Police Brutality: How Are Politicians Reacting To Police Shootings?
Recently police brutality on African Americans has frequently been reported on by news
sources and has been a controversial topic to talk about in America. All over the United States,
people have fled to the streets in protest of police shootings. Most of the demonstrations,
organized against police brutality have been by the organization known as Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter is an organization whose sole purpose is to bring to light how African
Americans are “systematically and intentionally targeted for demise” (“Herstory”). They gained
popularity after being involved in the protest against the acquittal of George Zimmerman who
killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Because of the protesters has resulted in many cases
of police shootings to be spread around online and be reported on by national news sources that
wouldn’t have been otherwise.Police shootings have become such a hot topic that now it is a
question asked of politicians, but each politician has there own ideas of what to do. Most of the
time politicians will follow what their supporters believe in just to get re-elected. The country is
divided into two major political parties which are either democrat or republican. Whichever party
the government official is apart of can determine their perception of police brutality. After the
2017 election, the majority of the government is Republican, and the lesser is the Democrats.
When it comes to police brutality, Democrats have a different mindset on police brutality
then republicans. Many Democrats want police reform to be placed. During the Democratic
National Convention, many validated the concerns of African Americans by having Mothers of
the Movement speak (Lee). Also, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee in the 2016 election,
Spoke out against police brutality in a speech saying “‘I have spoken to many police chiefs and
other law enforcement leaders who are as deeply concerned as I am and as deeply committed as I
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am to reform. Why? Because they know it is essential for the safety of our communities and our
officers,’ she said. ‘I’ve also been privileged to spend a lot of time with mothers who have lost
children, and young people who feel that, as far as their country’s concerned, their lives seem
disposable.’’ These remarks she gave were after the shootings by police officers in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina (Nelson). Hillary Clinton is not the only democratic
politician to express concerns over police brutality; Ex-President Barack Obama also expressed
his deep frustration for police brutality, he stated: “Change has been too slow, and we have to
have a greater sense of urgency about this.” During his last year as the president made a task force
that gave recommendations on reforms that could potentially lower police involvement shootings.
One task force member, Brittany Packnett stated that “We are dealing with issues t...
