Category Archives: Social Justice
Digital Research Project
Police Brutality and What is the Rightful Punishment?
Police brutality has been a recent issue that has increased over the years and has brought up controversy. The behavior of a police officers and their intentions when an incident happens is one of the key factors. The most important one being the reasonable punishment that can be enforced to satisfy all parts of the party involved when an incident like this does occur. Therefore, raising the question about how we should deal with these issues, and if the system needs to be changed to improve our society, especially those that are mostly affected which are people of color.
As some background information when an incident does occur there are multiple parties that are affected. Not only is the victim affected but the police officer, the victim’s family, and the community are also involved somehow. For the victim, most of the police brutality incidents are all physical abuse. However, mental and sleep deprivation may also occur with the victim following the incident because it can be traumatic, and they are dealing with the aftereffects of that. After an accusation of police brutality, the officer will be assigned to some sort of desk duty and have his gun taken from them. Even with an accusation, it goes on their permanent record and could destroy their police careers. The public or community tend to be wary and untrustful of the police department following an incident. And according to the article, “The public, often fanned by the media, will sensationalize the case, especially if race, gender, socioeconomic status or sexuality seems to be a factor.” (Meem,1) Upon my research I found a scholarly article talking about how we must set the agenda for public health scholars early for them to go into the healthcare field unbiased and helping the Black community that is so greatly affected. According to this article they identified five pathways that link police brutality and poor health outcomes. The five factors were, “(1) fatal injuries that increase population-specific mortality rates; (2) adverse physiological responses that increase morbidity; (3) racist public reactions that cause stress; (4) arrests, incarcerations, and legal, medical, and funeral bills that cause financial strain; and (5) integrated oppressive structures that cause systematic disempowerment.” (Alang, McAlpine, McCreedy, Harderman, 1) Evidence of public harming to African Americans is traced back all the way to slavery when they were harmed for trying to escape their owners. With technology now, it is so easy for it to be recorded for millions of people to see. And in recent cases these past few years, it is the reason some of them got justice.
The Civil Rights Movement of 1964 had helped the African Americans thrive in society and stop the discrimination against them during segregation. In one of the articles, I found during my research the author Stephen A. Schwartz writes about his experience in fighting for African Americans during the 1960’s and standing alongside his friend who was Black. However, seeing these injustices that were now happening to him made it seem like the white police officers were doing these violent acts thinking they could get away with it. In his article stating, “And yet here I sit, looking day after day at the searing television images of the new civil rights demonstrations, watching videos of White policemen murdering Black men for no reason except they could, thinking they would get away with it, as they had so often in the past.” (Schwartz, 2) This article also included information following the brutality rates that were occurring in 2020. According to data, “According to Statistica in the U.S. there have been, “a total (of) 429 civilians …shot, 88 of whom were Black, as of June 4, 2020. In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 increased to 1004.” And with all this data it was also shown that Black Americans was the highest rate than any other ethnicity. Schwartz investigates his research and includes other parts of the world like Norway and Britain stating that most of the police officers there do not even carry a firearm. This brings to question the concerning amounts of brutality that occurs here in the United States and can make us look at other parts of the world and seeing how they do things differently than we do and if we should incorporate them into our country. Especially seeing how we are doing now, which is not good.
One of the big incidents that was heard around the world was the case of George Floyd. His incident was so brutal and cruel that it motivated a generation of young adults to stand up to the police system and question just how much justice they were doing regarding arrests. And to help their case even more it was even filmed for people to see. George Floyd was murdered during a traffic stop by four police officers. This incident occurred in May 2020 and was filmed by some bystanders yelling at the police officers to do something to help him. Officer Derek Chauvin had been holding his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck on the street. In the video you could hear him yelling saying he was not able to breathe, and the officer did nothing to relieve him of his pain and had unfortunately died. This video circulated and had begun the Black Lives Matter movement that protested for justice of the Black people that seemed to be mostly affected and statistics proves that. Another well-known incident that had occurred was with a victim named Breonna Taylor. Her incident happened before George Floyd since it occurred March 2020, but it did not gain any attention until after Mr. Floyd since that was the kick start of the movement. Ms. Taylor had been a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by police officers during a raid on her apartment. She was killed in her sleep and her case took a long time to process compared to Mr. Floyd.
