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Police Brutality in the U.S
Police Brutality in the U.S
Introduction
Introduction
Our project is focused on police brutality, and how people feel towards that. What made us choose this topic was all the police brutality that has happened this year. We thought of something serious that was going on in our world, and we decided to research police brutality. What is police brutality and what actions are needed to stop it? That is the purpose of this research, to see how much people know about what has been going on, and if there is anything that they think could stop this from continuing. There have been many cases this year that have assured people that there is a brutality going on by police officers. Many people have lost their lives due to police brutalities. In Regina G. Lawrence’s study, there are different events in which police brutality occurred. One of the cases that caught our attention the most was with a guy named William Retana, and his brother James Retana. William Retana was killed by police officers without any proof that William had done anything stated by the police officers. What caught our attention the most on this case is what James Retana said before he left the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). James Retana stated, “...The department puts symbols ahead of human lives. The squeaky-clean badge, which separated us from them, was now covered with blood...” (2). This part of study caught our attention because of what James Retana said, and we thought it was important to state it because of what our research is about. Police officers are now covered in blood, metaphorically speaking, because of the cruelty that some have committed. Not all police officers have committed brutality, but there have been many for us to say that there is something needed to be done to stop them. There would not be anything to be done if there were not so many cases of police officers being cruel with the people. Our project will help my group, as well as others, to know more about this cruelty going on. We will be concluding with results from what people know and think, as well as have more information on this topic.
Figure 1.This is the flyer that was used in our social media posts
For our respondents 95% are straight and 5% are Demisexual in the survey. 25% respondents are married, 5% widowed, 30% divorced, 15% in a Domestic Partnership, and 25% are single. With the education they have are 5% respondents have less than high school degree, 25% high school graduate, 25% some college but no degree, 25% Associate degree in college, 15% Bachelor's degree in college , and 5% Master's degree.
For working the respondents put 60% people working full-time, 5% working full-time and full-time student, 5% working full-time and part-time student, 10% working part-time and full-time student, 5% not working (full-time student), 5% not working, 5% self-employed, and last 5% unable to work. Households income for our respondents are 30% less than $10,000, 25% $10,000 to $19,999, 5% $20,000 to $ $39,999, 10% $30,000 to $39,999, 10% $40,000 to $49,999, 5% $70,000 to $79,999, 5% $80,000 to $89,999, and 10% $100,000 to $149,999.
Methods
Methods
In this police brutality research study, we used a Qualtrics survey with the combination of questions that included 9 questions about police brutality and 15 personal questions. We shared it with both our friends and family, and on our social media accounts via Facebook and Snap chat. We did not want to do flyers around campus, also go around and ask people because of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
With personal questions, we asked about their sex, age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, current relationship status, etc. This is to see the diversity of people that answer our questions. For the police brutality questions, we looked through the web on google to see the most asked questions on police brutality. We then looked on peer reviewed articles to answer those questions and to include the best answers. The survey was up for a week, and the data was recorded through Qualtrics.
In our survey we got 22 responses. 95.5% respondents answered that they are currently a US resident 4.5% are not. The Marjory of 90% respondents were not CCGA students, while 10% were. The survey was for 18-75 years old people in the data we had a variety of different ages, 33.33% 18-24, 9.52% 25-34, 14.29% 35-44, 28.57% 45-54, 9.52% 55-64, and 4.76% for 65-74 years old. 20% respondents identified as male and 80% as female. 90% respondents white or Caucasian, 10% Hispanic or Latino. 4.76% respondents are in Florida, 85.71% in Georgia, and 9.52% in South Carolina.
Results
Results
In the results that came back we only got 22 people who did the survey! Down below are the charts that are made by there responses that they gave us.
In our 22 responses we thought of the questions to ask them, we wanted people that were 18 years or older to take the survey. They are also our friends and family that we have on our social media pages.
<------ This is a chart that tells us if they are living in the US currently. Which there is only one person that is not living in the United State the rest of the respondents are living here.
<-----From the respondents we took survey from these races that did the survey. Only 2 different races took the test, it would give us more intel if the races were more diverse.90% respondents white or Caucasian, 10% Hispanic or Latino.
<-------- This chart shows the age of the respondents from the survey. We tried to have people 18 years or old do the survey. In the data we had a variety of different ages, 33.33% 18-24, 9.52% 25-34, 14.29% 35-44, 28.57% 45-54, 9.52% 55-64, and 4.76% for 65-74 years old.
Q22 - Police brutality causes chaos.
In the chart above the majority of people thought that police brutality causes chaos. This question was thrown in this survey to see if people are aware of the causes of police brutality.
Q19 - What race do you think has been going through police brutality the most?
This chart shows what the people taking the survey think, which is what race gets the most hate or fear from the police. Seems like everyone thinks the blacks are have a hard time with the police 66.6% of the people does.
Q17 - What are the consequences for police who commit brutality?
This chart was to see if they had know the answer to the question. Most of them do know what the answer is, the results that every one picked was being fired from there job.
Q18 - What do you think causes police brutality?
The chart above shows that a police thinking that they are more powerful is what they think that causes police brutality.
Q16 - Is there anything being done about police brutality?
