Police Brutality may not be a huge worry for some individuals but for others it is.

For

these individuals their interactions with police can be very tense and unpleasant. Some of these

interactions lead to injuries and even death in some cases. The majority of these unfortunate

events we may never hear about. But there are some that hit the mainstream media and it hits

home with a lot of people. Theses three cases brought more attention to the police as they have

been seen as having no remorse and violent: The brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991, the

unlawful killings of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice in 2014.

In 1991, a video surfaced of an African American being relentlessly beaten by Los

Angeles police while laying helplessly on the ground. The reason this was so monumental was

because this was the first time that an interaction like this was caught on tape. This video was

played over and over again on news stations. The media exposure brought the reality of police

discrimination and brutality to mainly to white community. The african american community was

already aware of what happens when one of them and a cop interact. When this case went to

court the officers involved were found not guilty. Although there was 81 seconds of the officers

beating King it was seen as proper police conduct.1 When this decision was announced the

outrage in the african american community was apparent as they took to the streets to protest.

Unfortunately these protest turned into riots that damaged nearly all of the areas infrastructure,

as a result of the riots $1 billion of damage occurred.

In 2014, we seen the story repeat itself all over again. In a technological age now, many

videos hit social media and news stations of a man being restrained by police. Although, Mr.

Garner was a pretty large man it seemed as though the police was using excessive force to take

him down, one officer had him in a chokehold. According to the Supreme Court deadly force is

only to be used in cases where it is necessary to prevent escape and the officer has probable

cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to
the officer or others"2 .Towards the end of the video you can very clearly hear Eric Garner say I

cant breathe, I cant breathe. With him making these statements the officer applying the

chokehold should have eased up on him right? Wrong, the officer did not loosen his grip. This

chokehold ultimately led to Eric Garners death. Without this video evidence Eric Garner

couldve been just another story we wouldve never heard due to the fact that these situations

will not be reported by the police.

In the same year as Eric Garner a twelve year old boy by the name of Tamir Rice was gunned

down by police in Cleveland, Ohio. Just like the officers involved in Rodney King and Eric

Garners cases these two officers were found not guilty. Once again the media coverage on this

really made the situation huge. The police claimed that what Tamir Rice had was a gun and was

aiming it toward them. On the videotape it showed that the police showed up and shot Tamir on

site with no hesitation. It turned out that Tamir had a airsoft gun. Excessive force shows its ugly

face once more3 . The fact that all these instances have so much in common is insane. The

presence of a video in all three cases protects the victim from being portrayed as one thing

when the video can clearly show that, that individual was the complete opposite.

The cases of Rodney King, Eric Garner, and Tamir are not isolated instances. The African

American community is very aware of all the situations, even the ones who dont receive and

news coverage. Even with these cases having a large amount of news exposure and hard video

evidence justice was not served. But the white community was not aware of all of the situations

until the videos came out. The white community has to see the discriminations against

minorities and adopt it as their issue as well. We are one big country and were one unit, all for

one and one for all. A problem that affects one of us should affect all of us a force us to action

against the conflict. If you do happen to see the discrimination for yourself dont be a bystander

speak up for whats right. It is important that everyone fights for whats right. Not a single
individual is better than the next we are all on the same level. Equality has been a force in

America these past few years, we need to push for that in all areas. As Americans we need to

noticed that we are far from equal in just about every area there is.

Work Cited

1. Stuart, Forrest. "Constructing Police Abuse After Rodney King: How Skid Row Residents and
the Los Angeles Police Department Contest Video Evidence." Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 36, no.
2, Spring2011, pp. 327-353. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2011.01234.x.

2. Snyder, Sara A., et al. "The Eric Garner Case: Statewide Survey of New York Voters
Response to Proposed Police Accountability Legislation." Journal of Social Service Research,
vol. 43, no. 1, Jan/Feb2017, pp. 1-17. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/01488376.2016.1239598.

3. Rice, Arva. "Tamir Rice Killing Shows Why Black Leaders Distrust Judicial Process." New
York Amsterdam News, vol. 107, no. 1, 31 Dec. 2015, p. 36. EBSCOhost,