Unarmed
Unarmed
The source of media that I selected for Iblog- two is the film, The Hate U Give that was released in 2018. The film was based on the novel The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas that came out in 2017. The Novel was influenced by the death of Oscar Grant. Grant was an unarmed twenty-two-year-old African-American man who was shot by an Oakland police officer in 2009. Thomas was disgusted and angry by the death that she wrote a short story about a boy named Khalil who has a lot of personal traits like Oscar and Starr who is the main character in the film who’s a lot like Thomas. The main character in the film is a six-teen-year-old African American Girl who was a star eye-witness to the unlawful death of her friend Khali as he passed away in front of her because of police brutality. However, Starr does not stay silent as she fights the injustice that happened to her friend and fights the struggle against police violence in her underprivileged black community called Garden Heights.
It all started when Starr and Khalil went to their friend’s Big D’s party. They went to the party by themselves but left together when there were gunshots. As both of them were driving home Khali was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. When the officer walked up to the car he automatically started treating Khalil as a criminal. African-Americans are treated like criminals before even convicted. (Stevenson, 2018) discusses “The presumptive identity of black men as “slaves” evolved into the presumptive identity of “criminal,” and we have yet to fully recover from this historical frame” (P.12) An example of mistreatment of African Americans that was discussed in class and discussed in (Henning, 2018) Emilio Mayfield is a sixteen-year-old African-American that was on their way to school when Mayfield was stopped for jaywalking in a bus line. As he was stopped, Mayfield refused to stop as he continued walking to catch his bus. The officer eventually grabbed Mayfield’s arm and forced Mayfield to sit on the sidewalk as around four more police officers jumped on the unarmed young man holding him down for and up as the young man was unarmed just like Khali. “The encounter escalated as nine officers became involved, at least four of whom piled on top of Emilio before slamming him into the ground.” (Henning 2018 p, 57.) Why does there need to be nine adults to control a four-teen-year-old. Both Khali and Mayfield were both unarmed African-American teenagers that were pulled over for noncriminal acts and both could have been dealt with without violence. As both were shown aggressive just based on their skin color.
As disgusting it is, police brutality is a common thing to happen in the society we live in. In the past black men were identified as “slaves’ ‘ which evolved into blacks as “criminals” which is still a huge problem today. While the officer pulled Khalil over, the officer requested Khalil to step out of the car and Khalil was disagreeing with the officer’s order. While Khalil and Starr were waiting in the car while the officer checked his ID Khalil decided to grab for his airbrush in his car door Starr is remembering the lessons her father gave her to teach her how to act when talking to the police. Starr was yelling at Khali to put his hands on the dashboard to show his hands at all times and within seconds the officer noticed that Khalil was reaching for something in his car door. Not knowing what Khali was grabbing the officer thought it was the only and best decision to shoot. Even though there are other ways to stop someone other than shooting them. For example, to stop somebody fast you could use pepper spray or a teaser. Starr was motivated to keep the memory of her friend alive.
I believe this movie is important for people to watch as it informs us about what is going on in our society and I would recommend this movie to everyone. Everyone needs to understand this problem in our society. Another discussed topic in class and around the world is the death of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old African-American man who was killed while being arrested for allegedly using counterfeit bills. Which led to large protests against police brutality just like in the movie The Hate U Give. The real question is, how many innocent African-American people have to die for there to be a change? In class, we discussed implicit bias which is the unconscious discriminatory views towards a certain group. Which may affect how criminal justice professionals interact with African-Americans as stereotypes portray black men as more likely to be violent and a criminal. As black boys are disproportionately arrested and detained as well serve more time for their crimes than other races. (2018) discusses “Between 2007 and 2011 revealed that black men in federal prisons received sentences 19.5 percent longer than white men sentenced for the same crime.” (P. xvi). Not only are African-Americans are disproportionately arrested, and sentenced longer, they also are killed at a disproportionate rate. African-American men are twenty-one times more likely to be killed by the police compared to white men. (Davis, 2018) stated, “Between 2010 and 2012, black boys ages fifteen through nineteen were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million compared to 1.47 per million for white boys of the same age group. In addition, a significant number of black men killed by the police were unarmed”(P. xv).
References
Davis, J. (2018). The Endurance of Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 31-56). Vintage Books.
Henning, K. (2018). Boys to Men: The Role of Policing in the socialization of Black Boys. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 57-94). Vintage Books.
Stevenson, B. (2018). A presumption of guilt: The legacy of America’s history of racial injustice. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp.3-20). Vintage Books.