Talk:Police brutality in the United States/Archive 1

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Archive 1

outdated

Latest comment: 10 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

A decision by the House and the Senate in Hawaii is expected in May 2014

has this come to pass or has it been delayed? the date today is Aug 15, 2014

Wakoyantake (talk) 02:47, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

Civil Rights era -- unclear sentence

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This sentence is unclear: "The conflict between the Black Panther Party and various police departments often resulted in violence with the deaths of 34 members of the Black Panther Party and 15 police officers." Maurreen (talk) 03:43, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Hawaii

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This paragraph doesn't seem to fit, especially in its current section (Post 9/11), or under brutality in general: "A decision by the House and the Senate in Hawaii is expected in May 2014 after police agreed in March 2014 not to oppose the revision of a law that was implemented in the 1970s, allowing undercover police officers to engage in sexual relations with sex workers during the course of investigations. Following initial protest from supporters of the legislation, all objections were retracted on March 25, 2014. A Honolulu police spokeswoman informed Time magazine that, at the time of the court's decision, no reports had been made in regard to the abuse of the exemption by police, while a Hawaiian senator stated to journalists: “I suppose that in retrospect the police probably feel somewhat embarrassed about this whole situation." However, the Pacifica Alliance to Stop Slavery and other advocates affirmed their knowledge of police brutality in this area and explained that the fear of retribution is the main deterrent for sex workers who seek to report offending officers. At a Hawaiian Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, also in March 2014, an attorney testified that his client was raped three times by Hawaiian police before prostitution was cited as the reason for her subsequent arrest." Maurreen (talk) 04:32, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

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Separation of Factors

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

I noticed that there's mention of studies demonstrating the positive relationship between known police brutality and one's inclusion in either a minority or a lower class. From a statistical standpoint, this is somewhat troublesome since these two factors can coincide and conflate one another. Depending on the ratios, high rates for low income might conflate rates for minorities or vice versa, creating an apparent connection that's actually simply a result of additional relationships. Thus, I was wondering if there are studies that can be used that attempt to separate the factors, statistically adjusting to determine how high the probabilities are based on socioeconomic status after accounting for minorities, and how high the probabilities are for minorities after accounting for class. I was not able to view the entire article that describes the connection between brutality, minority and status, so I do not know if this is mentioned; if it is, that too would be appreciated. Again, there are complex relationships between one being part of a minority and one having a low socioeconomic status, which can skew the actual relationship of each to the third factor of police brutality.

Also, are there any statistics on rates of brutality over time? Has it been going down or up and how fast? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.197.193.213 (talk) 21:52, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

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Anti-War Demonstrations/War on Drugs

Latest comment: 7 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

I feel as if these two sections are underdeveloped (perhaps due to lack of information at hand). While that's understandable, I feel like the sections are too underdeveloped to be on their own in the article. Cmdoolittle (talk) 19:33, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

PolSci 490 Peer Review

Latest comment: 7 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Overall, I found the information to add to the article significantly. However, I would tighten up the wording and I would watch out for bias-sounding language that sounds anti-police brutality. Stating facts about the movement is what this article is about. If you're not careful, you can sound a bit like you're advocating for the movement. Which is totally cool except for not on Wikipedia. :D Nice job overall. SecretKeeper (talk) 09:06, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

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Cultural factors unique to the United States

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This whole section is a pure lie pushing A POLITICAL VIEWPOINT, state abuse has nothing to do with a specific race. Cops target the poor cause you know they can afford lawyers. We all know countries in Africa don't have police brutality at all71.9.22.109 (talk) 18:24, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Re-ordering the sections

Latest comment: 4 years ago3 comments1 person in discussion

I would like to suggest that we reorder the sections in this article.

That the Civil Rights Movement era, Anti-war demonstrations, War on drugs, Post 9/11, and the Incidents ^[1] be combined into a History section as sub-sections.^Done!
That the Causes and Solutions sections be move somewere after Incidents. We are talking about how to stop something that the article has not described yet.^Done!

Any comments? Darth Flappy ^«Talk» 16:31, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Ok, I grouped all of the History sections together. Still no comments? Darth Flappy ^«Talk» 14:14, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

I moved it (Causes and Solutions) to after Investigation Darth Flappy ^«Talk» 16:07, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

References

^ which should be renamed to something like Recent incidents

Proposal to change article title to "Police violence ..."

Latest comment: 4 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion

I am proposing that the article name be changed to "Police violence in the United States," as "violence" is a less emotive term that still accurately conveys the subject matter. "Brutality" is a highly emotive word that is specific to very intense violence or "savagery," and there are examples that do not fit into this category.--Soulparadox (talk) 11:05, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Oppose because the common name is "police brutality". Additionally, "police violence" does not seem significantly less emotive. Brycehughes (talk) 15:22, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Oppose as the topic is ‘excessive’ violence, not just violence, so brutality is a more accurate term. Although ‘excessive’ is itself an accusation, the bias and emotionalism is a natural result baked into the ‘excessive’ part. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 16:22, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Clarify/Cite

Latest comment: 4 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

"In the past, those who engaged in police brutality may have acted with the implicit approval of the local legal system, e.g. during the Civil Rights Movement era. In the modern era, individuals who engage in police brutality may do so with the tacit approval of their superiors or they may be rogue officers. In either case, they may perpetrate their actions under color of law and, more often than not, engage in a subsequent cover-up of their illegal activity."