Breonna Taylor’s officers, “He [They] pleaded not guilty. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing Ms. Taylor’s death.” (Oppel, 2) And instead two of the detectives involved were fired from the department. Ms. Taylor’ s. family fought for justice and wanted criminal charges to be enforced against the officers. It was September when officials had agreed to pay twelve- million dollars to settle the wrongful death lawsuit. In Mr. Floyd’s case, the day after the killing, “large protests erupted in Minneapolis and Mayor Jacob Frey announced that the four officers involved in the case had been terminated. Mr. Frey said he had asked the F.B.I. to investigate, and in a statement posted on social media, he said, “Being Black in America should not be a death sentence.” (The New York Times) “Mr. Chauvin had said through his lawyer that his handling of Mr. Floyd’s arrest was a reasonable use of authorized force. The officer was the subject of at least 22 complaints or internal investigations during his more than 19 years at the department, one of which resulted in discipline. After a week-long trial, Mr. Chauvin was found guilty on April 20 of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.” (The New York Times)
These two cases are not the only ones that have occurred over the years. They may be the most well-known and recent at the time but there can be many more that we have yet to hear about. With these two cases you got to see the variety in which the outcomes were when it came to their punishment. Do we charge these police officers for murder of whatever degree, or do we just fire them? Can we fix police education and reinstate a new academic way of teaching them protocols that can prevent these things from happening? Or do we continue to allow the Black community to be targeted and their families to be severely affected? There is no clear answer because there are multiple different opinions regarding everything. What we do know is that these incidents cannot continue to occur if we want to continue to trust in these police officers to help protect our communities.
research paper
Student debt crisis can change lives forever
The United States of America is considered one of the greatest countries in the world. With that being said there are pros and cons to everything, one of the largest cons being adults between the ages of 18-30 is student debt. Within past generations college was viewed as a luxury rather than a normal good; this meaning as the country grew and changed the price of getting a degree and becoming a well-educated member of society has substantially increased. The United States’ national student debt crisis has caused a detrimental impact on the livelihood of college students and graduates between the ages of 18-and 30 that have taken out student loans within the past 20 years. The cost of living has had a spike within the past 50 years, this is no different when comparing the price of college 50 years ago to the price of college now. Basing student loans on the economic stability of the United States can have disastrous consequences on the cost of loans and the amount of interest that is included. But it is not all negative, there can be positive aspects to taking out student loans. As stated in Pros and Cons of Student Loans “Student loans, used responsibly, can help college students and graduates build their credit scores.”(Stobierski 2). But these credit scores are just one positive attribute of student loans, most of the other redeeming qualities are negative.
Life is expensive, that is a very simple concept for anyone to grasp. But adding in the factor of having to pay someone back on top of that can make living above the poverty line almost impossible. This idea isn’t just for college graduates but for college students as well. It’s completely normal to be broke in college but once you graduate you hope that maybe you’ll be able to keep more than $100 in your bank account. That indicated this isn’t the case for graduates that have student debt. The lingering debt after graduation can cause adults to take the first job that comes around because they can’t afford to waste time with more schooling or looking for a better-paying job. Graduates are in such a hurry to start paying their loans back so it doesn’t have an even more disastrous impact on their lives. Terri Williams wrote 10 Ways Student Debt can Derail your life, within this article, he states “For instance, the average starting salary for someone with an undergraduate degree in business administration was a little more than $57,000, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Compare that to the entry-level earnings of someone with a master of business administration (MBA) at almost $85,000.”(Williams 1). A difference in salaries is just one example proving that student debt can derail your life without you even realizing it. Graduates with student debt have their arms twisted once they graduate, the hurry and rush to find a good job cause an extreme amount of stress and pressure on them. This causes them to start their life in a way that they do not desire.
work cited
Fry, Richard. “Section 1: Student Debt and Overall Economic Well-Being.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 31 Dec. 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/05/14/section-1-student-debt-and-overall-economic-well-being/.
Williams, Terri. “10 Ways Student Debt Can Derail Your Life.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 8 Sept. 2021, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/100515/10-ways-student-debt-can-destroy-your-life.asp.
Download Limit Exceeded – Pennsylvania State University. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.401.2486&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
Indebted, Kirsten. “Everything Finance.” Everything Finance, https://everythingfinanceblog.com/16008/student-loans-impact-life-after-college.html.
Stobierski, Tim. “Pros and Cons of Student Loans.” Student Debt Warriors, 3 July 2021, https://studentdebtwarriors.com/students/pros-and-cons-of-student-loans/.
“Stats about Student Debt.” Flickr, 21 Apr. 2022, https://flic.kr/p/aECjDk.
“F8med.Studentdebt.” Flickr, 21 Apr. 2022, https://flic.kr/p/5RjUQA.
Source Summary 3: A Messed Up System
Title of Source:
How Does Education in the Juvenile-Justice System Measure Up? It Doesn’t.
