police or dealings in courts. With the age of
technology it may be becoming better, but we still have to do better hold people accountable for
their mistakes and make sure we fix what we can with the proof and evidence we have. Those
minority being the people who suffer need the help of us who arent on the losing side of
inequality.

Citations:

ABC, and Washington Post. "Do You Think Blacks and Other Minorities Receive Equal
Treatment as Whites in The Criminal Justice System?." Statista - The Statistics Portal, Statista,
www.statista.com/statistics/262485/us-public-opinion-on-whether-there-is- racial-bias-in-the-
criminal-justice-system/, Accessed 4 Oct 2017

Davis, Kenan, et al. The Counted: the definitive map of US police killings in 2015. The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-
interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-map-us-police-killings.

Knox, Annie. Family members of man shot dead by police call for officer's firing.
DeseretNews.com, Deseret News, 9 Oct. 2017,
www.deseretnews.com/article/865690701/Family-members-of-man-shot -dead-by-police-call-
for-officers-firing.html.

WALINCHUS, LUCIA, and RICHARD PREZ-PEA. "White Tulsa Officer is Acquitted in Fatal
Shooting of Black Driver."US Newsstream, May 17, 2017, https://search-proquest-
com.libprox1.slcc.edu/docview/1899614094? accountid=28671

America After Ferguson. Films Media Group, 2014,

fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=102595&xtid=115811. Accessed Oct. 4 2017.