Bushra Algamaai

Professor Thomas Trimble

ENG 3020
9 December 2016
Police Brutality: The Black Community
INTRODUCTION
One of the phrases that were familiar with from recent times is Black Lives Matter
(Karl Mantyla). Practically all of the victims of the 1967 riots were black, but at that time there
was no watchword, no phrase such as Black Lives Matter. According to Karl Mantyla, a
witness to the 1967 riots, "It was sort of taken for granted that the officers would be white and
the victims black." The 1967 riots came as an immediate response to police brutality. Police
brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians
(The Law Dictionary). In Detroit of 1967, events that portrayed police brutality included police
frequently arresting blacks for not having proper identification, as well as disputed shootings and
beatings of blacks by officers. After the 67 riot, a Detroit Free Press survey showed that
civilians that resided in Detroit reported police brutality as the number one problem they faced in
the period leading up to the riot (A Survey of Attitudes of Detroit Negroes After the Riot of
1967).
Police brutality has been a significant problem within the black community for a wide
time span, and it is still a vital problem that the black community faces until today. On March 3,
1991, a video taken by a bystander revealed Rodney King, an African American resident of Los
Angeles being beaten by four white officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. The four
officers were shown using a stun gun on King, as well as continuously kicking him and hitting

him with batons. Fourteen months later, the trial of the four officers ended in a verdict of not
guilty. This verdict resulted in an explosion of violence in Los Angeles that produced
approximately sixty deaths, and an estimated billion dollars in property damage (Sigelman, Lee
et al.).
On November 5, 1992, several members of the Detroit Police Department continuously
kicked, punched, and bludgeoned Malice Green, an African American Detroit resident. Green
died as a result of homicide by blunt force trauma to the head. (Sigelman, Lee et al.)
On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37 year old African American man, was shot several
times while held down on the ground by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Multiple bystanders recorded the shooting. The shooting led to
protests and a request for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice
(Washington Post).
Incidents like these have affected perceptions of and opinions about not just the policeminority relations, but race relations in general. It led some to think about police performance
and the relations between police and the black community, and some to think of the brutality
as atypical acts of a few rogue cops, or see these incidents as the understandable results of the
provocations and frustrations police experience on a daily basis.
In my essay, I will present research that answers the two questions: What causes police
brutality within the black community? Why is police brutality a crucial on-going issue until
today? I will analyze and examine different research studies on police brutality within minority
groups, as well as studies on police brutality within the context of different racial perceptions. I
will also present findings of primary research that includes data from interviews and surveys that
I conducted to support my argument. I argue that racial discrimination or racism is the root cause

of police brutality, therefore, since racism still exists today, so will police brutality.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In 1993, Sigelman et. Al from Wayne State University Center for Urban Studies
conducted a research study on police brutality and public perceptions of racial discrimination.
They completed in-home interviews with 1,124 residents of the Detroit area. The findings
suggest that both blacks and whites are sensitive to highly publicized incidents of police brutality
and to the appearance of major miscarriages of justice against African Americans. In some ways,
blacks and whites reacted similarly to the incidents considered here, but in other ways their
reactions betrayed the different roots from which their racial attitudes stem (Sigelman, Lee et
al.). These incidents of police brutality and racial discrimination struck many whites as
aberrations while confirming many African Americans' belief in the seamlessness of racism in
America (Sigelman, Lee et al.).
Households that resided in the tri-county metropolitan area were eligible to be included in
the sample. The response rate was approximately fifty-six percent. Forty-two percent of the
interviewees were white individuals, while the remaining fifty-eight percent of the interviewees
were black individuals (Sigelman, Lee et al.). The survey contained questions that elicited
perceptions of how well police treat African Americans. Black interviewees were asked whether
they thought that the police in the city, Detroit, would respond as quickly to your call of help as
they would if a white person called for help, and if the police had the right to stop and search
people they just think look suspicious. White residents were also asked the same questions, but
vice versa to their context. Both races were asked about the pervasiveness of discrimination
against African Americans, and whether discrimination was a major or minor reason to why
blacks have less quality opportunities, such as jobs, income, etc.

