Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Crime in the Media Fall 2020

The movie I decided to watch for my Media Blog 2 post was The Hate U Give directed by George Tillman Jr. The movie was about a young black teenage boy who was shot by a white police officer. The whole movie basically showed what our world is like today in terms of race and crime. 

The movie began with a black teenage girl named Starr. Her black friend was shot after they had left a party where there were gunshots at. They got in the vehicle after leaving the party and were pulled over by a white male police officer. The male police officer pulled them over for no reason and made Starr’s friend Khalil get out of the car when he proceeded to shoot him. Starr was taken to the police station after being handcuffed, watching her friend Khalil die. She told the station his badge number which was 115. The investigators questioned Starr on what had happened, and accused Khalil of being involved with drugs, basically ignoring the fact that he was shot for no reason. Later in the movie, Starr returned back to school and riots were broken out for the murder of Khalil. Starr began arguing with her friend when her friend mentioned that all lives matter, and brushed it off as it was nothing. In the end of the movie, more riots took place where Starr spoke out about being a witness in Khalil’s murder. The black community came together during the riots and mourned over the death of Khalil. The white male officer never got in trouble for what he did. 

In class we talk about how race plays a big part in crime and how statistics show that more black individuals get shot by police officers. One issue we talk about in class is the George Floyd case. This movie pertains to the case because it is a very similar situation. George Floyd was also an innocent black man killed by a white male officer. The Hate U Give, was similar where riots broke out and the black community came together to try and make a difference. This movie shines  a light on the insight of what happens to people of color and the people close to them when a crime was wrongfully committed against them. In class, we discuss a lot about how black individuals are more susceptible to police brutality and how in many cases black people are wrongfully killed or persecuted for crimes that they did not do. In the movie, the officer that shot Khalil did not get the justice he deserved, just as many cases in today’s world. 

Another similar case that we discuss in class is the case of Breonna Taylor. She was also wrongfully shot by an officer. Breonna Taylor’s case also mentioned drugs, just as Khalil was accused of selling drugs in The Hate U Give. Both Breonna Taylor’s case and Khalil’s murder were trying to be justified by drugs being the issue, instead of the black person being killed. Breonna was wrongfully shot just as Khalil was in the movie and the cases both used drugs as a scapegoat to justify the murders. Both of these tie into the idea of racism and crime, just as we discuss in class everyday. 

This movie really gave me insight on what it’s like to be a black person and experience the injustices that they go through. I feel as though someone should watch this movie to better understand what it’s like to be a black person in today’s society. In the movie, Khalil was wrongfully shot by a police officer where no action was taken on his murder. This is very similar to what happens in many cases today, just as we discuss in class. In class we talk about how black people are more susceptible to being pulled over and racially profiled. In the movie I watched Khalil and Starr get pulled over for no reason. I personally have never feared getting pulled over and could not imagine being in a black person’s position to be scared of being pulled over by a police officer, let alone being shot for no reason. I feel as though someone should watch this movie to better educate themselves about racism and crime and how in many cases black people are wrongfully murdered. As a white male individual, I personally have never experienced what a black individual has gone through, when it comes to police authority. In the future, I would like to become a state police officer and this movie has given me a lot to think about and a new perspective on racial injustices. 

Anonymous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXy0H-EZR5s

                                                                                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.

Eric Dawkins

Crim 410

Media Blog Post 2

Racial Injustice and its Effects on the World

Summary: The film I have chosen to analyze is called “Race Matters: America in Crisis.” This video accurately describes, discusses, and portrays the racial injustice that has occurred recently as well as including statistics and the affects it has on others. To begin, one of the best ways this video showed how the racial injustices that have happened affect others was by interviewing protesters that were also black. One protester said that “He wants to be able to not worry about being stopped by the police for just standing in front of a store, or being able to walk in a store with a hoodie on.” Another said that these incidents are happening so much that he “expects a black man’s life to be taken each month by the police.” These words also probably speak for many people that feel the same way. These incidents of racial bias and racial injustice not only take their toll on the victim, but also on the family as well.

