Nick Delquadro

Dr. Haslam

English 2010

05/12/2022

The Debate on the Penalties Addressing Social Injustices

(Information Effect Project)

Over the past couple of years, riots and protests have swarmed areas across the country,

fighting for justice for their family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers. Anger, fear, and

sadness spread like a wildfire across the United States, roaring “Black Lives Matter.” Obviously,

that shouldn’t be a controversial statement, saying that any individual life matters, then why

exactly is there any sort of conflict with that statement? The debate really addresses a more

controversial issue of finding a balance of justice for those who suffered a loss from a personal

opinions, bias, and mistakes from officers. People, fighting for justice of their loved one’s and

others, are met against the judgment of their state governments.

The affirmative side of this debate has 2 major claims behind their overall position,

dictated by the laws made by the people: police brutality is extremely uncommon and doesn’t go

unpunished and then the issue of preventing police mistakes is the true issue rather than police

officers targeting minorities.

 First, according to Mitchell C Shaw, a freelance writer and public speaker who addresses

a range of topics related to liberty and the U.S. Constitution, police brutality is extremely

uncommon. “a mere .047 percent of people — of all races — who have contact with police

officers ever even claim that they are the victims of police brutality. And only eight percent of

those complaints were sustained by the facts once investigated. That comes out to a

minuscule .0038 percent,” (Shaw). Although there is no excuse to harm others whether it’s by

accident or purposefully, the issue exaggerates the amount of police brutality levels in the U.S.

entirely ,according to Shaw. This number further declines as we take our scale to a smaller

population such as Utah’s citizens.

With these mistakes come serious consequences, showing that these unjust acts do not go

unpunished. A woman from Texas while off duty accidentally shot her neighbor upstairs. She

was then sentenced to 10 years in prison, following Texas’ law for manslaughter. Near the end of

last year, 2 Californian police officers were also arrested for interferring with police evidence.

Second, the issue of reducing mistakes from officers has been merged with a rarer issue

of officers unjustly targeting minorities. Coincidentally, the same article continues to support the

affirmative side when Shaw said “Of all uses of deadly force by police in 2018, more than 49

percent were against whites, while only about 23 percent were against blacks. The remaining

were spread out across other racial groups.” This set of data concludes that not only is tit relevent

as this information is taken from a source from 2 years ago. There is also a great difference

between these two races with white doubling the African-American population proportion.
 The opposing side of the debate has many points behind their claim that police are

targeting minorities, and it’s a great issue to stand against. First, this issue is said to be such a

limiting factor on American citizens. It limits the basic rights, promised by our founding fathers,

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Second, given the proportion of African-Americans

across the country compared to the white majority, the pieces of evidence provided by Shaw are

less valid.

First, the opposing side has reasonable evidence that the quality of life for minorities is

less than a majority of the white population. The following table displays the average level of

satisfaction with the current lifestyle of a randomly selected sample of 50 Utah valley citizens,

including the said races. This ranges from 1 (not satisfied at all) to 100 (extremely satisfied).

The data can conclude that there is a considerable difference in the quality of life between the

majority and minorities as there is almost a consistent difference of 20 between every minority

and the white majority.

 Second, although acts of police mistakes do not prove African-Americans are targeted,

the proportions of deaths say that the rate that black people are killed at are 2.5 times more than

white people.

When the comparisons of the number of minorities are compared to the majority, it

shows that not only do African Americans have 2.5 times as many deaths per 1 million people

from police officers than the white population, but Latino Americans proportion is considerably

larger, standing at 1.83 times as many deaths.

To elaborate on the debate on the penalties addressing social injustices, this debate is extremely

tied between government and justice officials and the community, both fighting for justice.

Socially, it disrupts the unity that the United States of America government has always held true

to the people. The solution however lies in the balance between the two sides of justices in

everyday life.

Nick Delquadro

Dr. Haslam

English 2010
03/04/2022

The Debate on the Penalties Addressing Social Injustices

ORIGINAL

(Information Effect Project)

Over the past couple of years, riots and protests have swarmed areas across the country,

fighting for justice for their family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers. Anger, fear, and

sadness spread like a wildfire across the United States, roaring “Black Lives Matter.” Obviously,

that shouldn’t be a controversial statement, saying that any individual life matters, then why

exactly is there any sort of conflict with that statement? The debate really addresses a more

controversial issue of finding a balance of justice for those who suffered a loss from a biased

police officer or a mistake from a police officer. People, fighting for justice of their loved one’s

and others, are met against the judgment of their state governments.

The affirmative side of this debate has 2 major claims behind their overall position,

dictated by the laws made by the people: police brutality is extremely uncommon and doesn’t go

unpunished and then the issue of preventing police mistakes is the true issue rather than police

officers targeting minorities.

First, according to Mitchell C Shaw, a freelance writer and public speaker who addresses

a range of topics related to liberty and the U.S. Constitution, police brutality is extremely

uncommon. “a mere .047 percent of people — of all races — who have contact with police

officers ever even claim that they are the victims of police brutality. And only eight percent of
those complaints were sustained by the facts once investigated. That comes out to a

minuscule .0038 percent,” (Shaw). Although there is no excuse to harm others whether it’s by

accident or purposefully, the issue exaggerates the amount of police brutality levels in the U.S.

entirely. This number further declines as we take our scale to a smaller population such as Utah’s

citizens. With these mistakes come serious consequences, showing that these unjust acts do not

go unpunished. A woman from Texas while off duty accidentally shot her neighbor upstairs. She

was then sentenced to 10 years in prison, following Texas’ law for manslaughter. Near the end of

last year, 2 Californian police officers were arrested.

Second, the issue of reducing mistakes from officers has been merged with a rarer issue

of officers unjustly targeting minorities. Coincidentally, the same article continues to support the

affirmative side when Shaw said “Of all uses of deadly force by police in 2018, more than 49

percent were against whites, while only about 23 percent were against blacks. The remaining

were spread out across other racial groups.” This set of data states that not only is there a great

difference between these two races with white doubling the African-American population

proportion but also it’s very recent and most likely still applies today.

The opposing side of the debate has many points behind their claim that police are

targeting minorities, and it’s a great issue to stand against. First, this issue is said to be such a

limiting factor on American citizens. It limits the basic rights, promised by our founding fathers,

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Second, given the proportion of African-Americans

across the country compared to the white majority, the pieces of evidence provided by Shaw are

less valid.
 First, the opposing side has reasonable evidence that the quality of life for minorities is

less than a majority of the white population. The following table displays the average level of

satisfaction with the current lifestyle of a randomly selected sample of 50 Utah valley citizens,

including the said races. This ranges from 1 (not satisfied at all) to 100 (extremely satisfied).

The data can conclude that there is a considerable difference in the quality of life between the

majority and minorities as there is almost a consistent difference of 20 between every minority

and the white majority.

Second, although acts of police mistakes do not prove African-Americans are targeted,

the proportions of deaths say that the rate that black people are killed at are 2.5 times more than

white people.
 When the comparisons of the number of minorities are compared to the majority, it
shows that not only do African Americans have 2.5 times as many deaths per 1 million people
from police officers than the white population, but Latino Americans proportion is considerably
larger, standing at 1.83 times as many deaths.

To elaborate on the debate on the penalties addressing social injustices, this debate is extremely
tied between government and justice officials and the community, both fighting for justice.
Socially, it disrupts the unity that the United States of America government has always held true
to the people. The solution however lies in the balance between the two sides of justices in
everyday life.