What is Community?
A community comprises people who share common physical or spiritual characteristics that may or may not live on the same territory (Nagle, 2017).
Black Community
The black race is a community since they share many common features such as physical traits, culture, and history. Many people from Africa were brought to America and European countries as slaves (Hitchner, Schelhas, and Dwivedi, 2021). They have specific music and dance genres associated with black communities (Scott, 2019).
The Conflict
The conflict between black people and white officers has existed for a long time. Since the police are given the power to use enforcement to protect citizens and the law, there are cases when these forces become extremely violent (Holmes, Painter, and Smith, 2019).
Theory of Conflict
The tension between black people and the criminal justice system is likely present for two reasons. Firstly, parents educate their children about institutional racism, making them hyperaware of the issue (Graham et al., 2020). Secondly, the number of cases when police use firearms against unarmed individuals of color is not decreasing.
Racism
Racism is an ideology about the inferiority of people of particular skin color (Jean, 2020).
Crime
Mark Duggan was killed by the Metropolitan police while driving his truck because the intelligence forces suspected that he had a gun (P.A. Media, 2019).
Statistics
Black individuals are 3.5 times more likely to be murdered by the police (Jean, 2020). Black adolescent males have a 50% higher risk of being killed by the police than their white counterparts (Harris and Amutah-Onukagha, 2019).
Current Intervention
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a movement that organizes anti-police brutality demonstrations. BLM demonstrations are prevalent in places where unarmed black individuals are shot by the police (Williamson, Trump, and Einstein, 2018). At the same time, the BLM website asks black people to limit the use of violent forces and reduce the number of broken windows (Pratt-Harris, 2022).
Laming Report
According to Laming’s (2009) report, the U.K. 2004 Children Act introduced a statutory duty to protect minors. The criminal justice system should prevent violence against children of all races.
Professional Practice Interventions
One of the ways to resolve this conflict is to limit the use of force by the police and give more power to black communities.
Specific Recommendation
To reduce tension in the Metropolitan area, more people of color should be recruited to the police to eliminate the black communities’ and white officers’ biases.
Reference List
Graham, A. et al. (2020) ‘Race and worrying about police brutality: the hidden injuries of minority status in America’, Victims & Offenders, 15(5), pp. 549-573.
Harris, A. and Amutah-Onukagha, N. (2019) ‘Under the radar: strategies used by black mothers to prepare their sons for potential police interactions’, Journal of Black Psychology, 45(6-7), pp. 439-453.
Hitchner, S., Schelhas, J. and Dwivedi, P. (2021) ‘Safe havens: the intersection of family, religion, and community in black cultural landscapes of the southeastern United States, Landscape and Urban Planning, 214, pp. 1-8.
Holmes, M.D., Painter, M.A. and Smith, B.W. (2019) ‘Race, place, and police-caused homicide in U.S. municipalities’, Justice Quarterly, 36(5), pp. 751-786.
Jean, T. (2020) ‘Black lives matter: police brutality in the era of COVID-19’, Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, pp. 1-4.
Laming, H.B. (2009) The protection of children in England: a progress report. London: The Stationery Office.
Nagle, J. (2017) What is a community? New York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group, Incorporated.
P.A. Media (2019) ‘Mark Duggan shooting: family settle high court claim against Met’, The Guardian, Web.
Pratt-Harris, N.C. (ed.) (2022) Why the police should be trained by black people. New York, NY: Routledge.
Scott, D. (2019) ‘Oral history and emplacement in nowhere at all: the role of personal and family narratives in rural black community-building’, Social & Cultural Geography, 20(8), pp. 1094-1113.
Williamson, V., Trump, K.S. and Einstein, K.L. (2018) ‘Black lives matter: evidence that police-caused deaths predict protest activity’, Perspectives on Politics, 16(2), pp. 400-415.