This was the case with Terence Crutcher’s sister, Tiffany Crutcher. In her interview, she said after the death of George Floyd she “broke out in hives and couldn’t sleep for three days.” She also said she was taking Terence’s son and some cousins to the movies when she got pulled over and the kids were screaming and crying because they thought they were going to be shot as well. So, from this we can infer that these incidents also have severe, lasting effects on and abundance of people, not just the victim. Furthermore, this film also provides statistics about racial bias. The first of these is that in May, even with the pandemic, white unemployment dropped while black unemployment rose to 17%. Next, the second statistic shown in the video was that black men and boys are almost two and a half times more likely to be killed by police than white men and boys. This second statistic supports the arguments made by the protesters earlier in the video because it validates their fear for their life during encounters with law enforcement, especially when they should not even be happening.

During this film, they also offered suggestions regarding reform and changes that need to be made in order to solve and reduce the racial injustice from police. However, before that, they discuss some of the barriers that could be delaying or stopping change. One of the barriers mentioned was the fact that there is a sense of culture in policing and that it is hard for police and others to get away from a culture that has been around for so long. Another barrier they mentioned was that there may be a chief out there that wants to make change and do the right thing, but the tenures for chiefs are only about three to four years which is not long enough. Regardless, some of their reform suggestions included having black and white officers be made aware of how easily their actions can make them be held accountable and that the public’s view of police stems from their behavior. Another reform suggestion was adding diversity to the positions and levels of law enforcement that can change and reform policies.

Analysis: This video resonates well with the topics we have discussed in class as well as some of the readings in “Policing the Black Man” by Angela Davis (2018). The first connection that I noticed could be made between the one protester’s remarks about wanting to be able to stand in front of a store or walk through a store with a hoodie on, and the story of Bryan Stevenson (2018) where he says, “But to the Atlanta police officer threatening to shoot me I looked like a criminal, someone dangerous and guilty” (p. 3). The connection I recognized from these two parts of the reading and video deals with the appearance of a black man and the potential, and in Stevenson’s case, actual racially biased behavior from an officer that could have turned fatal. Another connection I made between the video and a reading was the statistic about black men and boys being two and a half times more likely to be killed by police than white men and boys and the statement made by Katheryn Russell-Brown (2018) in the chapter about implicit bias in Davis’ book when she says, “The disproportionately high rate at which black men are killed by the police is a major social problem in the United States” (p. 135). These relate because the cause for this statistic and statement’s relationship can be directly connected to the ongoing issue of implicit bias in police and the toll it is having on its victims.

Personal Reflection: In my opinion, I thought this video was structured well as it showed and provided background on the recent incidents of racial injustice by police, then it merged with people voicing their opinions, fears, and wants about how life should be and how police should act. In addition, they discussed the resounding effects these incidents have on others as well as the victim. They then talked about barriers to change and went on to suggest reforms themselves. This film increased my understanding of the issue because it exemplified the effects these incidents have on children and how it could shape their perceptions of police. I agree with everything presented in the video. This being the fact that there does need to be change, not all cops are bad, and that the bigger picture needs to be addressed before these incidents will stop. I would recommend this video to others because it goes into detail about what has happened, what needs to and should change, and overall offers accurate information to people who may not know enough about this issue.

References

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Russel- Brown, K. (2018). Making Implicit Bias Explicit. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 135-160). New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Russel-Brown, K (2018). Making Implicit Bias Explicit. In A.J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment (pp. 135-160). New York, NY: 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.

This documentary is called “Slavery By Another Name”. It is directed by Sam Pollard, and created by Doug Blackmon and Catherine Allan. It was released February 13^th, 2012. This video explains how slavery was abolished in 1865 by Abraham Lincoln, but never really ended. During the civil war, the north was fighting against the south over mainly the issue of slavery. After the north won, the emancipation proclamation by the 13^th amendment declared that all former slaves were all free. Close to 4 million slaves could now call themselves as equal to white people. They could now own guns, own land, animals, houses etc. However, the freedom of slaves came with a cost, as the south was in economic ruins after the war. Owners needed more workers for labor. So, they passed “black codes” a series of codes intending to criminalize black folks (Stevenson 2018).  So small offenses, like vagrancy, and others were punishable with fines that black people could not pay. This is related to the “War on Drugs” where you could be locked up for low level offenses (Mauer 2018). They could be locked up just for not proving they were employed. They would pay fines with labor, for an extended amount of time. This resulted in millions of people working in labor prison camps across the south. The official term was “convict leasing” which is people being sold for to private areas for state income. “They utilized the criminal justice system for the economic exploitation and political disempowerment of black people” (Stevenson, 2018, pg.11).  Many slaves died as a result, and more were pushed to the brink. These types of extensive crimes on blacks would criminalize them as we know it today.