Do you have any citations that backs up this claim? Although, this is a valid point. I believe that this point could be made stronger if you provide factual evidence about the true intentions of these police officers both during the civil rights era and today.

Additionally, under the Civil Rights Section you spoke about how political groups and leaders spoke out and make comments about police brutality through their speeches. Adding some examples of what these groups/people have said could strengthen the effect of the article.

Zlittle95 (talk) 00:05, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

"In either case, they may perpetrate their actions under color of law and, more often than not, engage in a subsequent cover-up of their illegal activity."

To claim that illegal coverups occur "more often than not" is a very significant claim and demands citation.

User:Zlittle95 The first one seems historical revisionism, something then lawful is not fitting the article topic of ‘excessive’ or illegal. In a different era or area, the norms and law were different. Anything which was lawful and done by orders and training at the time is not then or ever illegal or excess. What it was remains what it was, and historical brutality exceeding lawful and called illegal at the time they occurred should be described, bit that’s all. That things done 60 years ago would now be illegal or that things illegal 60 years ago now are allowed is just part of times change and are not the topic. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 16:49, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Police and Media Bias

Latest comment: 4 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I've been wondering, are there any articles or studies concerning the relative frequency of police using force, and the relative level of force used, relative to race, or for that matter the media bias concerning police brutality relative to race? I am not saying that police brutality does not occur or that there isn't sometimes a racial bias. However, I know that not every alleged victim of brutality is a member of a minority, but I hear little to nothing about those, while any time someone claims a minority has been victimized by the police, it's headline news for weeks; the extreme difference in visibility must at the least severely exaggerate any bias that may occur, but I've never heard of any studies examining the degree of this distortion, or the actual relative frequency of police violence. Following the recent increases in unrest, it seems more important than ever to get a clear look at what is or isn't really happening. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.32.145.62 (talk) 21:47, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

IP - yes, instances of brutality occur and the United States has noted more the Racial items. Generically, there is the us-them cognitive bias effect (psychology experiments of prisoner and guard roles), and the power curve (not bell curve) of a few police individuals are going to be the most brutal ones and they’re brutal with anyone. Brutal is by definition infrequent, but quantifying that seems rare.

I did see a study Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings saying race of the officer doesn’t matter. But that’s open to controversial in the current climate - a lifezette op-Ed Why institutional racism is a myth got reported as Student journalist fired for calling institutional racism a ‘myth’ speaks out: ‘I stand by my analysis’ Cheers Markbassett (talk) 17:07, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Useful references

Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Hi all

I'm working on an article for police unions in the US and found some references which might be useful for this article as well.

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 14:31, 2 August 2020 (UTC)

study: More Than Half of Police Killings Are Mislabeled

Latest comment: 3 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Imho, it should be mentioned somewhere in the lemma. --Präziser (talk) 03:30, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

Possible Improvements

Latest comment: 3 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion

I think the article needs some up-to-date information. Specifically on the section of Recent Incidents. The article mentions the deaths of various black men in the hands of police officers but lacks the inclusion of victims that are women. So, I would like to include Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland in this article. Additionally, the article talks about some specific data, but doesn’t have a citation for it. I would like to expand on these details (i.e. “ According to a 2015 and 2016 project by The Guardian, more white people are killed by police in raw numbers than black people are, but after adjusting this finding based on the fact that the black population is smaller than the white population, twice as many black people are killed by police per capita than white people are.”) This includes important data, but it doesn’t cite the source that states this. Not having a citation makes the article seem untrustworthy. Zen916 (talk) 15:08, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

The line from the guardian saying that more whites are killed but more blacks are killed per capita does have a citation. Additionally I don't think there needs to be too much detail on specific cases since that's not what the article is about. There can be a brief mention of Taylor and Bland and a wikilink to the main articles for more information. LutonDi (talk) 09:51, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

It must have been added, because the citation wasn't there before. Either way, that has been outdated and research has proven that the number increased to 3. Also, the addition of Taylor would be very minimal, but it will be there. Ultimately the goal I wanted to achieve was to include her name or the hashtag #SayHerName, since it was revolved around police brutality victims. I think a wikilink will get the job done. Thanks for your input! Zen916 (talk) 21:17, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Peer Review

Latest comment: 3 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The article does a fantastic job at educating viewers on a quickly changing and currently important topic of police brutality in the US. I was very impressed by the content and detail put into this article. It summarized the history of police brutality in America and discusses the social effects it has had on US citizens. The lead did a quality job at educating the reader about the topic and summarizing the information and details to follow. My only major suggestion was to increase the neutrality of the article by creating a section which focuses on the affects police brutality has had on the populations viewpoint of police and figures of authority. Also, the addition of a few more links to current and relevant articles relating to BLM and social injustice. The most important thing the author can do to improve this article is to continue to use scholarly sources to bring awareness to continually rising new events pertaining to police brutality. All while using relevant and neutral viewpoints to bring these events to public knowledge.WPGALLO (talk) 00:30, 4 November 2021 (UTC)