Cognitive Dissonance, Crime, Policy, and Practice

People have been divided into different groups based on common traits like gender, race, religion, and ethnicity ever since the Stone Age. Unquestionably, it is obvious that such uniqueness could cause the different groups to become more tense, and over time, it showed up in normal aspects of life like crime and employment. The United States' criminal justice system is currently the subject of a number of hotly debated issues involving various forms of discrimination, including, but not limited to, social class problems, brutality by law enforcement, and harsh prison sentences. The public’s view of the police has changed tremendously, and the acts of violence that transpires while making an arrest has become part and parcel of life.

There has always been a never-ending discrimination towards the African Americans ever since the 1640’s until in the year 1865 after the passing of the three constitutional amendments to grant the legal status to the newly freed African Americans. The first one was the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery, followed by the Fourteenth that provided citizenship, and lastly, the Fifteenth that guaranteed the right to vote. One of the discriminatory practices that took place way back in the 1860’s is the segregation in which there was the physical separation of the blacks and the whites. The method barred the blacks from attending the same schools with the whites, sharing of bathrooms, sitting on the same areas in a bus, and even drinking from the same water fountain, among others. Even after the constitutional abolition of slavery, discrimination continues up to date in 2017 that is 152 years later, and there is still mistreatment of people based on their skin color.

Presently, the racial discrimination towards the individuals of color by the police has become rampant. The laws enforcers have the responsibility to offer protection to the public from the dangerous criminals in the city, but instead, they have become a threat rather than being vigilant especially to the people of color. According to (Punch), the policemen have become the flesh of the state, and in fact, the rate of Black arrest is four times higher, and 76% of the persons incarcerated are juveniles. Ever since the abolition of slavery, the police has been piling pressure on the blacks to fix the whites’ economic system as they got used to keeping the slaves for their physical labor at less or no pay in return and that also contributed to the economy’s fall to the Great Depression. That led to the arrest of the African Americans for petty crimes such as loitering by the law enforcement to fix the economic problem through putting them behind bars and meeting the quota imposed on them by the police chief.

During the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the New Orleans PD members shot and murdered two African Americans, one a 17-year-old and the other a 40-year-old mentally disabled individual. Moreover, they wounded four other non-armed African Americans who had not committed any crime. The police officers carried out such atrocities due to their despise for the black people and over exaggeration of their authorities as police officers. The five responsible law enforcers were later officially charged in the court of law with murder but what followed is the overturning of the convictions and order of a new trial. They then pleaded culpable to the different charges associated with the shooting incidence, and in response, each received a reduced sentence that ranges from three to twelve years. However, none of the accusations were murder, yet in real essence, that is what they were all about, and they appealed responsible for the charges of denial of the rights under color of law, impediment of impartiality, and scheme to impede integrity.

In April 2010, the Arizona state enacted an SB 1070 law which is inclusive of the provisions of the state penalties relating to the immigration laws such as trespassing, harboring, transportation of immigrants illegally, alien registration of documents, and employer sanctions. Besides, it dealt with the problem of human trafficking which fundamentally permitted the accosting of people who looked like the illegal immigrants, thus proving to be another discrimination against the minorities. The law is a significant act of prejudice that draws attention to the reasonable suspicion of racial profiling and indication of the idea that all Mexicans are aliens. The bill not only creates stress and puts pressure on the individuals of Hispanic origin, but also discriminates in that it is mandatory for them to show identification to prove their citizenship, unlike other groups.

The significant rationales for having such discrimination issues within the community are due to the experience of slavery combined with the present-day matters. Currently, the cases of the white police officers shooting the unarmed African Americans who are resisting arrests are typical, but honestly, the individuals are always innocent and don’t deserve such brutality. The sad part of it is that the state allows such law enforcers to get away with such actions without bringing them to book for their misconduct. The police officers’ sense of power and authority are always vital but not in discriminating against people or accusing persons based on their skin color. Even if it is understandable that the officers usually have a lot of stress and pressure due to the nature of their duties such as endangering their lives every day just to offer protection to the public, they don’t have any right whatsoever to shoot innocent people instead of arresting them.

The African Americans are the ones that most feel the unfair treatment by the police given the manner in which the media portrays the officer that has shot the unarmed black man. In fact, media is one of the more significant problems when it comes to the police brutality as they mostly concentrate on the stories involving the minority groups to attract the attention of the communities as they don’t care about the scenes involving the whites breaking the law. Indeed, 1 in every 4 African Americans between the ages of 18 to 34 has had a feeling of unfairly stopped or treated by the law enforcers.

The minority groups always try to be extra friendly to the police officers to avoid getting shot or beaten, a fact that has led to the African Americans to be afraid of the police as regards their historical relationship. The officers’ behaviors usually depend significantly on the context or situation, the perceived involvement in the crime, and the individual’s social status.

Works Cited

Lectures, Criminal Justice. “Justice on the Street? Police and Class.” Prezi.com, 25 Feb. 2015, prezi.com/iqfem_dgx6cf/justice-on-the-street-police-and-class/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy.

Loury, Glenn C. Racial Stigma: Toward a New Paradigm for Discrimination Theory." American Economic Review, vol. 93, no. 2, May 2003, pp. 334-337. EBSCOhost. www. systems.wsu.edu/scripts/wsuall.pl? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=bsu&AN=10016007&site=ehost-live

Hanson-Rasmussen, N. " Understanding the complexities of the Arizona immigration act: A Midwestern business student perspective." The Journal of Business Diversity, 2013, 13(1), 9-22 www.search.proquest.com/docview/1507796694?accountid=14902

.