One related story is the story of Green Cottenham. His records are not complete. He was born to former slaves in the early 1880’s. He was wrongly arrested for vagrancy in 1908, a common occurrence with many citizens. Alabama rented Cottenham to work in a coal mine, where he late died. This was industrial slavery because people were sent to coal mines rather than the cotton fields. A lost of issues revolved around colored people being “criminals”. Many people, like Cottenham, were falsely accused of crimes with no evidence and sent to work in the coal mines. This ties in with what occurs today, as massive amounts of are convicted of crimes with no evidence. However today the truth can come out, and you can be let out after 30 years. Back then they did not have the technology that we did, so they mostly likely died working. This confirms our class discussion about why we criminalize colored people. The label they placed on them as criminals has expanded over time, and we have not confronted it, which is why things are as they are today. The perspective is seen as race affected how you were treated, even after the 13^th amendment. This can go into stories we discussed in class from Stevenson’s essay in the Davis book about police and the community. Such as the story of Emilio Mayfield, that was beaten by police when jaywalking, which was not an offense in the area. Also, Tremaine McMillian, who was put in a chokehold after playing around with a friend (Henning, 2018, pg. 57). These tie directly back to the perspectives that colored people are criminals, which was forced upon them after the civil war.

Society came to believe this social construct of former slaves being criminals. Another factor comes after the war when the south is in economic ruin. There is now incentive to pin small crimes and offenses on colored people, and when they could not pay the fines, they sent to work in the fields. Citizens saw this as a good reason to have forced labor. This continued of course for decades, until they were not able to use these methods. A big question needs to be asked? Why aren’t these issued being discussed, at school and at home? The common theme is that when slavery died out, everything was okay. It was not okay, as millions of formers were forced to work till there deaths. We need to focus on learning more about our nation’s history, good and bad. We should build more museums, more exhibits, teaching people about what happened (such as the Jim Crow Museum). We can learn from these terrible practices that were occurring, and make sure it does not happen in the future. The problem is that citizens do not pay attention because there are busy with their own lives. They have jobs, they attend school, they go here and there. When they do not realize everything, they know was built on slavery and forced labor.

This documentary overall helped me to understand a little more about how exactly colored people were criminalized in the justice system. To really understand what they went through would be impossible, but myself and others need to spread this knowledge so we can possibly prevent some event that occur today. The past can hurt, but the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.

References

Henning, K. (2018) Boys to Men: The Roles 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 (pg. 11-26). Vintage Books.

Pollard, S. (2012). Slavery by Another Name (2012). Retrieved October 31, 2020, from https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/slavery-by-another-name/

After watching the 13th on Netflix it has become apparent to me that we have transitioned from slavery to mass incarceration. The film starts out by stating that America makes up just 5% of the world’s population, yet it houses 25% of the worlds prison population. In 1865 the United States passed the 13^th amendment which makes slavery unconstitutional with the exception of criminals. Of course, this started the problem because, the post war south had a lot to rebuild. With all their slaves hereby released to be free they had to make up some ground on their own. By finding the loophole African Americans were thrown in prison for very moderate offenses. Then they were used for labor and put in much worse environments than slavery before.

A famous movie called “The Birth of a Nation” was created and then pictured the black man as an animal. This film is the sole reason for the rebirth of the KKK and led to the lynching of many African Americans due to the thought of them doing something criminal. This was deemed illegal and was then shifted to the use of segregation through Jim Crow laws. Those who fought against the injustice were known as civil rights activist and were really labeled  as criminals. We were then approaching the 1970’s and the U.S. was making a turn towards mass incarceration. We had a moderately flat number of prisoners in our system up until the 1970’s when the total prison populations were upwards in the 360,000. After the Nixon administration’s push for law and order and the videos words “rhetorical war on drugs” that number was nearly doubled. In 1980 the prison population rose to 519,900, which is around the time that the Regan administration took over. Ronald Regan started a literal war on drugs that was extremely biased towards African Americans. The most famous reason being was thanks to the mandatory sentencing of Crack v Powder Cocaine. Which was the mandatory sentencing act that placed thousands of African American men in prison.