After the interviews were conducted, results showed that blacks were much skeptical than
whites about whether the police would respond as quickly to a black persons call for help as to a
white persons call, and were more suspicious that the police would use expanded stop-andsearch powers unfairly against blacks. Results also showed that broader police discretion would
be used unfairly among blacks. Seventy-eight percent of Detroit-area blacks, but only twentythree percent of Detroit-area whites considered a Rodney King-type incident likely in their
community (Sigelman, Lee et al.). Although police brutality heightened white sensitivity to
specific kinds of police brutality, to police unresponsiveness towards African Americans, and
even to some kinds of racial discrimination, it did not lead more whites to conclude that racism is
prevalent in America, or that it is a major cause of the problems that confront black Americans.
Other scholars have studied the police use of excessive force in minority communities. In
February 2014, Brad W. Smith from Wayne State University, and Malcolm D. Holmes from the
University of Wyoming, conducted research on police use of coercive mechanisms of social
control against racial/ethnic minority populations by testing three structural hypotheses regarding
excessive force: minority threat hypothesis, community accountability hypothesis, and the place
hypothesis. These findings suggest that police violence aims to control minority populations
perceived as menacing (Smith and Holmes).
Smith and Holmes collected data for their study from five sources: the 2000 and 2003
Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey (LEMAS) by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics (2006, 2008); the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) for 2003 (U.S. FBI 2005);
the CensusScope website created by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) at the
University of Michigan (n.d.); and the 2000 U.S. Census (U.S. Census Bureau 2004). Within
these sources, Smith and Holmes analyzed cities of 100,000 or more residents with independent

police agencies, examined excessive force complaints, and studied survey data. The focus of this
study was on minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics.
For Smith and Holmes, the minority threat hypothesis maintains that the greater the
proportion of minority residents in a city, the greater the use of coercive crime control
mechanisms. The community accountability hypothesis maintains that organizational
characteristics of police departments promote the use of excessive force against minorities. The
place hypothesis argues that spatially segregated minority populations are the primary targets of
coercive control. The minority threat hypothesis maintains that the greater the number of acts or
people threatened to the interests of the powerful, the greater the level of deviance and crime
control (Liska 1992:18).
According to Smith and Holmes, police citizen relations reflect the social divisions,
deeply rooted in the social structure, that separate dominant and subordinate racial/ethnic
groups. The police also may see large minority populations as threatening, and they may employ
severe forms of force in response to situations in which they perceive threats (Holmes 2000;
Liska and Yu 1992). Observed research using data as a whole to the city level provides
considerable support for the argument that the use of violence by the police is closely linked to
the racial and ethnic make up of communities. Minority citizens residing in cities with spatially
segregated racial/ethnic populations may be seen as special threats to the police who patrol their
neighborhoods and, therefore, are more likely to experience police violence. The police use of
violence may, therefore, be tied to both race and place.
Smith and Holmes conclude their study with final thoughts that elaborate the concept of
their study, and its findings. The minority threat and place hypotheses posit the existence of
intractable structural disadvantages as principal causal factors in cases of police violence against

minority citizens, an alternative explanation hypothesizes that organizational arrangements are

the primary influence on the street-level behavior of police (e.g., Skolnick and Fyfe 1993). This
approach maintains that imperfect but malleable police bureaucracies produce the problem. The
inadequate implementation or the lack of organizational mechanisms designed to enhance policeminority tensions within communities are said to be the primary cause of unnecessary violence
against minority populations. Popular stereotypes associate race/ethnicity with serious
criminality (Bender 2003; Quillian and Pager 2001) and urban violence (Chiricos, Welch, and
Gertz 2004), and the presence of large minority populations, whether real or perceived, heightens
fear of crime among white citizens (Chiricos, Hogan, and Gertz 1997; Liska, Lawrence, and
Sanchirico 1982). Given their shared concern about the alleged threat of minority crime, the
dominant white citizenry and local police authorities may marshal their political power to
promote the use of various coercive crime control strategies against subordinate minority citizens
in cities with relatively large minority populations. Moreover, cities with relatively large black
populations have a higher incidence of homicides of police (Kent 2010), suggesting that some
minority citizens pose objective as well as symbolic threats to officers. Insofar, as they perceive
minority citizens as proximate threats to their well-being, relatively large minority populations
may amplify the risk perceived by the police and increase their willingness to employ excessive
force irrespective of political opposition from minority citizens (Smith and Holmes).

