In the final part on our series on killings cause by police brutality, we compare the race related issues that occurred in each of the cases. It is well known that there is an implicit bias that police officers have against people of color while performing their job duties. It is usually disguised by police claiming that they fear for their lives, or that they are in a rough neighborhood. Therefore, they need to keep their guard up. However, the root of the problem for each of these incidents is that the officers were of a different color than their victims. It is a problem in the United States when the general public has the notion that these victims caused their own deaths by not cooperating. It should never be a requirement that a person cooperate in everyday police encounters or they lose their lives.
Racial profiling is a big reason why each of these incidents occurred. In the Amhaud Arbery case, we see a pair of vigilante citizens who attempted to take out their hate of someone by cornering and killing him. The community where Mr. Arbery was murdered claimed that there was a series of break ins (to undeveloped houses) and that is how it was justified that the actions of the vigilantes was okay. In the George Floyd case, the officers saw a black man that was bigger than them and decided he was still a threat to them, even though he was handcuffed. Even in the Breonna Taylor case, there was racial profiling guiding the decisions made by the police officers. They claimed that they saw another African American man that was seen going in and out of the house and he would frequently have packages.
The overall theme embedded in each of these situations shows that the implicit bias against people of color that the police have, can cause serious injuries and even death in what was supposed to be an everyday encounter between police and a person who broke the law. Even Use of force is altered as an excuse to show why it was necessary from going to detaining an already restrained person to taking actions that threaten a person’s life. Society will eventually look at the root cause of these issues and hopefully enact change to ensure that everyday interactions end with lives being saved rather than taken.