In 1985 the prison population rose to 759,100, and the African American community was taking the majority of that hit. The world “Super Predator” was circulating through the media and was specifically targeting the African American population. Being tough on crime was a necessity for any politician and the Clinton administration did just that. By passing the three strikes law and mandatory minimums, the prison population just began to rise even more (Mauer, 2018). Then thanks to the 1994 crime bill there was an expansion in the prison system as well. Then in 2001 there were 878,400 African Americans within the prison system. Today there are many big corporations making money off of prisoners within the system. In my opinion it is no different than slavery was back in the 1800s.

There are multiple reasons to maintain the argument that these pieces of legislation are biased to the African American community. First, the main cause to the mass incarceration of African American men alone is thanks to the War on Drugs. Michael Tonry states “The recent blackening of America’s prison population is the product of the malign neglect of the war on drug’s effect on black American’s” (Tonry, 1995, p. 105 as cited by Walker et al., 2018). Thanks to Ronald Reagans literal war on drugs the African American population suffered. The thanks going to the mandatory sentencing of crack cocaine. This targeted the black community sending African American men away for a majority of the time life due to a small possession of crack. Families were split up, children growing up without their fathers for the rest of their life due to an unfair sentencing. The excuse was that crack cocaine was much more harmful to those who use it than powder. Now today we know there is no difference between the two.

Another reason for mass incarceration is due to the 1994 crime bill that was passed by the Clinton administration. This bill gave more money towards corrections and the police in an effort to expand prisons. This also allowed for police to start using different strategies. These strategies are stop and frisk and racial profiling. When it comes to stop and frisk it allows police to stop and search an individual in the street without any warrant, more so an inclination based off the looks of the person. Which leads to racial profiling, where “black and Hispanic drivers are more than three times as likely to be searched by police following a stop” (Davis, 2017, pg. 43). These two together are a pipeline for African Americans to be sent to prison out of a mere guess that someone who is of color has a criminal intention. There is no doubt that these two strategies are a cause to the mass incarceration in our country.

Which is what the film 13^th is trying to tell us. There is visible racial inequality and injustice taking place right in front of our eyes. The film proves that through the facts in statistics that show the majority of those incarcerated are black men. In no way is this just a coincidence either. It’s obvious that this is a systematic process placing these men in prison. It started with the vision of the black man in the late 1800s. That has shifted to the 1990’s where we thought it was okay to single them out to call the black man, a super predator. In the end, I have learned from the movie 13^th about the racial injustice that takes place in our country. It is a must watch to finally learn and to decide to make a change. So that we can finally be fair to everyone in our country. If we want to deal with the mass incarceration in our country, then we need to look at the facts and decide when enough is enough.

By, Josh Dauberman

Work Cited

Davis, A. J. (2018). Policing the Black man: Arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Mauer, M. (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.

Walker, S., Spohn, C. DeLone, M. (2018). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. Cengage Learning.

For my media blog post I chose to watch the first episode of “Living Undocumented.” This documentary follows the stories of three families who migrated to the United States and have been living here illegally and also shows the issues and problems they have to deal with every day as a result. The first man you meet is Luis, and he traveled to America at fifteen from Honduras by taking buses and trains for several days. Once in America he worked his first job and was proud that he earned is first forty dollars. After living in America for a good amount of time Luis learned of a woman named Kenia who he had known since childhood who had just moved to America with her son and soon Kenia and Luis formed a relationship. Unfortunately, for them Kenia was made to show her papers during a traffic stop and was then detained by ICE, even though she was several months pregnant, and was scheduled for deportation. We then follow Luis and his stepson as they have to travel eleven hours so Luis can hand over her son and only watch as they are deported. The next family we see is Ron from Israel who fled to America shortly after 9/11, the worst time for immigration, to live the American dream. Ron was able to start a family and a successful business here all while living undocumented but the fear of being deported is always in his mind. Finally we have Alejandra, who while living in Mexico was robbed at gun point and when she told the police they then warned her attacker and her attacker came back after her and told her that if she ever tries anything like that again he will kill her. This was the final straw, so she tried to flee to America by lying to the boarder patrol, which did not work the first time but was successful the second time. Unfortunately, if you are sent away once from the United State boarder you are then only given one last chance to come over legally or else you will lose any chance to ever return. Alejandra started a family and has two daughters but was caught again and is now facing deportation. Because her youngest daughter is considered to be too young to take care of herself, since Alejandra’s husband works all the time, she is being deported with her, essentially sending a mother and her daughter to go be homeless in the streets of Mexico.

