The issue of police violence is rarely hushed up in American society these days. The loud discussion of such cases happened due to the influence of African American activists, who put a lot of effort into exposing unscrupulous police officers. The most high-profile cases of police violence involve the detention of African Americans and other racial minorities, which is why most studies consider police violence, coupled with the problems of migration, BLM protests and others. The problem of police violence is a significant trauma for the entire American society, regardless of race and origin, as this problem intersects with central ethical issues in the human mind.
Police violence is an act of institutional discrimination and cruelty, although citizens usually, consider the police a protective group of people. The police, among other things, are representatives of the authorities, which imposes on them additional responsibility and, at the same time, disarms people in responding to brutality. People falling into an unfair situation cannot and do not know how to fight for their rights because they understand that they are government representatives and not only civil servants. Bryant-Davis et al. (2017) state: “Ethnic minority communities that live in constant fear of police brutality result in communities coming to expect and prepare their children for acts of racially motivated injustice and denial of safety” (p. 861). The devoted ethical ideals of the value of life and justice make people adapt and nurture in the younger generation a mutual hostility. Thus, American society is getting grown teenagers and young people who have not yet had problems with the police but already hate them with all their hearts.
Usually, people cannot put up with injustice and prepare retaliatory measures of disobedience or distance from the system. Street demonstrations are a “form of collective action against perceived injustice” (Reinka & Leach, 2017, p. 778). It is the most visible manifestation of the struggle for justice, and the police are usually expected to support the victims of injustice. However, here are acts of intimidation, cruelty and violence, which can be called a unique form of victim-blaming. If a group of people were victims of unfair treatment, that is, a moral offence, then such victims do not need punishment but protection. African Americans have actively advocated for such victims in recent years. Even now, “African Americans’ neurological, affective, and emotional reactions showed an agitated and empowered response to police violence and to Black protests against it such as in Black Lives Matter marches” (Reinka & Leach, 2017, p. 783). Social injustice is sewn into the brain’s subcortex and may require vengeance and punishment for offenders. The police in this situation act as cruel offenders who refuse to fulfil their tasks of protecting citizens.
When trying to return justice, people face refusals, which legalize cruelty towards them. They understand that not only will they not achieve justice in a particular situation, but that in front of their eyes, the police officers were given official permission to use brutal methods. Having experienced such a tremendous disappointment, society tends to fall into apathy. Trust in the state has been lost; sometimes, frustrated people tend to believe in conspiracy theories or fall into total disbelief of everything that comes from official sources: press releases, news and others.
Legalized violence leads to the fact that people lose complete confidence in the institution of the police. Modern research states: “Mistrust and fear instilled as a consequence of institutionalized police brutality may prevent racially marginalized communities from seeking assistance, which can increase a sense of isolation and dehumanization” (Bryant-Davis et al., 2017, p. 856). Without trust to police, people tend to solve problems that require intervention on their own. They may pay bribes or become obedient victims of racketeering, not relying on the help of the police or fearing unfair sentencing. Not only the brutality itself discredits the police, but the impunity of the police at the same time. Many people cannot survive such disappointment on their own; therefore, they actively attract the public’s attention. The attracted people, in turn, deploy retaliatory aggression and bullying, which can concern not only the police officers but their relatives.
Police brutality traumatizes American society and nurtures a younger generation of angry people who have virtually had no problems with the police. This reprehensible attitude is born from the experience of cultural memory. Parents and relatives of these young people usually come face to face with police brutality and unfair treatment. Frustration motivated them to keep this memory and pass it on to their children through stories. The issue of police brutality is very tightly connected with the primary ethical coordinates of people. These coordinates include the security and value of life, the need for protection and care from the state, and, most importantly, the abstract and philosophical concept of justice. Justice is a reactionary concept that only rises at the sight of injustice, but it profoundly impresses every person. Seeing injustice, that is, cruelty from those whose mission is to protect, leaves a deep psychological trauma.
References
Bryant-Davis, T., Adams, T., Alejandre, A., & Gray, A. A. (2017). The trauma lens of police violence against racial and ethnic minorities. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 852–871.
Reinka, M. A., & Leach, C. W. (2017). Race and reaction: Divergent views of police violence and protest against. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 768–788.