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Kiazhane Chavez
Emilia Ianeva, PhD, JD, LLM
SOC 3480
ResearchPaper
Police Brutality/Killings that ended with Riots
Violence as defined is any behavior that is designed to inflict injuryon people or
people’s property. In general people turnto violence as a reactionto various situations
without thinking twice. There are two types of violence illegitimate and legitimate.
Illegitimate violence (illegal) are acts of homicide, rape, assault, and terrorism. Legitimate
violence (legal) are acts that are justifiable law enforcement actions andmilitarism. Where
would a riot be placed? Illegitimate or legitimate?Ariot is violent disturbance of the peace
by a crowd causing a public disturbance. Riots don’t arise out of nowhere. There is a
meaningful purpose to the bigger picture as to why a certaincommunitywould want to lash
out in a violent outrage. In today’s societyit is mainly over the police. Police?Yes, the
police are onthe rise to have committedthe most killings and they are supposed to protect
us. So why do we have police to serve and protect whenit seems theykill and scare civilians.
The target of these police killings/brutality are inflictedupon unarmed African American
males. “The likelihoodthat a black personkilledby police will be unarmed: Twice as likely
as a white personkilledby police, accordingto the Guardian.” (25 facts).
In my analysis I will be going over three incidents that is somewhat recent that has or
had major publicity. These incidents deal with unarmed black men, police and their actions,

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and most importantlyhow the public around the world and local communities deal with the
ongoing heartbreak. They are in order of a police brutalityincident were the male was not
killed, no justice for policeactions andnegative outcome. The secondis a case of police
brutality ending with a murder, with no justice, and negative outcome. Lastlya case of police
brutality that ends in murder, having very little justice, anda much more positive outcome. I
have chosenthis route to showthe different outcomes of policebeatings and killings.
In April of 1992 there was a massive issue betweenthe Los Angeles public and their
police department. Before mytime there was an incident betweena male driving a car and
four policemen. In his arrest the situationbecame violent quickly. Rodney King was beaten
with batons by four officerswiththe last names of Koon, Powell, Briseno, and Wind.
Rodney was struckover 50 times while he was down on the ground. No one is saying that
King was in the right to proceedina high speedchase with the police. Also being under the
influence, onparole and resistingarrest. He couldhave stopand this whole situationcould
have beenavoided. Do you think being beatenwith four batons over 50 time is
demonstrating excessive force?Canthis be classifiedas police brutality?Yes, it can. There
can and was an alternative force that couldhave beenused.
Leaving the civil rights movement, it can seem like the police are the ones who
commit these “hate crimes”insteadof the general public on black Americans. Police
brutality has risensignificantlyinrecent years and has been more known to the public now
due to social media. This can make people become outragedand want to fight. But even with
the flashof a cameraor motions from avideo it is not enough proof to convict an officer for
an act of violence. The video was releasedto several news networks by a man named George

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Holiday who in fact recordedit. This is what made the case high publicized by being played
repeatedlyover the television. Watchingsuch a hateful act over and over brought anger to
the LA areas. Anger was brought out more from the minoritygroups like other Africa
Americans and Latinos.
With the video being the main evidence used you would assume the officers will be
proven guilty. But that was not the case. The case on trial wasn’t not fair from the beginning
since there were no African American jurors, ten were white. This gave people no hope but
still wanted justice since theyhave video evidence. In fact, “this slice of video vérité
ultimatelyservedto acquit the officers, sparkingthe 1992 L.A.” riots (Rabinowitz, P 2015).
The ruling for the officerswere not favoredby the pubic in South Central Los Angeles. This
caused immediate outrage and it turned very violent very quickly. Rioters startedat the scene
of the incident at hand and blockedthe freeways with protesting. While doingso they started
to fight other motorist onthe freeway. Within the city stores were viciouslywreckedand
fires were started. These violent evens became bad to the point that the National Guard and
Military had to get involved to enforce safety. The riots didnot do good for southcentral
because innocent people were killedand injured.
To fast forward into time, mid 2014 was a start of somethingvicious. There was an
unarmed African American teenager walking in a suburb of Ferguson MO. No one knows
the truthabout what had happened next but we do know there was a man named Michael
Brown lying face down in a pool of his own blood. From the beginning there was something
suspicious about the situationat hand that sparked outrage in Ferguson. Again I’m not saying
that Michael was completelyinnocent inan event leading up to the shooting. I say this