METHODS
Sampling Method. The data collected for this study includes interviewing participants that
come from an African American background, as well as retain knowledge on the 1967 riots and
police brutality in the U.S. Also, data was collected from a survey that I have put together and

distributed to Wayne State University students. I conducted two interviews and sixteen surveys.
The interviews consisted of twenty questions, while the survey consisted of fifteen questions.
The interview consisted of questions that are related to police brutality in the U.S., as well as
police brutality within the black community in regards to the time spam of 1967 until today.
Examples of the questions asked are: What is your thought on police brutality in America? What
is the correlation between the black community and the police? Has police brutality changed
over time from 1967 to present? What do you think causes police brutality within the black
community? In regards to the survey, it consisted of questions with the same focus as the
interview questions. Examples of the questions asked are: What do you think is the major cause
of police brutality? Why is police brutality still an issue today?
Setting. The interviews were conducted off-campus. Due to the long distance gap
between locations, the interview took place over Face Time, in which the participants and myself
set up an appropriate time schedule that works for all in regards to time restraints. Both
interviews took place in a living room located in my aunts house in Baton Rouge. The surveys
were conducted on-campus, in the student center, where college students are found scattered
everywhere.
Participants. The interviewees were not chosen at random selection. The interviewee
had to come from an African American background and retain basic knowledge in the 1967 riots
and police brutality in the U.S. The participants in the interview were a husband and a wife, Peter
Jones and Alice Jones. Mr. Peter Jones is at the age of 49, while Mrs. Alice Jones is at the age of
47. Both participants once resided in Detroit, Michigan, but now reside in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. Participants in the survey study were chosen at random selection. All participants
happened to be Wayne State University students. The participants are undergraduate students

that vary in races.

RESULTS
Interview. The results of this study had predictable outcomes. Racial discrimination, or
racism against blacks is concluded to be the major cause of brutality within the black
community. According to Peter Jones, the brutality that African Americans are facing from the
police in the past and now is a result of bias stereotypes against blacks, and this racial
discrimination against blacks will continue to progress because we live in an era of racism.
When asked to elaborate on the reasoning of stereotypes against blacks that correlate to the use
of excessive force by police, Peter answers, black stereotypes usually involve crime-related
aspects, so when a non-black individual sees a black individual silently to himself or just
minding his own business, suspicion arises and so does the stereotypes of black people seen as
criminals. Quite frankly if we sit here and listen to all the stereotypes that are spread, wed think
all white people are crazy and all Muslims are terrorists, but thats not true, and this mentality is
what contributes to these incidents that are happening in the world. Alice Jones explains,
Police brutality has progressed to a ridiculous state, in which black individuals continue to die
occasionally. Mr. and Mrs. Jones elaborate on the theme racial discrimination as a contribution
to police brutality. As the interview comes close to an end, and the final question(s) is asked:
Why is police brutality so hard to end, and what will it take to stop?, Peter begins to discuss his
take on the world and the police. Peter explains, You knowits hard to put an end to things
like racism, racial discrimination, or stereotypes because for some, an individuals mind is in a
reluctant state. This state of mind chooses the path to be ignorant and be prejudice towards
certain groups of people. Whereas when it comes to police brutality, its a matter of justice and
morality being served within respected individuals that they are sought out to be. This take on

police corresponds to the reasoning of police officers being held in a high, respected state by the
public (Terrell Starr). So, as police offers continue to not be prosecuted for killing or harming
black individuals, this brutality will not end.
Survey. Similarly, the results produced in the interview study were adjacent to the results
in the survey data. When asked, What do you think is the major cause of police brutality?, sixtysix percent of survey participants answered to racism or racial discrimination, while the
remaining twenty percent answered to police feeling threatened, and thirteen percent answered
to abuse of power. {Keynote: Answers provided that read racism were counted as racial
discrimination in this study.}
2016 Survery Data on Top Causes of Police Brutality in the U.S. (Wayne State University)

