Black Lives Matter

Pauline Jean-Baptiste

Professor Brunk

Enc 1101

December 15, 2016

Final Portfolio

Pauline Jean-Baptiste                     Freshman Comp                             December 15,2016

Table of Contents

1. Explanations of Revisions Essay
2. Black Lives Matter Period
3. The Fault in Our Stars v. If I Stay
4. Gender Discrimination

Pauline Jean-Baptiste

Professor Jen Brunk

English 1101

29 September 2016

Racist Police Brutality  

In the minority community, many people have been victims to senseless acts of violence at the hands of the police who are in place to serve and protect the citizens of this country. And the name of these senseless acts is police brutality, but in this case it’s called racial police brutality which unfortunately leads to the loss of many lives. Racial police brutality is something that has been around for many years, but now it has become an even bigger issue in the community of minority families.

To start off, African-Americans have suffered through many violent acts in many different circumstances. In our world today these people endure acts of excessive force, physical assault, being beaten beyond repair, and even being shot to death as of late. In 1991, Rodney King was beaten by the LAPD after he led them on a high speed chase through Los Angeles. According to CNN,  (Sanchez) a video taken of the incident shows King being struck by police batons more than fifty times while twenty officers stood and watched after this attack King sustained eleven fractures and other injuries due to the beating. Four officers were indicted in connection to the beatings on March 15, 1991, but on April 29, 1992 all four Caucasian LAPD officers were acquitted, which the sparked the L.A. riots.

Moreover, stemming way back to the times where African-Americans were sprayed with hoses and had dogs sicked on them, which caused them to have a strong hatred towards the Caucasian community. But recent stories like those of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland and many more. This has become too much to bear and as if it were even possible has increased that hatred and anger. Police officers who are accused of police brutality are by law required to attend a civil court hearing with a jury and a judge present. Unfortunately, more often than not the officers are found not guilty of a lesser crime. For example, in the Mike Brown case, according to an article on CNN, (Sanchez) “a grand jury chose not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of 18- year old Micheal Brown.” (BBC.com) Many of the officers who use excessive force believe that they are doing nothing wrong. Wilson in an interview with abcnews said, “It’s always going to be something that happened. The reason that I have a clean conscience is that I know I did my job right.”