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because he was caught oncamera stealingcigarettes andalso ran away from the police
Officer Wilson (some witnesses say). But does that mean that you have to die over a petty
crime?No. There were witnesses that statedBrown was not moving toward or charging
Officer Wilsonwhen the fatal shots were given out. This incident just adds to the stigmaof
police brutalityand deaths of unarmed black males. Plus, it startedthe first wave of the
vicious violent riots.
The grand jury decisiondidnot help in stopping the riots but simply adding more fuel
to the fire. This grand jury in comparisonwith Rodney King actually had three African
Americans. Giving hope to the people in receivingjustice. The decisioncame to not indict
Officer Wilson onfive charges in the shootingof Brown. That’s when the secondwave of
riots startedto occur. There were numerus reports of fires, objects beingthrown on officers,
looting, and business being vandalized. It became so bad for the citythat the Governor had to
declare a state of emergencyand depend onthe National Guard to protect the city. Having
the National Guard in Ferguson and also adding a curfewonly made matters worse insteadof
improving. Even though the riots did have a bad turn out and some feel justice is not served
there was positivityshed onthe black community. There was already a movement being
done calledBlack Lives Matter from a previous incident with Treyvon Martin. Browns case
added to the movement and gave African Americans more fuel to become one and equal not
just to cops but people with “white privilege”. There was a special movement on social
media for Brown with the hashtag #HandsUpDontShoot.
There has been a rift betweenwhites and blacks since the time of slavery. African
Americans have never been equal to whites even in today’s time. The term of “white

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privilege” has been around since 20th century. Blacks have always been a stepbehind. There
is a reasonwhy whites have had more progressionafter slaveryto be one ahead of the blacks.
“White average families have had parents or grandparents who … were able to procure a
little house maybe with an FHA or a VA loan … that were off-limitsto people of color”
(Wise, T 2008). In doing this there were a large amounts of money in equity and assists to
whites. It was also shown that these loans were given out to families that lived below poverty
level, giving them a chance to become middle class. There was nothing like this done for
African Americans but they are highly frowned upon now for receivinghousing assistance
from the Government. Section8 and HUD are the most popular reducedhousing vouchers,
that have beenreceivedgreatly by minorities.
With minoritiesreceivingthe most help from the Government like sectionaidor food
stamps there has been a whirlwind of bias and stereotypes created. Bias and stereotypes are
mostlycreatedby people who are racist and judges a whole race on a certainincident with
one personfrom that race. This can be very difficult and frustratingto minoritiesbecause
everyone wants to live the American dream but it will always be a challenge. Being a racist
is a learnedbehavior and a mindset because it is taught as a value or a way of life. So if a
police officer comesfrom afamilyof white privilege (because theyare predominantlywhite)
and carries certain racial stereotypes thenit would be commonfor them to target certain
races while there onthe job. The two top race that are targetedare African Americans and
Latinos. When in fact “white males are four and a half times more likelyto actuallyhave
drugs” (Wise, T 2008) onthem while driving. With a slim chance of them being stopped in

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the first place but with profilingtheir car would not be searched because it is assumed that
they are followingthe law.
Tim Wise (an author) had conductedhis own little experience/curiosityconductinga
training workshop with a police department. He would ask series of questionjust to see
where the mindset of the officer is in. One questionthat shows that some/mostpoliceofficers
have bias or racial issues;“what’s the first thing you think when you see a young black or
latino male driving a nice car in your neighborhoodand they all, without fail, and without
exceptionwill say drug dealer” (Wise, T 2008). These types of statement canreallyget your
mind accept that there may never be equality even in today’s generation. To compare he goes
on and asks questions about the same scenario with a white male. “What's the first thing you
think when you see a young white male, same age, driving the same kind of car, in that same
community, and theywill say without exception, without hesitation, without fail, spoiled
little richkid, daddy probably bought him a car” (Wise, T 2008). Insteadof me just rambling
on about how blacks are less than whites I gave a perfect example of the mindset of police
officers onrace. Police officers are swornto protect andserve but it seems theymay be only
willing to serve their own kind. It was not statedthat there were any African American police
officers who thought the same way. Since it was not mentionedit’s safe to say there were
none if any in this particular police department.
Our last incident of discussionis generallythe same as thee other two but with a
different stem of the police. Onnew year’s 2009 there were agroup of people taking the Bart
home from a party. Bart is a form of transportationsimilar to the subway in the Bay Area. On
Bart there was an incident between two groups that couldhave turned physical. The Bart

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officers of course went to checkout the situationto see if theycan calm every down and
diffuse the situation. But they done it in an aggressive manner since arriving onto the
platform. They were yellingloudly and hitting the trainwith their batons. From the
beginning cameraphones were recordingthe incident since the Bart train stopped at
Fruitvale station. Further in the incident African American males were being taken down by
the officers andbeing forcedface down into handcuffs. At first a man named Oscar Grant
and his fellowfriends were not cooperatingwith the Bart police and that made them even
more agitated and aggressive. Oscar and his friends were yelling bad at the officers since
they feel theywere innocent and that the officers were too roughwith them. To sum up the
situationOscar friends startedto slowlycooperate. Since Oscar seemedlesscorporative, one
of the two officers triedto get him down by getting on time of him forcinghis knee into his
bad. With a small struggle the officer Mehserle reachedfrom his gun and shot him in the
back, facing the ground, with his hands behind him. The other officerdidnot use his firearm.
It was reportedthat the Bart officerintendedongrabbing is taser insteadof his gun. And that
statement itself casedalot of eyebrows to raise since the shootingwas caught on cameraand
seemedintentional.
This trial was strategicallyplanned out. First the case was brought to be moved into a
whole different countywhere the culture of the people is different. Acase that happened in
Oakland (Alameda County) was move to Orange County. Alameda County of the Bay Area
is a very liberal countywith such places other than Oakland that include Emeryville and
Berkley. Orange county on the other had can be seenas very high class and conservative.
Not the mentionit is a predominantlycomposedof White Americans that are republicans;

