Jose Vargas
Acts of Resistance
March 23, 2020
Police brutality is major issue, there are death caused by this madness. Even though law enforcement is at fault for this, but that doesn’t mean that the public is not to blame either. My major is criminal justice. my dream job is to be an agent, but that doesn’t blind me from the truth. What’s out there. I love justice, and justice to me is balance between fairness and equality. Unfortunately, and sadly when we talk about police brutality those are two words that are completely misapprehend by the police and the public. This topic is hard to talk about without highlighting racism and discrimination. That’s why I decide only to talk about the abuse police have been doing, and how us, the people, have been pushing them to do worst.
First, I want to start by saying that being a police officer is a difficult job. imagine taking care of your 4-year old sibling and the house at the same time. Hard right? One of the duties of a police officer is to take care of a whole community. That’s why it takes whole bunch of them to do it. We should as people, and as members of a community support them. Sometimes they get the dirty work done for us.
I stand on my words. However, that doesn’t mean that the system hasn’t been corrupt. They are thousands of cases where the police have gotten physical with the people from their community, and almost killed them. People don’t feel safe, even with the ones that are supposed to protect us. Imagine getting imprisoned for a crime you did not commit. Imagine being beaten for a traffic violation. Police in my opinion are supposed to be leaders of their communities, without attacking the people in it. A question, how we suppose to count on the police to control violence when there are the one inflecting it? I am well informed, and I know delinquency must be control. However, not every 6-foot tall black male with a hoodie on is a delinquent.
Now, going back to what I said about the public. Like I said the police are not the only ones to blame. There have been police abuses provoked by the people. People that don’t like the way you look, the color of the skin, or how you dress. For example, the same 6-foot tall guy with the hoodie can be in his car listening to music, and because you didn’t like the way looked, or the music he’s listening to, you’ve decided to call the police. That does not excuse the aggression and the way that police officer acted. Just like society can’t be excuse for what they’ve created (discrimination, racism, etc.). after that happens, the ones affected are the police officers, what about us? the public. Like I said before, police are not robots, they are humans. That means that their judgement can be influenced by person. That means that if we as the public are less discriminating and racist, the police will be less corrupt and more careful, because they can lose their job.
Proposal
I want to do video exposing all the madness behind police brutality. With that video I want to get to communities, and people that have gone through that. I want to explain, how we, as society can fix that. How we can stop this injustice affecting good people, and good community. What I’ve said its just a part of what the real issue, and why this problem should be stop.
Cases: police brutality
Robert Davis
Robert Davis, a retired elementary school teacher from New Orleans, was arrested and brutally beaten by police on suspicion of public intoxication. On the night of Oct. 9, 2005, just a little over a month after Hurricane Katrina, Davis returned to New Orleans to check on his family’s property and went to the French Quarter to buy cigarettes. There, he was attacked by four police officers who said he was belligerent and resisted arrest by not allowing them to handcuff him. The beatings were videotaped by an Associated Press producer, who was also assaulted that night. The officers were either fired or suspended for their involvement, but many of the charges against them were cleared.
Frank Jude
In 2004, 26-year-old Frank Jude was viciously beaten by several off-duty Milwaukee police officers as he was leaving a party. The group of men attacked Jude and his friend, Lovell Harris, claiming they stole one of the officer’s wallets that contained a police badge. Harris’ face was cut with a knife, but he was able to get free and run away. Jude was repeatedly punched and kicked, as well as stabbed in the ears with a pen. Even the on-duty officer who was called to stop the fight began stomping on Jude’s head. In the state trial, the jury acquitted the three officers charged. There was a great deal of community outrage and demand for a federal investigation. The federal grand jury convicted the three officers who were originally acquitted but did acquit the fourth officer.
The Central Park Five
This was a big case, even our president trump had something to say when it happened. A woman was raped at a central park in New York. This about five boys that were imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. “After questioning these boys for more than 12 hours police got them to tell story that wasn’t true. Antron McCray, 15, Kevin Richardson, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, Raymond Santana, 14, and Korey Wise, 16 who came to be known as the Central Park Five.”
Artists
Bryan Stevenson is an activist, writer, lawyer, and the founder of EJI. The EJI has help correct injustices, like putting kids in death row. He wrote a book, that explained how was and how it is now police brutality. He also helped a man that was unfairly accused of murder get out of death row.
Carrie Mae Weems is an American artist and photographer. She creates installations that combine photography, audio, and text to examine many facets of contemporary American life. She has done work on police brutality. The way she does her art, illustrates all the paint that the victims went through.
Dread Scott is an artist that does revolutionary art. He’s with the black lives matter movement, where he also exposes how cruel is police brutality.
Joyner Lucas Is an American rapper. I’m bringing up because he did this song called “I’m not racist”. Where he states the issues between the two racial cultures, and how the police treat both sides.
research resources
- https://www.dreadscott.net/about/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carrie-Mae-Weems
- https://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-worst-cases-of-police-brutality-in-history.html
- https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/central-park-five
- https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580
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