This documentary reminded me of the article we read, “ The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass detention, and deportation” where people who come to the United States illegally are all made out to be criminals.  According to the documentary when Alejandra was found out the second time she was only made to check in with ICE once a year, but shortly after the Trump administration came to be she was immediately slated for deportation. You could almost say that situations like this are, “creating practices, demarcating a nationalized, white, ‘us,’ and a globalized brown and black ‘threat.’ “(Menjívar et al. 2018). Situations like the one that is happening with immigration in America have effectively had a significant amount of consequences in the country. For one, in my own opinion, we cannot be a nation that stands on the fact that anyone can come here and be whoever they want to be if we continue to try and push out every single person who is fleeing a poverty and or war torn nation in hopes to build a better life for themselves. Also, it has created a bias towards black and brown immigrants within the police force in our country so much so that we have sanctuary cities where an undocumented citizen can walk across the street without fear of being deported.

I think one of the more important lessons I learned through this documentary was in the very beginning of the show. In the opening scene you have a young woman who tells us, “This is just something you are watching on TV. You can turn if off and go about your life.” And this really hit me hard because no matter how bad we feel and no matter how much we say we want to help, at the end of the day we can go to bed without worrying that tomorrow we will be forced to leave the country and I truly do not think enough people think about that when criticizing undocumented immigrants.

Sources:

Netflix Documentary “Living Undocumented”

-Schuldt, R. D., & Cantor, G. (2017). Providing Sanctuary or Fostering Crime? A Review of the Research on “Sanctuary Cities” and Crime​. Sociology Compass, 12(1). doi: 10.1111/soc4.12547

Menjívar C., Cervantes, A. G., & Alvord, D. (2018). The expansion of “crimmigration,” mass detention, and deportation. Sociology Compass.

Growing up in Harlem

Summary

This YouTube video goes into detail about what it is like growing up in the New York neighborhood of Harlem. This is one of the most known neighborhoods in the entire United States because of all the crime that exists there. The documentary starts off by talking about how Harlem was originally a mostly poor black neighborhood where the people all had unity. However, in recent times Harlem has become must be more dangerous as many different gangs now live there and they will fight each other. The people that live in Harlem were talking about how its dangerous to have kids out after 10 and how you need to be aware of your surroundings when alone. Many of the people interviewed said the young African Americans must join gangs sometimes to survive. One of the adults they interviewed shared his experience of when he was a kid and how he got kicked out of his mom’s house for the first time at 14 years old. The kid had no way to make money or know where to go so he had to do illegal activities to survive. This documentary also mentions how many of these families are dysfunctional with no fathers. Many mothers have 3 or 4 kids they need to take care of, so many of these families will need some extra source of income. The documentary mentions how this is a cycle where fathers go to jail then the kids they have will end up in the same place when they become fathers.

Analyze

In class we looked at how police can use hotspot policing to patrol certain areas. Because of all the crime that happens in Harlem they are under more police surveillance than other places. In this documentary you can see that many of the people talk about how family members do drugs. This can make family life harder when parents and kids are on hard drugs. This also splits up family often in the area. This makes many people turn to the streets or gangs because to them that is their family. Most of these problems deal with money in the area. Its lack of money that makes parents or kids turn to drugs to make extra cash. The cost of living in New York is higher than most places in the United States so they need to make a good amount more than people that live elsewhere to survive. Some statistics that this documentary gives are that black men between 16 and 224 without a high school diploma have a unemployment rate of 52% in 2010. This number are high when you think about the fact that most people in Harlem don’t get much late stage education. Henning (2018) discusses legal socialization which is where people understand and support the legal process. In Harlem most of the youth have a negative view of the police because to them they split families up and stop them from trying to make a living even if it is done illegally. Mauer (2018) discusses how mandatory sentencing is commonly used to keep drug offenders off the streets. An example of this can be seen with California’s three strike laws. Instead doing mandatory sentencing much of the problems would be solved in Harlem if they made drugs legal and sold them through legal means then gave the revenue back to the community to help them. This would stop people from selling drugs illegally and would split up family significantly less often. This would help stop the school to prison pipeline theory that we discussed in class.