# of Votes

Figure
1

Figure 1 represents the survey data conducted in relevance to responses from participants
about the top causes that elicit police brutality in the U.S. The graph displays the number of
participants that took part in the survey, the top three causes of police brutality in relevance to the
answers provided in the survey, and the number of votes that each cause received from the
participants. {Keynote: Each participant voted for one category only. For example, if a
participant chose racial discrimination as the top cause of police brutality, then that same
participant did not choose threat to police or abuse of power as a choice.} The graphs results
show that 10 out of the 15 participants answered to racial discrimination as the top cause of
police brutality, 3 out of the 15 participants answered to threat to police as the top cause of police
brutality, and the remaining 2 out of 15 participants answered to abuse of power as the top cause
of police brutality.
When asked, why is police brutality so hard to end, and what will it take to stop it?, the
top two answers for why police brutality is so hard to end received were authority issue and
segregated country. As for what will it take to stop, the top two answers received were
enforce punishments and require classes for appropriate protocols.

2016 Survery Data on Top Reasons Why Police Brutality is Hard to End (Wayne State University)

# of Votes

Figure 2

Figure 2 represents the survey data conducted in relevance to responses from participants
on top reasons of why police brutality is hard to end. The graph displays the number of
participants that took part in this survey, the top two reasons of why police brutality is hard to
end, and the number of votes that each reason received from the participants. The graphs results
show that 9 out of the 15 people participants answered to authority issue as a reason to why
police brutality is hard to end, while the remaining 6 out of the 15 participants answered to
segregated country as a reason to why police brutality is hard to end.
Figure 3

2016 Survery Data on How to End Police Brutality

(Wayne State University)

# of Votes

Enforce Punishment

Classes For Appropiate Protocol

How to End Police Brutality

Figure 3 represents the survey data conducted in relevance to responses from participants
on how to end police brutality. The graph displays the number of participants that took part in
this survey, the top two solutions on how to end police brutality, and the number of votes that
each solution received from the participants. The graphs results show that 12 out of the 15
people participants answered enforce punishment as a solution on ending police brutality, while
the remaining 3 out of the 15 participants answered to require classes for police officers on
appropriate protocol as a solution to ending police brutality. {Keynote: Answers that read enforce
consequences were counted as enforce punishment in this study.}
Overall data from both methods of research, interview and survey, shows that racial
discrimination contributes as a major cause to police brutality in the U.S. Findings from the data
suggest that police brutality is still a crucial issue today because it is an authoritative issue, and
the country is in an isolated state, resulting in segregated opinions and reasoning on what is right
and what is wrong with these incidents.
DISCUSSION

In effort to developing my research on the causes of police brutality, and why this
incident still occur today, I have conducted data that supports the argument that racial
discrimination or racism is the major cause of this brutality. This cause ties into the reason
police brutality still occurs today. If racism is still an issue today, then so will the brutality
foreshadowed by police officers. While conducting my research data, I was pleased to have had
appropriate research methods to develop my research topic, police brutality within the black
community.
In regards to administrating the interview study, I chose to interview any individual from
an African American background with basic knowledge of the 1967 riots and police brutality,
which was relevant with my research, so that went accordingly to plan. If I was to coordinate my
interview again, but differently, I would like to interview individuals with first-hand experiences
with police brutality in order to gain direct perception. I would also interview more than just two
individuals. Time restraint played an important role as a limitation in this study. If I had more
time, I wouldve interviewed more individuals, as well as distributed my surveys outside the
Wayne State campus. I wouldve distributed my surveys to people with different socio-economic
backgrounds.
CONCLUSION
Police brutality has been a significant problem within the black community for a wide
time span, and it is still a vital problem that the black community faces until today. Looking back
to the 1967 riots, we conclude that police brutality has been prevalent for decades resulting in
vital happenings such as the riots itself. Fast-forwarding years after the riots, we come across
more incidents such as the Malice Green, Alton Sterling, and Rodney King incidents. These
incidents show a consistent rate of police brutality happenings throughout the U.S. I argue that

racial discrimination or racism is the root cause of police brutality, therefore, since racism still
exists today, so will police brutality. According to the data conducted in this following research,
I conclude that racial discrimination or racism is the answer to the two questions: What causes
police brutality within the black community? Why is police brutality a crucial on-going issue
until today?

Work Cited
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for Punitive Measures. Criminology 42:35989.
Chiricos, Ted, Michael Hogan, and Marc Gertz. 1997. Racial Composition of Neighborhood
and Fear of Crime. Criminology 35:10731.
Danilana, S. "What Is Police Brutality?" The Law Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

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