Police And Racial Brutality as An Insistent Problem in Our Present

Police And Racial Brutality as An Insistent Problem in Our Present

Using racial profiling by police is not a new practice in the United States of America. It was common practice for the police to use force to punish and re-capture freed Blacks who had escaped even during the era of slavery. Police brutality, on the other hand, is difficult to quantify because there is no widely accepted definition or reliable data. An essential new debate has developed in response to films depicting police brutality. This debate is focused on what constitutes violence, how it is linked to white supremacy, and what it means for black people in the United States of America today. Excessive use of force is unquestionably what is meant by brutality. Many more people have pointed out that cruelty goes much beyond physical hostility. Physical, emotional, and sexual aggressiveness are all included in this category, and threats and intimidation. It is not just inaccurate, but it is also committed in ill faith with the goal of dehumanizing and humiliating its target. Therefore, trying to convey the entire extent of the disproportionately high death toll from police violence on African-Americans in the context of medical news is nearly tricky as the health effects include psychological trauma, slow productivity, and permanent disabilities.

Psychological Trauma

The psychological and physiological effects of police aggressiveness harm both individuals and societies. When black communities are subjected to a long history of arbitrary searches and fatalities that go unpunished, the message is sent that their bodies are police property and disposable. Representing family members whose reputation has been tarnished by police misconduct can be draining and cause additional distress. More and more young people feel anxious because they have witnessed or heard about police violence, had friends who were victims, or are afraid of being a victim themselves because of their conduct (Nietzsche and Hollingdale 192). Even though these emotions are appropriate, they can be harmful to the individual's mental health and increase discomfort in the general public. During peril, bodies produce hormones and other signals that activate their natural defense mechanisms; in response to these alterations, the heart rate, and respiration rate rise. Because of the high level of allostatic stress that comes with dealing with a long-term and persistent threat like police brutality, simply surviving becomes dangerous. Allostatic focus is related to a higher risk of organ and system damage and illnesses in humans. African-Americans are more prone than other races to suffer from these conditions.

Non-Black friends, coworkers, and random passers-by routinely ask Black individuals to explain the connection between the recent police shooting and structural racism, which they do not understand. When dealing with the death of a loved one, taking this technique can be highly stressful for the family. One example of a racist public reaction that might be distressing is a general argument about whether or not the deceased individual was guilty or innocent of their actions. Another challenge is determining whether or not White supremacy played a role in the events. Protests that call for structural reform or accountability have been scrutinized by white institutions such as law enforcement, the media, and other media sources.

In response to the assumption of the status quo in business, the examination of Black people's reactions to police brutality and the justification of police deaths has revealed that racial tension is associated with poor health, both directly and indirectly. Additionally, stress can be exacerbated by society's general inaction in reaction to instances of police misconduct. An African-American man is killed by a police officer every morning, and African-American women, men, and children are expected to be fully unconscious of this fact, according to the official narrative. Like any other television show, this one can be disturbing and have long-term consequences for a person's mental health. Black people who feel undervalued may find it difficult to show up for work, even if the rest of the world continues to operate as usual.

The death of Freddie Gray, who was shot by police, garnered international attention. The number of persons murdered or injured due to police aggressiveness is frequently correlated with the level of police violence and public health. Typically, young black men are nine times more likely than any other American residents to be slain by police officers than any other group of Americans (Nietzsche and Hollingdale 165). It is not uncommon for people the police have abused to die slowly over several years. Dondi Johnson was arrested and hauled away in a police van in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2005 after she was caught urinating in the street. Mr. Johnson appeared to be in good health when he got into the police car, but his injuries left him incapacitated, and he died due to his injuries. According to some estimates, Blacks are five times more likely than Whites to be hurt by police officers than they are injured by non-violent ways (Nietzsche and Hollingdale 125). It is astonishing how little attention is paid to nonlethal forms of police brutality that cause harm or impede the lives of civilians.

Slow Productivity in African American Towns

Police violence has a significant economic and productivity impact on victims and the greater community. Survivors of police brutality may have to cope with health problems that have developed due to the officers' use of excessive force after they are freed from prison. One's ability to be productive and one's ability to earn riches are both hampered by a physical limitation. The police violence hurts the economic output of African-American neighborhoods because of the time spent grieving, planning funerals, and organizing protests. A lack of access to good food, exposure to environmental dangers, and lousy housing all hurt the health of Black people. Black communities in the United States are already suffering to meet their most basic needs due to police violence, and this is only going to become worse.

Excessive force victims may be members of groups who are more prone to suffer unfavorable health effects. Bois' findings may help academics provide the information needed to support this claim (Bois 57). People of African-American descent who live in communities with a high concentration of police officers are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and other health problems, even if they have never had a negative experience with the police. Working with law enforcement, it is possible to extract helpful data sets from current incident reports and summaries (Bois 74). To achieve health equity, people cannot use racially coded measures of socioeconomic inequality and health variables as they already do. The curriculum in the field of psychology places a high value on social justice and equity. There is no doubt that racism has a negative influence on public health. It is possible to look into the role of poverty, health literacy gaps, pollution, and racial disparities in health care access. Racism and White supremacy can be blamed for the gap in health outcomes between races.

