ENGH101 Researched Argument for Change (1)
pdf
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Moi University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
400
Subject
English
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
Pages
5
Uploaded by GrandMaskAlpaca11
Researched Argument for Change
(+Post-script)
Khue T. Bui
Department of English, George Mason University
ENGH 101-DL6: Composition
Professor Joe Killiany
November 17
th
, 2023
1
Opinion
| De-escalation is a key player in reducing racial disparity
Leonard Cure, aged 53, was fatally shot on October 17
th
by a deputy from the
Camden County Sheriff’s Office.
After going through 16 years of wrongful imprisonment, Leonard Cure,
exonerated of his alleged 2003 robbery by the Broward County’s Conviction Review
Unit, was driving when he was stopped by an unknown deputy at 7:30 A.M. as part of a
“traffic stop”—for a reason unreleased by the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI)
. The
GBI’s statement detailed that Cure was complying with the deputy until he learned that
he was being arrested, wherein he proceeded to “assault” the deputy, though the
statement also mentioned that “no deputies were injured.” The encounter continued
with a physical struggle between the two—the deputy using both a police baton and stun
gun on Cure—and ended with Cure being shot and killed by the deputy.
Mary Cure, mother to Leonard Cure (depicted in the photo frame), speaks to CBS47 reporters in
Woodbine, GA. Photo by Russ Bynum, AP.
2
Leonard Cure had two similarities with a specific demographic of victims of fatal
police shootings: being unarmed and being Black. Cure’s case is, unfortunately, only one
among hundreds of cases where an unarmed Black person had been shot and killed by
police. According to The Washington Post, there have been 164 Black and unarmed
victims since 2015. Even when victims are not unarmed, Black people are
disproportionately affected compared to people of Hispanic, White, and other races.
Approximately 2,000 victims out of about 8,800 victims were of African descent,
documents
the Post’s fatal police shooting database
. Undoubtedly, this trend is rooted in
a deeper history of racial disparity and indicates a fundamental issue with modern day
policing when it comes to racial aspects.
Running Rampant: Racism and Police
According to the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP)
, as far as back as the early 18
th
century, there have been organized groups of
“Slave Patrols”. These teams—of which functioned similarly to law enforcement—
specialized in terminating any enslaved uprisings, capturing the enslaved, and returning
them to their owners using “excessive force”. After the Civil War, they were replaced by
“militia-style groups” that continued to deny equal rights for freed slaves and
systematically regulated laws according to the Black Codes—codes that dictated African
American worker rights and even their property rights in some states (according to
National Geographic
).
Even though the ratification of the 14
th
Amendment of the U.S. constitution
brought forth the abolition of Black Codes,
Jim Crow laws
along with other local and
state statutes that loophole’d racial segregation of Black Americans gave rise. The
enforcement of these discriminatory laws and statutes were
held up by local
municipalities and, following their orders, local police departments
as well. Methods to
enforcement included “exerting excessive brutality” on African Americans in violation.
When the centuries-long history of heavy racial discrimination is reflected upon,
it is no surprise that African Americans are disproportionately affected. They are
patterns based on numerous split-second decisions made by generations of officers that
reinforce stereotypes that paint a red target on the backs of Black civilians today. Such
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
3
was the case of Philando Castile, another unarmed Black man shot dead by an officer at
a traffic stop, whose officer alleged that he resembled one of their robbery suspects
because of his “wide-set nose.”
A Response: De-escalation’s Role in Racial Disparity
One of the most high-profile cases where a Black, unarmed person was shot
happens to be
Breonna Taylor
, who was sleeping soundly in her house when police
barged in and traded shots with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who shot first thinking
the officers were intruders. The officers proceeded to fire 32 shots blindly into their
apartment, killing Taylor.
Even though this intrusion was set up to be a raid, now botched, I believe the
officers could have handled the situation in a less
hostile manner
, potentially avoiding
Taylor’s unnecessary killing.
The same police department, the Louisville Metro Police Department, has since
vowed to take upon reforms upon themselves and accountability regarding this case.
One of their steps towards reform is an increase in training, specifically in de-escalation.
Their training—using the training program by the name of
Integrating
Communications, Assessment, and Tactics
(ICAT) was overseen by a team of
researchers from the University of Cincinnati led by Robin S. Engel, Ph. D., who has
been researching policing strategies for over two decades.
The
training report
concluded that de-escalation was effective in critical
situations, with statistics detailing a 28 percent reduction in use-of-force incidents, a 26
percent reduction in citizen injuries, and a 36 percent reduction in officer injuries.
These results not only show the effectiveness of de-escalation training, but also
suggests a possible pathway for officers to defuse situations where they may feel
tempted to use violent or even lethal means to subdue a subject or protect themselves,
effectively lowering the amount of police brutality and racially disproportionate killings
happening around the States.
4