Review the history of race relations between the police and minorities

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In 1900, W. E. B. DuBois said the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. More than 100 years later, his views are still applicable. Civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance increased in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 . Almost all of the riots in the 1960s were sparked by incidents involving the police. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established, and the 1972 Amendment to the Civil Rights Act became law, prohibiting discrimination in education, hiring and promotion, voting, and use of public accommodations. Between 1960 and 1970, police-minority encounters frequently precipitated racial outbursts, such as those in Harlem, Watts, Newark, and Detroit. Many police officers and firefighters were killed or injured, and property damage in these riots was incalculable. The 1970s busing programs that were introduced to integrate schools resulted in white backlash and more interracial conflict. Also in the 1980s, affirmative action programs led to charges of reverse discrimination and more dominant-group backlash. More recently, there has been burning and looting in Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and in other cities. The police were involved in all the social changes described. At times the police have been used to prevent minority group members from demonstrating on behalf of civil rights, and on occasion the police have had to use force against protesting groups. At other times the police have been required to protect those same protesting minorities from the wrath of the dominant group and others who opposed peaceful demonstrations. Thus, members of both groups have had an uneasy coexistence; the phrase "police-community relations," as Samuel Walker wrote, is really a euphemism for police-race relations and primarily involves African Americans. Similar problems exist, however, with other racial-minority groups – Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian-American communities have also had problems in the past with the police. To many minorities, the police are an "occupying force," more concerned with restricting their freedom than providing services to their community. From the police's point of view, minority neighborhoods have not always been supportive of their efforts to combat crime. Certainly, the more recent issue of bias-based policing – also known as "driving while black or brown" (DWBB), where a police officer, acting on a personal bias, stops a vehicle simply because the driver is of a certain race, has exacerbated police-minority relations.