Personal Reflection and Rational

Since I lived all my life in Indiana, PA it is hard to understand what life is like in some cities where the cost of living is so much more. This documentary helped me realize why so many of these kids will end up doing drugs or going to prison. This also helped me understand how this issue is a cycle that will take a while to stop if nothing is done to help with the economic situation of the area. Instead of spending all the money to police these neighborhoods it could be used to help people with jobs or paying bills, so they will not be forced to commit crimes to live. Another point that was mentioned in the documentary that I also thought was important was the fact that because of all the violent crimes that take place in Harlem many of the people are forced to carry knives or guns with them to defend themselves when they are alone at night. So, making it harder for people to get weapons just puts the innocent people in danger when they are just looking out for their safety. I would recommend this documentary to anyone that wants to see why Harlem is an infamous neighborhood when it comes to crime.

References

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. 3-20). Vintage Books.

Mauer, M. (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.

Matthew Berezansky

13^th

The documentary I decided to watch is called 13^th. It is on Netflix and directed by Ava DuVernay created in 2016. 13^th is a documentary that is about scholars, activists, and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans in the US prison boom. DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the US, focusing on the fact that our nations prisons are disproportionately filled with African Americans. Watching this documentary really opened my eyes at how African Americans are the ones who usually are in prisons and how our justice system really isn’t fair when it comes to them. I like how this documentary educated me and inspired me to take a stand against racial injustice. This documentary is very informative about the American History of Black struggle and what it really means to be black in America.

Throughout this documentary, there were a lot of key points and great information brought to mine and other viewers’ attention. At the beginning, they talk about segregation and Jim Crow laws. We discussed this in class, and it was talked about in the book “Policing the Black Man” in Stevenson’s (2018). Jim Crow laws were created so the hanging and killings of African Americans was more legal. Laws were passed that regulated African Americans to a permanent second- class status. These individuals weren’t allowed to go anywhere where there were white people and that really took a toll on African Americans. Also, when the African Americans began deciding to integrate with white people that became very dangerous because they were being attacked on beaches and walking down the street that was meant for whites only (Stevenson, 2018).

The main events that were in this documentary was the Civil War. During this time this is when African Americans were taking a stand against white people and this became so dangerous but to them, being arrested was noble, but being arrested by white people was their worst nightmare. This perspective is just as relevant now as it was back then. We talk about this not only in this specific class, but in almost every class throughout our whole school career. Now I have to say that in today’s world it is not nearly as bad as it was back then, but there have been events that have transpired lately that bring up the events that happened in our history. Like in the book, there were two African American children assaulted by police and charged with non-chargeable crimes by police, and back then, African Americans were assaulted or thrown in jail for loitering. These are not chargeable offenses, and these two become parallel in the sense that this was all race based and these people wanted them abolished. Being arrested by white people now is still a big fear for African Americans, strictly because of our history and what they saw from their family member and their friends. These people voluntarily defined a movement around getting arrested. Their main problem was trying to get people to understand that they are actual human beings. When the Civil Rights movement was getting on its feet and finally beginning to make progress, crime rates in the baby boom generation were greatly increasing. I believe that they decided to progress with the Civil Rights movement strictly because they wanted a reason to arrest African Americans since the crime rates were so high. “… And that if we were to give Negros their freedom, then we would be repaid, as a nation, with crime” (13^th 2016. DuVernay).

The prison population is something we also talked about in class and it gets brought up in the documentary. In the film it talks about how the prison population in the United States was largely flat throughout most of the 20^th century. In the book “Policing the Black Man” it reads, “African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be arrested than whites and 49 percent of black men can expect to be arrested at least once by age twenty-three…” (Davis, 2018, pp. xv-xv). This part in the text really relates to this portion of the documentary. We talked about how African Americans are the ones who are most likely in jail rather than whites, and that is how it was in the 1970s. Mass incarceration was in full effect during this time period. In 1970, the prison population was at 357,292.  Richard Nixon talked mainly about the war on crime, but that was one of those code words, which was really referring to the black political movements of the day and a bunch of other movements that became active. Nixon was up against everyone protesting and waged a war on drugs. This is also when tons of people went to jail for minor drug offenses and was called the Southern Strategy. All of this tied into Nixon being a racist and just not being able to verbally say that he believes it is only about people. He wanted to associate blacks with heroin to send them to jail.

This content added to my understanding of this issue in various ways. Even though slavery was over in the 1800’s, they still had integration issues and was very serious in the 60-80’s. African Americans are human beings, and watching this documentary really made my heart hurt. I cannot possibly imagine or understand what all these people went through, and in today’s day and age I see history repeating itself. With police brutality, protests, hate crimes increasing, this is just a fraction of what went on back then, but still it is scary to see that African Americans still aren’t being treated fairly.

