Police Brutality

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of cases of police brutality reported. It is important to look at police brutality against Hispanics and African-Americans to gain a better understanding of this serious problem.

History of Brutality

The contrast between "law-abiding and lawless people is racialized, making the depreciation of liberty it legitimates equally racialized (Roberts, 1999)." This in turns creates a racist pattern of police brutality. The "social norm theory helps to explain why this pattern strikes most Americans as benign. Myths of Black criminality are so embedded in the white psyche that it seems perfectly natural to many Americans that Blacks are disproportionately stopped for traffic infractions, arrested for drug offenses, swept off the street for loitering, and sent to prison (Roberts, 1999)."

New York City's police department has a history of racial abuse. Police officials there report a decrease in crime...
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