For the people that took the survey the majority thought that they do not think that anything is being done to stop police brutality.
Q15 - What is police brutality?
Everyone chose the same answer that when the police commits civil rights violations to citizens that is what police brutality is.
Discussion
Discussion
The purpose of our study was to see what our volunteers knew about police brutality, and if they had any thoughts on what could be done to stop this. Our study had goes with an article that we found with the same purpose of seeing what people knew about police brutality. Ellis M. Cashmore talks about the same subject that we talk about in our study, and some of the author's words are greatly chosen to talk about police brutality. Ellis states, “The police have generally resisted the urge to state that they are ‘winning the fight against crime and disorder” (4). From many incidents, we can say that the police have never admitted to anything unpleasant. They will do anything to make sure citizens know who is in charge, and that there is a winner when it comes to this fight between citizens and brutality done by the police. All of these incidents happening in the U.S have just gotten worse, and citizens do not let time just pass by because they know there is something that is needed to be done about this. Robert Rothstein goes more into how police brutality has affected the U.S. , and what could be done about this. There were some words coming from Rothstein that we found important to mention in our study, and that we thought were chosen correctly. He states, “Brutality and killings have characterized state actions in the USA against social disruption…” (590). The brutality going on here in the U.S. has led to many killings, and those killing have led to many actions being taken. There has been a lot of disruption going on in the U.S. because of all of this, and we wanted to see what was known about this.
Our study was about seeing what volunteers knew, and the some of the results were what we were expecting to receive. Finding out how much people knew about police brutality, what they thought caused police brutality, and what other consequences should be given, were the biggest things in our study. Malcolm D. Holmes says, “In the eyes of many police administrators, police brutality is the exception, the collateral damage arising from the difficult challenges faced by police [officers]" (2). Many think that the police becoming this brutal is due to the difficult situations that they have to go through, and many others think it has to do with way much more than that. Some even think that it is because the police feels like they have so much power. Police brutality should not be an exception coming from difficult situations. Sometimes there is not even a difficult situation, police officers just feel like they have the right to be that way from what we can see. Being or feeling too powerful can lead to many difficult situations, and that is exactly what is going on in the United States.
Figure 2.
Nathan Robinson. Police Brutality
Conclusion
Conclusion
Our study showed us what was the most important to us. We wanted to know what people knew about police brutality, and how they felt towards it. The twenty-two people who took our survey gave us the information needed for us to be able to discuss this topic. The survey began by asking some questions about each volunteer to know a little about each person who was taking the survey. The answers recorded in the survey gave us all the information we were expecting, and the information that we wanted to find out about. For starters, every volunteer who took the survey chose the same answer for the first question asked in the survey. Each volunteer chose the answer that stated that police brutality is when the police commits civil rights violations to citizens. This was our first question on the survey because it was on the main topic, and because it was one of the most important questions in the survey. The other two most important questions were what they thought caused police brutality, and what other consequences should be given to the police officers being brutal. Volunteers chose police officers feeling too powerful as what caused police brutality, and more jail time as well as loss of job for other consequences to be given. Those were the answers that were most chosen, and those were the answers we were expecting to receive for those questions. Each question was very important to the contribution of finding out what was known about police brutality in the U.S, and they each helped us understand how most people think. The results of our survey gave us an idea of how people think and feel towards the topic of police brutality. We did not have as many volunteers take the survey as we thought, but we did the answers we were looking towards to. In conclusion, police brutality is when the police commits civil rights violations to citizens, it is when a police officer feels too powerful, and the consequences that should be given to reduce police brutality from continuing is giving the officers more jail time as well as losing their job due to their actions.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Babovic´, B. (2000), "Police brutality or police torture", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 374-380. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510010343047 Download as .RIS
Cashmore, McLaughlin, Ellis, Ellis. “Out of Order? (Routledge Revivals): Policing Black People.” Google Books, Google, 1991, books.google.com/books?hl=en.
Chaney, C., Robertson, R.V. Racism and Police Brutality in America. J Afr Am St 17, 480–505 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-013-9246-5 https://www.academia.edu/download/46494831/Chaney_Robertson_9246_5_Police_Brutality_Article.pdf
Hannah LF Cooper (2015) War on Drugs Policing and Police Brutality, Substance Use & Misuse, 50:8-9, 1188-1194, DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2015.1007669
Holmes, Malcolm D., and Brad W. Smith. “Race and Police Brutality: Roots of an Urban Dilemma.” Google Books, Google, 2008, books.google.com/books?hl=en.
Lawrence, R. G. (2000). The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en
McInnis, Paige, "The Northern Civil Rights Movement: How The Brothers Fought Housing, Employment, and Education Discrimination and Police Brutality in Albany, NY" (2018). Honors Theses. 1675.https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/1675
Rothstein, R., et al. “Social Movements Against Racist Police Brutality and Department of Justice Intervention in Prince George's County, Maryland.” Journal of Urban Health, Springer US, 1 Jan. 1970, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-015-0013-x.
Zoorob, M. (2020). Do Police Brutality Stories Reduce 911 Calls? Reassessing an Important Criminological Finding. American Sociological Review, 85(1), 176-183. doi:10.1177/0003122419895254
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