The Link Between Police Brutality And Racism

In the last week there has been at least 19 deaths by the police. And among these 19 deaths only in two cases were reported of victims engaged in violence on others. The rest of the seventeen dead were aged between 18 years to 53 years and when killed were either fleeing, resisting police interference or were experiencing emotional or mental health crisis.

These killings have sparked protests in most part of the United States like in El Cajon, California. In the San Diego suburb, a Ugandan immigrant, Alfred Olango was going through an emotional breakdown after the death of his friend. That is when he was tased and shot dead by the cops.

Another incident in the past week that raised an alarm on the increasing level of police brutality was in the suburb of Los Angeles, Pasadena, California. The police who reached there after being called to attend to a domestic dispute killed father of eight children, Reginald Thomas. At the time of the incident the victim who was a black man and reportedly bipolar was said to be holding a fire extinguisher and waving a knife at the police. At the news of this incident more than 100 protesters gathered to protest against this killing.

Some public groups like the Black Lives Matter group and the Democratic Party have been claiming that these killings by the cops are racially influenced as the white cops continue to kill more and more African-Americans. It is important, however, to note that among the 19 victims killed last week, 10 of them were non-blacks. They were, an Asian, a Hispanic and eight white men.

And point to e noticed is that the ethnicities of the officers involved in these killings have not yet been reported. These killings happened in different cities in the United States with a police force that is racially and ethnically diverse. The cities that the incidents took place were places like California, San Diego, Newark, Texas, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Houston.

The death toll on September 30 alone brings to fore the grim reality of the social fabric of the United States and the unrestrained and uncalled for brutality that is meted out by the police.

Public has especially taken to protest for these killings in California though with some restraint and avoiding any further clashes with the cops. However, over the weekend, another killing of Carnell Snell Jr., an 18-year-old black youth led to the rise in tensions in the state. The police killed the young man over suspicion of a stolen car. The victim was with two other people in the car who fled from the scene. Later, cops claimed to have found a handgun from the crime scene but there was no report of the gun being fired or of being in possession of the victim.

Angry people took to protest on this incident along with the victim’s family with one woman who said the police should not be the executioner, judge or the jury all by itself.

Reports suggest that in comparison to the proportion of their population, the police in the United States kill the blacks more often and at a much higher rate.