Introduction

In this modern day world, there have been many different controversial outbreaks concerning the topic of police brutality. My group and I decided to produce a survey containing different questions amongst police brutality. Our group believes that with students feedback we can get a better look on the views on this certain topic and certain questions that are being asked in the survey. We hope that this can give us a clearer view on peoples thoughts on this topic and that is is also beneficial for the students. We will take the results and use it to further our research on this topic.

Methods

In order to spread the word about the survey, we posted a link and a scannable QR code for people to take the survey. The survey was posted on the CCGA feed as well as our social media accounts. All survey participants were completely anonymous. There were 17 survey participants in total, 3 cisgender males, and 14 cisgender females. Other gender options were given, but all participants answered either male or female. therefore it can be inferred that all participants were cisgender. When asked about their sexuality 1 participant answered that they were bisexual and the rest answered heterosexual. All survey participants were between the ages of 18 and 24 and all were linked to CCGA. 16 of the participants were students and 1 individual was a member of CCGA staff. The survey was conducted online via Qualtrics. Any web advertising for the survey included a link to the survey and all posts contained QR codes that could be scanned via cellphone that linked to the survey. Participants of the survey were asked 3 series of questions that would be used to gather data. The first series confirms their age and that they consent to the study and understand how the data will be used. The second section gave personal data about the participant. Participants were asked things such as their race, sexual orientation, age, and income. Finally in the last section of the survey participants were asked to describe their opinions and experiences on police brutality and race profiling by police. Participants were asked if they or a loved one had ever been a victim of police brutality, if they themselves feared the police, and what group of people they felt are most likely to be affected by police brutality.

