Discriminatory Treatment of Police towards Citizens
Why is the manner in which the police handle people depending on their class and ethnicity termed to be discriminative? The intensity of force used by law enforcement agents completely contradicts their training and imperative to serve and protect. Both articles explore the issue of the discriminatory treatment of police towards citizens. Hunt, in particular, reveals the irony of police using excessive force beyond the legal provision while justifying their behavior constitutional. The topic is indeed worth the authors’ efforts since discriminatory issues within the context of police-citizen interactions have gained prominence contemporary legal discussions in the United States. Drawing reference from the two texts, this essay compares the public understanding of discriminatory behavior among policemen who use excessive force. An initial comparison reveals the shared perspective that ethnicity and social class are the most significant factors influencing discriminatory behavior by police.
Ethnicity and Social Class as Factors in Discriminatory Behavior
Ronald and Weitzer indicate that in the American population African-Americans are more likely to express their dissatisfaction with the way the police and criminal justice agencies use force on them more than the whites (Weitzer & Steven, 496). The police and other criminal agencies are the tools for law enforcement for both the minority and dominant groups in the US. Racial perception, however, posits negative attitudes by the citizens and especially the African-Americans towards the police force. This is due to the fact that people of a similar race, for instance, African-Americans, are likely to share much in common, in context to how they relate to the police than those of a similar social class. The issue relates to both texts in two ways. In Stevens’s text, blacks perceive police force to be applied more on them than it is to the whites while in the second text the police justify their excessive use of force to a certain group of people who they term to be extremely dangerous.
Perceived Discrimination Based on Class and Ethnicity
The police are also looking at the societal class before they determine the intensity of force to use. In Steven’s text, the research found that the middle-class African-Americans have a better perception of the police than the lower class. The lower class is likely to be dissatisfied by the police because they have a perception that much force is likely to be applied to them more than it is to be applied to the upper-class members of the society. Perceived class discrimination appears amplified when combined with ethnicity. For instance, if one is an African-American and from the lower class, their perception of police treatment is that more force is likely to be used on them than their counterparts in the upper class or middle class and happen to be of white ethnicity.
Justification of Excessive Force and Police Perception
In their course of duty, the police are supposed to use force but not excessively. In some instances, however, they justify their excessive use of force to individuals who are morally reprehensible. In cases where the life of the police or others is at stake, the use of excessive force is not perceived as discriminatory but rather justified as an appropriate response to the offenders. Such offenders are termed as cop haters. Cop haters are people who think that the actions of the police are dependent on the race and social class the offender is in. In the case scenario of the second text, the woman cautions the use of excessive force and terms it as discriminatory yet the life of a person had already been claimed (Hunt, 320). This relates to the two texts in that in the first text, African-Americans who assume that the police are likely to apply more force to them than the whites due to their class and ethnicity. In the second text, it relates that the blacks who perceive the police to be discriminative, dependent on social class and ethnicity, would be termed as cop haters.
Conclusion
In the two texts by Ronald and Steven and Jennifer Hunt, the issue of police discrimination has been brought out depending on ethnicity, social class, and the magnitude or rather the intensity of force used by the police. As discussed in the essay, the African-Americans are more likely to perceive the police as discriminative and to use more force on them than their whites’ counterpart. The social class in which one lies is also a determinant of the intensity of force likely to be applied to them by the police, as perceived by the citizens. Finally, the police can use force but moderately. In my opinion, the first text by Ronald and Stevenson gives more detailed information on the discriminatory issue of the police. The police should be trained on how to handle individuals without looking at their social class and race.
Works Cited
Hunt, Jennifer. "Police accounts of the normal force." Urban Life13.4 (1985): 315-341.
Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. "Race, class, and perceptions of discrimination by the
police." Crime & Delinquency 45.4 (1999): 494-507.
