Systematic Racism in Policing in America. Literature & Language Essay

Systemic Racism in Policing in America
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The death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American living in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, sparked a countrywide protest against the systemic racism and the use of lethal force by the law enforcers in the USA. George Floyd died while being arrested by police officers. Video surveillance shows that Floyd's neck was pinned down by the responding officer for about 9 minutes until he died from asphyxia (BBC News, 2020). Although the police officers argued that George Floyd was resisting arrest, the public was enraged about the resulting events, particularly, with the handling of law enforcers with the cases of minority groups.
In the 21st century, there was a surge of police officers that had many high-profile killings of unarmed black men and youth (DeGue, Fowler, and Calkins, 2016). From 1999 to 2013 alone, there was a 45% increase in the killings of minority groups in the US, which includes American Indians, Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic whites, and Asia-Pacific islanders, but the highest death rate increase due to police brutality was among blacks (DeGue, Fowler, and Calkins, 2016). The people are demanding justice for the continuous and repeated violence of police officers against people of color in the US. The recent protest in Minneapolis, which started as a peaceful rally at first, resulted in massive civil unrest and civil disobedience that caused many structural destructions and burning of private property (Stockman, 2020).
Although there are trainings, laws, and provisions that prevent police officers from conducting systematic racism and oppression, police brutality and their use of lethal force, especially, against people of color are still prevalent. Citizens are still wary about the cultural racism in the police force as well as their use of unnecessary force. In this paper, we will focus on the major causes of police racism, oppression and use of lethal force, the types of police misconduct against people of color, and the ways on how the government can reduce police brutality.
Major Causes of Police use of Lethal Force
The most common causes of police oppression are strong legal protections, the internal “code of silence” in police culture, and systematic racism.
Systemic Racism
Systemic racism is multi-institutional wide racial prejudices and discrimination, which is not just prevalent in the police force, but also other institutions such as schools, companies, or government agencies (Gal et al., 2020). Minority groups are usually underrepresented in law-making and parliamentary discussions that significantly reduce their protection under the law. Companies are also lacking in racial diversity, which decreases their need for a culturally appropriate workplace and addresses any racial issues (Gal et al., 2020). Since other large institutions that support the police, such as government agencies, lack racial appropriateness in their policies, there are potential racial repercussions in the police as a result.
Strong Legal Protection
Some laws that protects police officers against the public. Although the Supreme Court invalidat...