Police Brutality: A Pillar of the Government
By: Kira Ortoleva
TW: Stories of Fatal Police Brutality
We can’t talk about racism in America without some type of disagreement. The fact of racism in the United States is that this country was built on genocide, slavery, and oppression like many others were. Yes, slavery was abolished. But that doesn’t mean we’ve overcome racism. In the modern-day, it’s built into the system, like racial profiling, unbalanced numbers of incarcerated black men and women, and police brutality. Oppression is hidden in our system, and anyone who isn’t visibly white is in danger from the lethal use of force from the governmental systems.
Police brutality is defined as a civil rights violation where officers use “undue or excessive force” against a civilian. This spans from verbal harassment to fatal shootings. The nation just watched a shooting of a black man named Ahmaud Arbery, who was considered a thug and was taken down by an ex-cop and his peers. In Connecticut, we watched as Mubarak Soulemane had a schizophrenic break and was shot because his body reacted to the tazer.
“The rate of fatal police shootings per million was 10.13 for Native Americans, 6.6 for black communities, 3.23 for Hispanics/Latinos, and 2.9 for white people in 2016.” — The Guardian. For people of color in America, fatal police shootings are one of the leading causes of death.
Eric Garner, Bothem Sean, Atatiana Jefferson, Jonathan Ferrell, Renisha McBride, Stephon Clark, Jordan Edwards, Jordan Davis, Alton Sterling, Aiyana Jones, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Charleston 9, Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Sandra Bland, Philando Castille, Corey Jones, John Crawford, Terrence Crutcher, Keith Scott, Clifford Glover, Claude Reese, Randy Evans, Ramsey Orta, Yvonne Smallwood, Amadou Diallo, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Mubarak Soulemane, Jayson Negron, Anthony “Chulo” Vega, Jose Soto, George Floyd, Emmet Till, Tony Mcdade, Breonna Taylor.
There’s more than just one epidemic that our nation is tackling, and the deadliest one so far is oppression. When people talk about oppression there’s a lot of jumping around from topics such as sexual assault, LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and many others. The ideology of oppression is to not want MORE, but to rather want the desired amount of necessities to be able to live. Oppression stems deeply into the society we live in, and affects our economic status, and whether or not we will be targeted for our skin color.
The Justice System was created in the hands of the oppressor and has never seen a good day in terms of justice for marginalized communities, which brings us to how police are allowed to use brutal force against black men and women, or people of color. Mental illness in black communities is seen as thuggish behavior, hoods and sweatshirts are seen as a threat, and all of these affect the way the police see the community.
“Every 28 hours a black person is killed by someone employed or protected by the U.S. government.” — (Moral Monday CT). Systematically, the police have historically enforced racist laws and policies and recently have been complicit in the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery via lawyer investigation. It is a norm for the police to see lethal brutality against black communities as okay. Black Americans are consistently seen as a threat, a thug, or a drug dealer to the media due to these exact norms being pushed forward.
Police brutality is killing our friends and our family members, and it needs to be tackled. Climate change is a symptom of the source of all oppression, which is Capitalism — yet, we cannot actively make a change in any topic without acknowledging all, fighting for all, and taking down the system detrimental to our lives and health.
From the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, “Black communities and American Natives/Alaskan Natives are more likely to be killed by police than whites,” as well as “.. For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.”
We need to end the epidemic of police brutality and bring justice to marginalized communities before we wake up with another name on the list. Instead of posting on socials, sign petitions, send texts, educate your friends and family, share callouts, call the governmental agencies part of each circumstance.
Call for justice.
Note: The views of the author may not reflect the views of the U.S.
Kira is the State Lead of CT Climate Strikes, a member of Central CT Democratic Socialists Alliance’s Steering Committee, and intersectional activist in Connecticut. She works with a team on Climate Strikes to bring publicity to climate change and push politicians in the right direction. Kira is also an active organizer in police brutality protests, anti-ice, and Free Them All protests.
