Many of the instances where police are accused of brutality, the officers insist that they

responded in a defensive manner for their well-being, and the officers face no consequences or
very little consequences for their actions. The officers that commit an abusive crime is better
known as a violent crime. A violent crime is where the victim is either critically injured or
murdered. Another term that can be used to describe the crimes the police officers commit is
better known as a white collar crime. A white collar crime is when a police officer commits a
crime while on the clock, so the crime he or she committed is seen as acceptable to the police
department because of the status of the individual. Many times, the police departments that are
investigating the case in question side with their officers. Speculation could point to them
distrusting the public, and attempting to save face of the police force. One of the biggest
problems the community faces is the amount of abuse the police officers put upon the minority
groups. The public sees this discrimination as a form of racism that police officers have on the
minority groups. The police departments defend their officers by stating that the actions were not
taken because of the victim's race, but the actions the victim took. This can better be described as
Color-Blind Racism. The police department is trying to justify their unequal treatment towards
the minority group by pointing the fingers towards the actions of the victim.
Terence Crutcher was an african-american man, reaching into his car on a dark night,
when Officer Jo Shelby shot and killed him. Crutcher was speaking unusually towards Officer
Shelby causing Shelby to put his guard up towards Crutcher. Understandably, Officer Shelby
could have drawn his weapon on Crutcher, but to shoot and kill with no clue as to what Crutcher
was grabbing was excessive and led to many unanswered questions for the public. The officers
found drug paraphernalia in Crutchers vehicle which explains why Crutcher was talking

nonsensically towards Officer Shelby. The action Officer Shelby took was extreme when there
could have been other ways he could have taken control of the situation. Consequently, a man
lost his life to man in authority who is supposed to be seen as an individual who controls
situations, and who is trained to defuse a situation before using deadly force.
Families of victims, anti-police brutality activists, and the public have started working
cohesively to try and limit the instances of police brutality by uniting as one. The Black Lives
Matter organization is shedding light on police brutality throughout the United States. They
continue to find current trails and possible excessive force cases, and bring them to the media
forefront so the public is aware of the fight. The leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization
use the frontstage tactic in order to organize protests throughout the United States to get their
voices heard by the public and to make a difference. The Black Lives Matter organization can
also be seen as innovators towards our law enforcement because they also want to be protected
along with other individuals in society, but disagree with the way our law enforcement is going
about that protection. The minorities in our society face a stereotypical threat because minorities
are seen as individuals who commit crimes and don't abide by our governments rules. This puts
them on a higher target for cops because of their stereotypical status in our society. The Black
Lives Matter organization are putting their foot down, and taking retribution in order to stop the
prejudice actions the law enforcements are committing.
Whenever a situation begins to escalate or look as if it may spiral out of control, the
public uses their phones and several different social media sites to have irrefutable evidence in
the future possible cases of excessive force. By presenting the evidence of police brutality all
over the internet, it sheds light throughout the United States of the true crimes our law

enforcements are actually committing. The videos on the internet also show if the victim was or
wasnt in the wrong, and deserved the action the police officer may have took. The media is a
great way for anti-police brutality activists to get their stories shown and their voices heard.
Discrimination and prejudice in our law enforcement is also an ongoing issue in our
communities. An example of discrimination and prejudice in our society is when the police
departments in San Francisco were being biased against blacks because of the amount of african
americans that were pulled over by the police, and the amount of african americans that were
killed by the police for absurd reasons. Studies showed that african americans had a twenty four
percent chance of being pulled over compared to the estimated population of blacks in the city.
Police officer Justin Erb shot and killed a twenty-nine year old african american women who was
unarmed and suspected of driving a stolen vehicle. In order to cover this crime, the police
department justified it as self defense instead of a pure act of racism. (Thomas Fuller 2016)
With police brutality and excessive force continuing to foster unrest with the public in
regards to the law enforcement, there has to be a solution that is reached soon before the fragile
trust between civilian and officer is crushed. President Obama has been working on a plan in
order to cease the inhumane actions between the law enforcement and civilians. Some of his
ideas consisted of spending millions of dollars in order to give training police officers body
cameras to show the actions of each individual officer. He also plans to dematerialize the law
enforcement by taking away some of their military grade equipment. These actions can be seen
as a form of social construction because the government is devising a plan for the law
enforcements around the United States to partake in in order to make a difference. Its under
construction in the sense that the government has to test these ideas out in order to conclude

whether or not it's the right thing to do. The 21st century policing shows that President Obamas
plan of providing our law enforcement with body cameras in order to inure officer and civilian
trust has been a success. The policy also states that our officers should go through extensive
safety training in order to insure safety for themselves, as well as the individual they are in
contact with.
The largest issue when addressing the distrust of the American civilians is their attitudes
towards their law enforcement. The American public needs to be reassured that the actions taken
by police officers is controlled and unbiased and that the officers in charge use appropriate force
and that their actions are a reflection of a desire to protect and not enslave.