Even before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, there were many other black and people of color that were being killed and/or not being handled properly by law enforcement. For many decades, black people have been trying to work with local police departments on diversity and shuffling low level calls onto other social service organizations that can handle the situations. With the COVID-19 crisis and the many murders that have happened in 2020, many people are tired of law enforcement not getting locked behind bars for years because of the immunity laws that police departments offer to their officers. With the topic of racial justice, there are many way that I can talk about how justice is currently served and the possible solutions going forward.
According to the ACLU of Minnesota, “black people were 8.7 times more likely to be arrested for a low-level offense than white people, and Native Americans were 8.6 times more likely to be arrested for a low-level offense than white people,” (Source: https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/picking-pieces?redirect=minneapolis) . Many black people have stories of police officers being rude to them while doing traffic stops, saying racists words. Even when the person is charged for a crime, usually, a person of higher authority will believe the officers word than the citizens.
These stories need to be told and shared because many people do not understand what it means to be black in America. Shoot, just waking up every single day is a miracle in itself. With the statistic that I’ve stated in the previous paragraph, I can share many stories of everyday black Americans who have dealt with law enforcement. Their negative experiences with police when being pulled over, arrested for a crime and being assaulted should be shared, so that a conversation should happen among community members, friends and other government officials.
My interest in this story is the simple fact that I’m becoming more aware of what’s happening in the justice system (especially in Minnesota). Also, I still do have fears of being pulled over by police and getting mistreated and anyone in the government not believing my story.
When I arrived in Minnesota last August to start my graduate program, I never been to Minnesota in my life. I’ve read some stories about the racial disparities it has with the black and indigenous communities in the state. Once I moved here, I’m seeing the strong tensions that has happened with the murder of George Floyd and the many communities in Minnesota that has a majority white population.
Additionally, I would want to write about the various statistics with racial injustice within the U.S., Minnesota and how what it would look like moving forward to the next several years.
Photo Credit: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/05/29/protests-over-killing-of-george-floyd-spread-across-the-nation