Summary:
When it comes to convicted juveniles and the justice system, state standards create unreachable goals for convicts to keep up with and make similar progress in as those of non-convicted students, when it comes to education. While juveniles need even more advanced resources, they aren’t even provided at minimum equal classes and educational opportunities as children who receive regular schooling in the community. Additionally, barriers such as race make it harder for some children to receive the right resources and opportunities. In the end, as a result of lack of data, advocators and schools find it difficult to measure change and see what is working and what areas need improvement.
Quotes:
- “While OCR’s data on education and juvenile justice, and Bellwether’s new analysis, raise more questions than they answers, they ultimately point us to an inescapable conclusion: Without immediate and dramatic change to our juvenile-justice education programs, these systems will not serve students as well as their community schools would.”
- “They also have less access to credit-recovery opportunities—chances to quickly complete missing coursework for classes previously attempted—than their peers in community schools, even though they are likely to need them most. On average, nearly three-quarters of students in community schools have access to these credit-recovery programs but less than half of students in juvenile-justice facilities do.”
Source:
Source Summary 2: A Recurring Problem: Educational Resources and the Justice System
Title of Source:
Pipeline to Prison: How the juvenile justice system fails special education students
Summary:
A number of facilities and centers where convicted juveniles are sent are not effective at providing a good enough education, setting children back further in the pathway of education. Many individual cases such as that of Toney Jennings provide insight into the problems associated with teachers, officers, individual education plans, transition between sentencing and placement, as well as the overall educational resources provided to juveniles in the justice system. As a result of insufficient funding, teachers, structure, and concern for the wellbeing of juveniles and their achievement, convicts continue to struggle with schooling and the motivation to get a good education. Thus, the number of opportunities provided after confinement and later in life are limited.
Quotes:
- “The state does not currently track how many of those juvenile offenders are entitled to extra education services, but according to a 2010 federal survey, 30 percent of youth in custody of the juvenile justice system have a diagnosed learning disability – six times the amount in the general population.”
- “When reporters from The Hechinger Report asked the Mississippi Department of Education and the Office of Public Safety about the number of special education students in detention centers in the state, both agencies said that they believed the other entity was tracking those statistics. “
Source:
Source Summary 1: A Wall of Educational Disparity
Title of Source:
Education for Youth Under Formal Supervision of the
Juvenile Justice System
Summary:
Education is a large problem, especially when it comes to children who come face to face with the justice system. As found, educational disabilities are prevalent in a large majority of convicted juveniles and can be linked to the low educational achievement and involvement before, during, and after entering custody. Many convicts who struggle before entering the system struggle or decline even worse in comparison to those with above average levels who are more likely to do well after facing custody or confinement. On the other hand, resources provided to convicts are not successful or up to standards in helping children with their specific educational needs, especially when comparing such to the resources of non-convicted children.
Quotes:
- “Lack of coordination between the juvenile justice and educational systems may also inhibit the delivery and continuity of service provision as youth experience numerous transitions inherent in justice-system involvement” (Suitts, Dunn, and Sabree, 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2016b).
- “In addition to educational risk factors (discussed above) that can increase the likelihood of delinquency, crime, and justice system involvement, some researchers have studied the effect of the justice system itself on educational outcomes. Many concluded that system responses to delinquent behavior (such as arrest, secure detention, and secure confinement) can be contributing factors to negative educational outcomes” (Aizer and Doyle, 2015; Eren and Mocan, 2017; Kirk and Sampson, 2013; Robinson et al., 2017).
Source:
Scholarly Source Summary
Title: Does student debt have an impact on financial health of a household?
Within this source the issue of student loans and short-term household financial help is one of the largest topics discussed. It then goes on to predict the living quality of those students who do have student debt. And to finish this source off it compares the students who have debt to those who don’t.
quotes: “Higher 2007 net worth, a four-year college graduate living in the household, being older, and being married have a significant positive association with 2009 net worth.”, “According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, about 2.2 mil- lion Americans 60 years of age or older were liable for repayment of $43 billion in federal and private student loans in 2012.”
link: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.401.2486&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Setting the Agenda for Public Health Scholars
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5388955/
This scholarly article is from a previous website that I have used in my research regarding police brutality. This article is very useful in the fact that it provides a lot of headings with different parts of information like psychological stress, racist public reactions, economic and financial strain, and many more. I like this article because it helps provide not only the violent aspects of police brutality but also other factors that may help contribute to a type of incident like this.
“It sends a signal that there is little hope for justice. Excessive police force and inadequate prosecution of perpetrators might increase feelings of powerlessness in the Black community, diminishing perceptions of gains made by the civil rights movement.”
“The perceived lack of justice can breed mistrust in law enforcement, further hurting the relationship between the police and Black communities. This might limit access to appropriate and necessary law enforcement services such as protection from violent crime and timely intervention during emergencies and disasters.”
Eng201Spring22 