Qynasa+Deveaux+Annual+Project

Qynasa Deveaux’s

Annual Project

On February 4, 1999 a 22 year-old West African immigrant was shot 19 times by two police officers when he did nothing wrong. His name was Amadou Diallo and he died that day. This is why I want to know how has racial profiling affected the relationship between cops and African American communities negatively? I’ve come to believe that racial profiling has affected the relationship between cops and African American communities negatively because innocent black men and women have been murdered, black men and women don’t trust cop ( people who are supposed to protect them), and African Americans are falsely convicted and go to prison because they are black. One of the biggest effects is that innocent blacks are being killed. The case of Amadou Diallo that I wrote about above is one of the examples of this effect. Also the Los Angeles Riots is an example. On April 29, 1992 twelve jurors in Sylmar, California rendered their verdicts in a controversial case involving the 1991 beating of Rodney King by four LAPD officers. The judge said that the four cops were not guilty and that didn’t sit well with the people from Los Angeles. People in LA started rioting. Curfews, schools, and businesses were closed. Governor Pete Wilson dispatched 4,000 National Guard troops to patrol the streets. The toll from the worst civil unrest LA had experienced since 1965 was devastating: more than 50 killed, over 4 thousand injured, 12,000 people arrested, and $1 billion in property damage. Another example is the recent case of Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman shot 17 year old Trayvon Martin to his death. He was unarmed and harmless. On April 20, the judge approved Zimmerman's bail on a $150,000 bond. He was released from jail on April 23 and is required to wear an electronic monitoring device until trial. All of these are examples of the effect I stated and these are not the only cases there are many more. Another way the relationship between cops and African American communities also have been affected negatively because most black men and women don’t trust the police and they are the people they should trust the most to protect them. There was a Stop Snitching campaign to show that blacks didn’t trust cops. People wore shirts with stop snitching on it. It was a lot of celebrities also. People told the cops what they wanted and didn’t get what they were offered in return. Lots of things cause black people not to trust the police. There was a girl named Chante Wright (15) and she had witnessed the murder of Moses Williams and the shooting of Brencis Drew. At first she didn’t go to the police about what she knew but she later changed her mind to help her then boyfriend who was facing 25 years in a Federal Prison due to a drug conviction.In return, her cooperation with authorities would reduce her then boyfriend's sentence by two-thirds. After she identified the guy and went to court they decided to put her in the Witness Protection Program. She kept calling her family so they kicked her out of the program. She found out her grandmother was very ill so she decided to see her one more time. That night when she returned back to where she came from she was murdered. Another example was that a guy named Peter was beaten by a guy who was kicking off because he just split up with his girlfriend. Peter called the cops and they took a very long time to arrive. When they did arrive they failed to report the incident properly and didn't find the guy. A final way is that African Americans are falsely convicted of things because they are black. A guy named Geronimo Pratt was sentenced in 1970 for allegedly murdering a 27-year-old elementary school teacher. Pratt spent 27 years behind bars, and maintained his innocence throughout the whole time. A while after there was evidence found to prove he wasn’t guilty. Then there was Barney Brown who was a 15-year old who was convicted of rape and robbery, and sentenced to life in prison. Thirty-eight years later he was exonerated. Lastly, a guy named Raymond Towler was convicted to a life sentence for an alleged rape, kidnapping and felonious assault of two teens on September 18, 1981. Twenty-seven years later his sentence was vacated when DNA tests proved him not innocent of the alleged crimes. This is how racial profiling has affected the relationship between cops and African American communities negatively. I hate to say it but racial profiling is still happening and the relationship is getting worse.