Today in class, we learned about the Rodney King Riots, also known as the LA Race Riots. These riots, which were started after the police beating of Rodney King, lasted about three days, and were only ended when the California National Guard and the United States military came in to stop the rioting.
While there have not been any equivalent riots since then, there are still many protests about police brutality against minorities today, and people are still beaten unfairly by police. Do you think relations between police and minorities have gotten better over the past 25 years, have they stayed the same, or are they getting worse? I think that they're slowly getting better, but what do you think?
I believe that relations between police and minorities have gotten slightly better, but not to a very significant extent. Police are still treating minorities as if they are lesser people and not proper citizens. For instance, a white and armed police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in 2014 (not too long ago). The jury's decision to not indict Officer Wilson of being connected to Michael Brown's death enraged the community and set off many riots.
ReplyDeleteI think that the relations have gotten better over the past 25 years. In general the United States has gone through a transition period in which we are trying to be more accepting and less discriminatory. However it may seem that things have gotten worse because we choose to remember individual cases that may be slightly blown out of proportion by the media rather than the overall treatment.
ReplyDeleteConsidering where it started, it has gotten better. However, there is more exposure to it now so people are more aware of it. But since it was so bad originally it is not really enough to say it has gotten better. The main problem with it is it shows a societal racism. It's not just a couple of people but a lot of them. Most of these are under-the-surface and don't come out in everyday life. However, when police officers become scared one can see that racism played a part.
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