Society should examine whether our work is genuinely and shamelessly antiracist. Racial prejudice education needs to be integrated into the curricula and taught outside of the classroom to be effective in our educational institutions. Faculty and practitioners must develop critical self-awareness to become conversant with antiracist praxis terminology and concepts, such as racism and White supremacy. Moreover, we must ensure that our healthcare institutions, organizations, and health departments are explicitly committed to serving underrepresented populations and communities. However, some of the most significant research findings have come from persons who have experienced hardships in their lives. Taking into account racism and its consequences on African-Americans is essential for attempts to decrease racial disparities in health outcomes to be successful. To better understand health disparities among a wide range of oppressed groups, including Native Americans and Latinos, who are disproportionately the victims of police brutality, we recommend that the methodologies and plan we have provided be implemented. We must continue to gather information, particularly for historically oppressed people, to remove the mechanisms that lead to the disproportionate death and morbidity plaguing our society.

Permanent Disabilities

Most people in public health circles are now aware that many deaths, illnesses, and diseases could be averted if people took the proper precautions. It is possible and desirable to avoid police personnel inflicting violence. It is the responsibility of public health specialists to investigate the relationship between police brutality and health inequalities and make recommendations for improvement. There is a significant lack of data available to determine the health consequences of police violence. To ensure fair policing practices, just and equitable administration of justice, and good public health, it is critical to invest in active and passive surveillance of police use of force. According to Bois, national surveys on health and stress should include critical priorities for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation (167). Countless instances in which the police have stopped a person can be utilized to identify many of the daily pressures that emerge from racist discrimination. If funders want to encourage qualitative research into the lived experiences of persons who the police have wounded, they must first understand the problem of police brutality. Police brutality can be understood better through interviews, case studies, and ethnographies. These methods can help us understand what police brutality is, how it is experienced, and how it influences people's daily lives. A regular encounter with law enforcement personnel, according to Bois, has resulted in Blacks' distrust of law enforcement officials (171). More qualitative research should be conducted on the subject to better understand how police violence affects the health of Black people.

Race-based police brutality has had far-reaching effects on the lives of those who have been victims of it. Black lives have been and continue to be undervalued by society, and this acts as a continual reminder. African-Americans may feel more helpless due to excessive force used by law enforcement and a lack of accountability for criminals, which could hurt the civil rights movement. For many police brutality victims, the only way to get justice is to raise public awareness of their plight. Black people appear to have little choice but to make public recordings and images of their loved ones' death moments to achieve this. Law enforcement distrust and a strained relationship with Black communities might come from this circumstance because of the seeming lack of justice. There are numerous ways in which police brutality impacts the well-being of the Black community, including education, health care, housing, and employment opportunities. Even though some children receive a high-quality education and others do not, black folks may be harassed and even killed by law enforcement officers. Among the services that may be affected are those that protect against violent crime and respond quickly to natural disasters and calamities. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a contradiction in this case either. Police brutality can be viewed in two ways: either as a result of individual officer wrongdoing or as part of a more extensive system designed to sustain White supremacy and other forms of privilege. As a result of police violence, Black Lives Matter and Blacktivist groups have sprung up, fighting for African-Americans to live freely in their communities and be treated with dignity. Numerous people in African-American communities feel helpless despite initiatives like this one.

The medical news industry finds it nearly impossible to explain the full scope of the disproportionately high death toll from police violence on African-Americans because the health consequences include psychological stress, decreased productivity, and life-long disability. Law enforcement agencies may be operating under a system of white supremacy, which is defined as a systematic preference for whiteness and a systematic devaluation of blackness. Persons of color's health results are significantly lower than those of people of other races due to white supremacy and institutional racism. According to public opinion, the public health community has not paid enough attention to the issue of police brutality as a social determinant of health and mortality. Only a few empirical studies have found a link between police violence and worthless life among communities disproportionately subjected to it. To combat racism in the United States, similar initiatives like Black Lives Matter are essential. It may be worthwhile to examine how these current movements affect their well-being and empowerment in Black communities. In addition to academic study, people should engage in activism and policymaking that addresses oppression in all its manifestations, especially targeting women and girls. To better understand police violence, psychologists and health care workers should perform the additional study, particularly if their institutions' regulations mandate them to identify patients who are suspected of criminal activity or abuse. 

Works Cited

Bois, William E. The Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Essential Early Essays. 2015.

---. Marxism and the Negro Problem. Drafts (documents),

Nietzsche, Friedrich W., and R. J. Hollingdale. On the Genealogy of Morals. Vintage, 1989.

Wintz, Cary D. African American Political Thought, 1890-1930: Washington, Du Bois, Garvey and Randolph. Routledge, 2015.