Joanna Viramontes

10/6/16

Dear Next President:

Police brutality seems to be a popular topic everybody loves to talk and argue about. Whenever somebody turns on the news, unlocks his or her phones, or opens the paper, a new story about police brutality is revealed. It’s a conversation mothers must have with their children at a young age. We, as a country, should not have to worry if we will be beaten, nearly killed, or killed by our own law enforcers that are supposed to protect us.

Police brutality is a problem for many reasons and the list can go on. For example, police, you can say, abuse their power. We see police brutality in the South more than we see it anywhere else in the country. In America, segregation ended in 1964. We hear racism still occurs, in the South, a lot more than anywhere else in the country ,in my opinion, because it has only been 52 years since racism has ended. People still have the mentality, still, to discriminate based on someone’s race. Generally, the police who abuse their law enforcement power tend to be Caucasian and the victims are a race of color. This statement may not mean anything, it could be just a coincidence that officers have shot and killed people of color, but it is a significant number of people who are not of color and do not get shot, versus the people that do.

Some people disagree with the statement, “police officers abuse their power by harming colored people,” thinking “they had a gun in their hand, they were being unresponsive.” Even though some police officers abuse their power, majority of the police officer community do not. The people who disagree with the statement may say, “being a police officer is a hard job. They come across many dangerous, awful cases everyday.”

The opposing argument is also true. Police officers jobs are, indeed, hard. However, on August 9, 2014, according to Emily Brown, from the website usatoday, a African American teenager was shot and killed, by a white officer. In Ferguson, MO, a teenager stole cigarillos and was able to manage to leave the store successfully with them. A police officer, Officer Darren Wilson, saw Michael Brown who fit the police report of a stolen item perfectly. Witnesses say when the altercation occurred, Brown had his hands raising in the air. Not only was he being responsive to the officer, he was also unarmed. This evidence shows the unnecessary acts law enforcement uses today.

In conclusion, police officers are not all bad people. People, nowadays, are put into situations that nobody should ever have to face. If you are looking to fix a problem in our country, police brutality would be a great place to start. It would be a good situation to handle first because many parents are concerned their colored children will not come home.

Sincerely,

Joanna V.

Citations

Brown, Compiled By Emily. "Timeline: Michael Brown Shooting in Ferguson, Mo." USA Today. Gannett, 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.