Discussion

While completing this survey we found that most people did not agree that there were race problems within the acts of police brutality. This survey was conducted in the town of the recent shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black male that was shot and killed by two white men, although he was not killed by police officers, we felt it was appropriate to take his death into consideration since people suspected this was due because of race. Included in our survey is many questions involving race, so we were eager to record the results. We recently found another survey that was based upon cases that resulted in death of police violence. "A historically grounded analysis of racial justice is critical as, across the country, different strategies are being implemented to prevent fatalities involving police and racial/ethnic inequities in these deaths."(Shwartz et al. 51). Often in black media white people, especially white women are depicted as the favorites of police, getting special treatment and quicker dispatch response times (Westerbeck 213-227). This privilege was reflected in the survey results. While only 13% of participants feared the police themselves 40% believed African Americans were targeted more by police and 33.33% said that African Americans were most likely to be the victims of police brutality. This likely displays the “privilege” of the average white American. While large percentiles will admit that African Americans receive unfair treatment by police, only 13% of them themselves have any fear of the same happening to them. Showing that on average the white American believes they are safe from the police, solely based on the color of their skin. The sad thing is, that belief is likely true. In a study using data from over a million police stops in New York, it was found that unarmed black people are 3.5 times as likely to be shot as unarmed white people (Kramer and Remster 963). A perfect example of the “It doesn’t affect me so I don’t care about It” philosophy that while we are more connected than ever still seems the plague humans kind.The study reared low results in LGBTQ+ representation. All but one of the participants where heterosexual, that one participant being Bisexual. All participants stated themselves as cisgender meaning there was no transgender or non-binary representation, as could be expected in the area of this study. In all LGBTQ+ representation was very low. Perhaps if this study had a larger sample size it would have yielded more LGBTQ+ participants and thus more data showing their thoughts and opinions. Due to this lack of representation, it can be said that the findings in this survey do not represent the LGBQT+ community in anyway and any relations to LGBTQ+ statistics are clearly coincidental or an example of the general American interest. As expected all participants had some understanding of police brutality, with 60% stating they were” Very familiar with police brutality” and 26.67% of participants “somewhat familiar” with the term. Less anticipated are the 13.33% that say that they have only “heard of it a couple of times” when police brutality is such a heated and popular topic in the media. It’s very possible that these few simply don’t take in as much media as the others. If these individuals, who are not that familiar with the topic of police brutality, exist in similar percentages across the US it should be asked how many there are. If the percentage is close to the over 13% displayed in this survey it could have large impacts on the political state of America and the policies put in place to deal with police brutality. Perhaps this could be a sign of failed education in the US school system or just general ignorance. It is possible that the minority who chose this answer was simply trying to be humble, and admitting that the complex topic of police brutality is not their expertise. In future surveys questions like this one should be asked as they give insight into the priorities of the average citizen. When asked if past police brutality cases had affected their views on law enforcement officers results were split with 46.67% saying it had not changed their views and 40% saying it had. 13.33% were neutral in their answer, this was likely the same 13% that had the least understanding of police brutality. This statistic is interesting but not particularly surprising upon further thought. Police brutality is such a divided topic that it makes sense for the ratio of those saying they have changed their perception of officers is the same who say theirs has not. The neutral few in between having the power to swing the popular vote in one way or another.When asked if they feared the police 0% strongly agreed, 13.33% somewhat agreed, 73.33% disagreed with 53.33% of those disagreements being strong. And again 13.33% were neutral. It should be noted that all but one of the participants were white and are statistically less likely to be shot by the police. However, views change when the topic of black Americans and the police is discussed. 33.33% said that African Americans were most likely to be the victims of police brutality with 60% believing that no particular race is targeted by the police and 6.67% believing “other” races were more likely to target. 33% also believed that race is a factor in instances of police brutality with the other 66.67% believing it was not 46.67% of those strongly believing was not the case. 40% also believed African Americans were targeted more by police than whites with 53.33% disagreeing 40% of which were strong disagreements. 53.33% did not believe that white officers were committing these acts of brutality, while 26.67% believed that was the case. The ramming 20% where neutral. Interestingly all those who thought white police officers were the ones committing acts of brutality thought so strongly. Does this perhaps have something to do the media’s alleged agenda and accusations of only covering white on black crime? Some say the media is leading the public to believe that only white people hurt black people, and while this may sound preposterous when surveyors were asked if black officers were committing these acts of brutality 53.33% said no, 33.33% believing strongly that African American officers were not to blame. In fact, only 20% believed black officers were at fault with the remaining 26.67% unsure. One can only wonder the exact cause for this sudden flip in data. A singular number were shown when asking the same thing about Latino officers, 53% saying no and this time only 13.34 believing they too were at fault. This question also yielded an even larger amount of neutral responses with 33% taking a neutral stance. 60% of participants said that they don't feel that any specific race is committing these acts of violence vastly outnumbering the 26.67% who believe that a specific race is and the 13% who took a neutral stance. 73% of surveyors didn't not think age was a factor in police brutality, despite many statistics saying otherwise. All but one of the participants in this survey were caucasian. This may have had some major effects on the overall views reflected in this study. According to our findings, white people believe police brutality to them and therefore are less likely to have a negative opinion of it and the police. Another factor potentially affecting data in a similar way is the ratio of male to female participants. The Washington Post recorded that as of august 9th 2019 about 4,400 people had been shot by the police since 2015. They also reported that as of September 4th 2020 (Nearly 1 year and 1 month later) less than 250 of those 4,400 were women. According to these statistics only 5.68 of fatal police shootings involve a female victim. So due to the fact that our survey was both 82% female and 92% white, the surveyors were some of least at risk of police brutality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have gathered information from participants that have enhanced our knowledge on the topic of police brutality. Overall we found that the majority of participants did not think that race or age was a factor in the cases of police brutality, although some did. Throughout this survey our group gained a new perspective from the participants recorded results. We gained a better view on the people view on police brutality cases. In our research survey, we have 17 participants. We expected to be more people participating, although we did have limitations when it came to marketing the survey. We mostly posted our survey online to social media and to the CCGA student feed page. Although we had wished to bring the survey known to students living on campus, we are not local, so that was a limitation my group had to overcome. Overall we feel as if this was a great way to gain other perspectives on this topic that we are researching.

Works cited

Schwartz, Gabriel L., and Jaquelyn L. Jahn. “Mapping Fatal Police Violence across U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Overall Rates and Racial/Ethnic Inequities, 2013-2017.” PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 6, June 2020, pp. 1–16.

Kramer, Rory, and Brianna Remster. “Stop, Frisk, and Assault? Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force During Investigatory Stops.” Law & Society Review, vol. 52, no. 4, Dec. 2018, p. 960.

Westerbeck, Ryan. “Police Brutality, Over-Policing, and Mass Incarceration in African American Film.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 51, no. 3, Apr. 2020, pp. 213–227.

Marisa Iati, Jennifer Jenkins. "Nearly 250 Women Have Been Fatally Shot by Police since 2015." 04 Sept. 2020. Web. 29 Nov. 2020.

Fox, Joe, Adrian Blanco, Jennifer Jenkins, Julie Tate, and Wesley Lowery. "What We've Learned about Police Shootings 5 Years after Ferguson." The Washington Post. WP Company, 09 Aug. 2019. Web. 29 Nov. 2020.