References

Davis, A.J. (2018). Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment. 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.

The Media I Chose was a documentary called Crime+Punishment. That has to do with New York police officers. There are many in a graduating class of officers. So, they come out fresh officers. The main problem in the documentary is what they are only worried about, which is just numbers. The people that they are after are African Americans and Latinos. There was a police officer that lived in the South Bronx. His name is Sandy and Latino. There have been a few issues with how he was doing his job that the head officers did not like. They said that his numbers were low and that he had the worst activity of the year. The officers give the other officer numbers that they must complete each day. They told Sandy that he needed to catch up with others. Multiple police officers had mentioned that they had to have a certain number to complete. Drew was another officer that said his numbers were low, and they expect them to be more because he is a black male with dreads. Another officer is a private investigator named Manny “Gomez. He used to be a police officer, but he stopped. The reason for that is he said what the police officers do is keep their mouth shut, so if an officer does an act that they should not then they don’t say anything that they have done. So, they do not confess their wrongs. Manny was not doing that; he was going to speak about whatever he felt that was wrong. He is a private investigator, and he is helping a young male that had been accused several times by the police. He was accused of a shooting that the police accused him of just because of his race. Including another young Latino male that has been harassed by the police. There were kids that the private investigator Manny was talking to, and they mentioned that they were harassed by the police and what the officers did to them. They began to talk about the police reporting other police because they were not doing what they were told. Sandy is a Latino officer and he got in trouble because the CEO police officer said he was not dressed right. It is cold outside, and he had a hat on. The other officer got in trouble because the CEO officer told him to only go after African Americans that are between the ages of 14-21. He did not do it, so they suspended him. It goes to show what the police are most concerned about. They only care for numbers and the many summonses they get for more money. Their targets are blacks and Latinos, and that is why they patrol their neighborhoods. Many kids get arrested with no case, they go into court, and it gets dismissed. It costs money when they make an arrest, and the citizen arrested must pay. Officers would face consequences if they did not have good numbers. There were people out protesting because they are angry and tired of being treated the way they are getting treated. They also pick on their partners that are not white. The investigator was doing interviews for the man Pagero that had been arrested falsely. Issues that are going on with other officers that are causing corruption. It got to the point the police officers told him to step down.  

This documentary goes with a story about Emilio and Tremaine as discussed by Henning (2018). They were two boys who were harassed by the police. The young male Tyramine was charged with a felony for really no reason. All he was doing was playing with his friend. The police decided to pick. The young male Emiliano, he was beaten by several police officers for that young male over a crosswalk. The offense was so unnecessary for him to be beaten. It shows what the police’s intentions are is just to hurt them and how officers treat blacks, and Latinos. The legal socialization is more intense for young black males and Latinos as well (Henning, 2018). Legal socialization is someone who has to understand and appreciate the law. It’s for blsck boys also who are in school with police officers. They cannot ask the police officers without getting hurt. They must stay cautious when it comes to the police and are sad because whites do not. Parents having to instruct their kids when it comes to the police is to not speak, follow instructions, and to avoid any movement (Henning, 2018). If they do any of the sorts, they end up killed or severely injured.  

A key point in the documentary is that police officers are only worried about numbers and they are not concerned about helping the citizens. The fact that the CEO police officer told the guy to only go after black people goes to show who their targets are. They see African Americans as a threat. They already assume that they are criminals just by the color of their skin, and that is wrong. They are not protecting anything but trying to harass others and have the highest number. It’s more as if it’s competition. It is wrong for them to suspend the guy because he did not want to pick on African American kids. Their job is to protect, but their main concern is numbers. The police officers are locking young kids up for no reason. They do use force so they can resist, but the kids try not to because they know what can happen. African Americans and Latinos must be extremely cautious when it comes to the police. The fact that they must pay whenever they get arrested and some people do not have the type of money to pay for the police officer’s false assumptions. They will hurt them for no reason or getting sent to jail because they question “why”. They are supposed to reduce crimes, and they have not. They make problems worse. There are protests even today that people are doing to seek justice.  