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they don’t take too kindly to other races and their hardships. To make matters even more
unfair just like Rodney King there were no African American on the jury. During the end of
the trial the judge had “dismissedthe first degree murder charge before closing arguments
were read” (Norris, K 2012). But referringbackto the video footage it’s not hard to tell that
Mehserle is guiltyof a crime because even though Oscar was resistinghe was not physical
hitting the officer or chargingthe officer. The stance of taser and gun confusionis
outrageous. The jury came to the decisionthat officer Mehserlewas guilty oninvoluntary
manslaughter for the shootingof Oscar Grant and that the other participants involved did
receive a small amount of money for their distress. This verdict shows that there can be some
justice given to the family’s wither or not the verdict desiredwas not given. Many people of
Oakland and all surroundingareas did protest and caused a mini riot over the minimal
punishment given. many had held signs with the worlds, Justice for Oscar Grant.
Police brutalityand a guilty justice system not a new thing in the black communities
all around the US. Some may say that if the case was handled in Alameda County and had
even at least one African American juror that the case would have had a harsher punishment
for the officer. After the hatredfor the Bart police and protesters andrioters calmeddowna
positive turn had accord. There were many artists that had come together inOakland to
create a mural for Oscar Grant and his family. One artist alone “painted the face of Grant
with vibrant colors …ona14th st storefront … readingRest in Power Oscar Grant and All
Power to the People”(Ferrer, Christine Joy 2009). It was great to see that at the time the
people were comingtogether ina positive way in Oakland and around. Because it can be
very easy to continue to protest, riot, and retaliate. Another great thing that was done was a

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foundationwas createdinGrants name. The “Oscar Grant Foundation” is a resource for
youths that are at riskand want to make a change in themselves by turning their life into a
positive one. They offer helpwith teenpregnancy, crime betweenteens, helpingthem stay in
school, and most importantlyreduce police use of excessive force. This foundation does that
donations.
Over time people due tend to get over situations that happened to the communityonce
the hype is over. Slowly the community“memorialize Grant, not as much ... because most
know that his tragedy will be replacedmany times over” (Norris, K 2012). Grants life and
experience became known not only in Californiabut the World. There was a movie made for
the life of Grant in 2013 titled“Fruitvale Station”. The movie is independent and won
numerous awards and is currently onYouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and Redbox’s. The movie
is a portrayal of the last day of his life leading up the shooting, during the Bart incident, and
the outcomes afterthe fact. It is trulyamazing.
In my researchIhave examined three incidents that deal with the police and African
Americans. After these incidents occurredthere was outrage by the public creatinga riot and
adding to current movements that support blacks. I did this to show that yes the public had
moment of outrage but there canbe a positive outcome after the fact. And yes I do know that
every case of police brutalitydoes not have a riot or protest to showanger in their
community.
In the Rodney king incident there was a very powerful and vicious riot that lastedfor
some time. There were protesters that went from blockingthe freeway and being physical to
people in their vehicles. To the streetswere there were numerous fires, vandalism, and harm

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being done to other cops. I guess you can say the minoritiesinLA were highly upset at the
incident, trial, and verdict. There were little to none positive outcomes. Ibelieve the other
thing that changed were just a few police policies but there was nothing positive and
commendable that came from the community. Michael brown similar to King had a very
publicized situationand vicious riots that lastedsome time. There was anger slippingfrom
the communityin Ferguson since the secondthe shootinghappened. The case seemedvery
shady from the beginning. The riots became so bad during and after the trial that there was
extrasecuritybeing calledto the cityto help make it safe. One positive that came from this
incident was the movements that were added to and created. It made the Black Lives Matter
more known in the news and another createdjust for Brownwas Hands Up Don’t Shot. The
last battle with the police and blacks was the incident with Oscar Grant. Out of the three this
incident had the most positive turnout and I’m so proud because the positivitycame out of
Oakland. At first there was hell to pay from the Bart Police to the people of Oakland. This
was because it was trial and investigationwas shady and strategizedjust like the others. But
after the trail people were still anger of the verdict but they made their creativityfight for
them. There were numerous murals and foundations that were createdand even a movie.
This is very big for the cityof Oakland because the cityis highly stereotyped.
Concluding my research, I feel police officersandbart police needto be retrainedon
a few things. First theyshould take sensitivityclasses so there first thought to mindin a
tough situation to not shoot to kill. Another training should be on breaking the cycle of
racism and bias. Because it unbelievable that the police are very stereotypical andthat’s the
reasonwhy certainraces are target more inpoor areas or if they lookout of place in a rich

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area. Lastly gun and taser training because there was confusiononwhich is which in the
Oscar Grant case. Another couldbe to promote usingthe taster more to stoppolice shootings
and ending lives prematurely. African Americans needto learnto feel safe and protectedby
police and not feel hunted. Programs needto be put in place so that blacks and police officers
can have a better relationshipand can help each other out.

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