Hey , this is Khay Loyd, a freshman undergraduate coming from the College of Coastal Georgia. In this podcast I will discuss one of Young's five faces of oppression. These five faces of oppression include , violence , exploitation , marginalization , powerlessness , and cultural imperialism. The type of oppression I would like to single out and focus on is violence. More specifically a type of violence which is racial violence.Now racial violence shows it’s face in many different ways , and situations.From church shootings , white supremacists groups such as the KKK , the abuse of authority , to single individuals taking action on the morals and ideals they believe are right. But even under racial violence the category I would like to focus on as I mentioned before is the abuse of authority. When I am saying the abuse of authority I am referring to police brutality. This is a major issue under racial violence. . It's been brought up for decades with countless cases of injustice. When I am speaking on this issue I know some bring up the counterargument. Police may react in self defense if they feel their own lives are in danger. But , these are not the types of situations I am speaking about , but rather when an innocent minority becomes another statistic because of a trigger happy officer. Those who act above the law because they are the law. And in some cases are not even held accountable for their actions. This issue should continuously be brought up until more steps are taken to prevent innocent minorities from losing their lives.
The article “Police and the Limit of Law.” does an amazing job of explaining how police abuse their authority. The article speaks on the creation of the municipal police , the history of the municipal police , and how they abuse their power.As I said in a previous summary.The police were originally formed to protect those in the upper and middle classes from those in the lower class. Most commonly because minority races have less opportunities to become upper or middle class citizens , those lower class people tend to be of the minority.Already with a target on their backs those of minority races must now face the abuse of power. Given this authority officers now take the law into their own hands..As it says in the article “It is rife with opportunities for “zealous officers” to get carried away by perpetrating crimes themselves , creating risk of injury to civilians and police , and unfairly targeting minority groups.”(37) The true intentions of every officer are not known , but specifically harassing a minority without reason shows the officer might have prejudice thoughts which can lead to a life threatening situation. Wrongfully searching anyone is a clear violation of the fourth amendment. As it states “ The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,”. The article also speaks on this saying , The point of the Fourth Amendment .. often is not grasped by zealous officers”(21). Many are unaware of this and do not realize that they have power as well. So , then the officers does as he/she pleases. These Unwarranted searches often times lead to a violent altercation. A citizen not understanding why they are being searched may begin to get frustrated. As a result they begin to get physical which in turn makes the officer believe that they are now hostile. So then the officer may begin to use extreme force , strike , or even pull a gun to regain control of the situation. This could not only result in injury , but an unnecessary fatality from a situation that could have been avoided altogether. The only explanation on why this would occur is because of the prejudice thoughts that made the officer take action from the beginning. Officers do have the right to protect themselves by any means necessary.But , they alone get to determine in any moment what they feel as threatening. As the article says , “The official who shows up to prepare an accident report , do a welfare check , or resolve a street dispute is legally authorized to kill”(47). I feel this action should only be taken if the officer is clearly in life threatening danger. An infamous case to the scenario I just described is the Trayvon Martin case.Which lead to the death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin.Shot down by officer at the time George Zimmerman who claimed self - defense in 2012 . Originally his side was taking and there were no charges , but uncanniness of the case caused it to be look at in further detail. He was later convicted of 2nd degree mudeder in 2016 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But, does justice four years later bring back the 17 year old boy , who would now only be 25 years old present day?
In conclusion to some extent the police have too much power. That leads to tragedies such asTrayvon Martin , and countless others. I feel cases such as these should continuously be speaking on to express the seriousness of racial violence. And that more steps and precautions should be taken to prevent situations similar in the future.
English 1102