Police_Brutality_In_Modern_America.docx - Police Brutality...

Police Brutality In Modern America
A hoodie, Arizona ice tea and skittles. That was the
spark that spawn into a flustering fire. On February 26,
2012 in Sanford, Florida seventeen year old Trayvon
Martin was shot and killed. The murderer, George
Zimmerman. The verdict, not guilty. As the story got
out and emotions ran high, people all around the
country took to social media in opinions and views.
Sympathy goes out to the family of victim, questions to
the judicial system and historys dark past seeming to
reoccur. Black Lives Matter. As time carries on the
shooting of unarmed African Americans become more
frequent and not from people on the street, but from
our protection system. Police brutality and corruption
exposure has flared all over the United States. As more
unarmed shootings occur, Black Lives Matters began to
turn into more than just a hashtag. Police brutality has
influenced the Black Lives Matter movement in results
of protest, injustice and psychological trauma.
As Black Lives Matters grows as a movement, so does
the mortality rate of unarmed African Americans being
shot. According to the article This is How Many People
Police Have Killed So Far in 2016, by Celisa Calacal
published on July 5, 2016. 194 Black Americans have
been killed by police so far this year, at a rate of 4.86

deaths per million. (Calacal). Two years later according
to the Washington Post fatal force database, there have
been 857 people shot and killed by the police as of
October 1st at 5:21pm. Out of those 857 killings, 289 of
them were unarmed African Americans. Police brutality
is a rising problem in the Black Lives Matter movement,
and though there other many factors, this has become
a key subject in change. With the fatal shootings, a lot
of people apart of the movement have taken this
problems to the street.