Reference

The podcast I chose to listen to was an episode from The Frontline Dispatch titled “I Don’t Want to Shoot You, Brother.” This was a very moving podcast that discussed police officers use of lethal force. In this case there was a 911 call in Weirton West Virginia, known to be one of the safest small cities in the area. A woman called frantically saying that her ex-boyfriend was at her house and he had a gun, however, she was sure to state that his gun had no clip in it, and that he was going to threaten the police with it so they would shoot him, he also said that he was going to shoot himself in front of her and their baby. Stephan Mader was the responding officer, who was a rookie white cop who had served with the marines. When he arrived and saw African American RJ Williams standing there with a gun, Mader had no idea the gun was not loaded. Mader ordered Williams to put the gun down multiple times, to which Williams simply responded, “just shoot me.”  Mader did not perceive Williams to be a threat and just wanted to get him to put the gun down. However, when 2 other officers arrived at the scene, they saw the scenario unfolding in front of them when Williams began waiving the gun and walking towards the officers. Williams was then shot and killed by one of the other officers that had just arrived. He shot 4 bullets with the last one landing in William’s head. After the incident the only issues the department saw was that Mader was negligent, not ending the threat, and putting the other officers at risk. In response to this, Mader was fired, for not killing Williams, an African American.

When exploring cases such as these, since there are far too many, obviously the key question is whether race was a factor in the outcome or not. There is a widespread acknowledgement that race matters when it comes to policing. “The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted the use of race in police decision making” (Hutchins, 2017). This is a worrisome statement in light of what is happening around the world today. In this case however it could be argued that Mader did not let race influence his decision when deciding whether or not to shoot Williams. It is not known but could be speculated that the arriving officer who did shoot and kill Williams may have been extra motivated to do so because of race. We talk about several cases in class where race is suspected to be a motivating factor in why these individuals were killed by police, cases including Tamir Rice and Eric Garner which received immense repercussions. This case only adds to the question of whether this is racially motivated police shooting or not, and still has no answers.

The podcast mentions that this is a classic case of suicide by cop, which I found to be interesting that they mentioned research has shown that a third or more of all police shootings could involve people trying to get the police to kill them. I think this is an important statistic, but it is a difficult thing to prove and study.

Mader filed a civil suit against the department but made clear he did not want to implicate the officer who did kill Williams in any way. In his opinion, neither of them were wrong and I completely agree. To the firing officer’s knowledge, he had no reason to believe that Williams gun was not loaded, and, in that case, he was justified in shooting the victim considering he had no backstory whatsoever on what was going on and just saw a man with a gun coming towards him and his fellow officers. In the same sense Mader was justified in not shooting Williams, because he did not perceive him to be a threat. If he had shot him when not perceiving him as a threat then that is completely wrong and he should have been terminated, but that was not the case. Mader won the settlement and received $175,000. I think it is important to understand and Ronald Wright brings this to light by saying “The police department itself trains officers in the use of force or arranges for its officers to get training and certification from regional statewide groups. The police department also declares and enforces its own policies on the use of force.” (Wright, 2017). It is mentioned how there are over 18,000 police departments in the US, and it is virtually impossible to ensure common, consistent, required training. Because of this departments have their own policies and procedures for how to deal with these situations. The important question raised while listening to this is how do you consistently and reliably train officers, just to shoot, not because they can, but to shoot only because they have to?

This podcast helped me see both sides to this story, and even though it is terribly tragic for everyone involved, it helps show how both of the officers discussed could have been justified in their actions. I think it is important to understand that cops have their own discretion so what happens in one case, cannot be said to happen in every case to come after it. At the end of the day in these situations it all comes down to whether or not the police officer views the suspect as a threat. There are many cases of police shootings where there seems to be virtually no reason why the cop would have felt to be in danger, and I believe those cops should be punished. The podcast mentions crisis intervention types of training, and I believe those could be very useful in some ways, but it is very difficult to train police officers for every possible situation that could happen, and I think many people do not understand that. I would recommend this podcast to others because it shares the story of a police officer that did make the right choice. This is a terrible case and a good cop got fired for not doing something he did not feel comfortable with. I think this podcast would help people realize that there are more cops out there like him, and we need them.

References

Hutchins’, R. (2017). Racial Profiling: The Law, the Policy, and the Practice. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment. Vintage Books.

Wright, R. (2017). Elected Prosecutors and Police Accountability. In A. J. Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment. Vintage Books.

Podcast Link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/podcast/dispatch/i-dont-want-to-shoot-you-brother/

Anonymous