I am going to be writing my research paper on how the recent controversial police shootings and brutality of  African Americans has led to law enforcement losing their legitimacy. Personally I believe police officers are some of the bravest men and women in the United States and deserve every citizen's full support and respect. Yet, the recent shootings of African Americans has led to law enforcement losing legitimacy and respect. I feel strongly that the mainstream media, lack of respect for authority, and political correctness divide the country causing unrest and hatred between the citizens and law enforcement. 

This is interesting to me because my dad has been with the military and law enforcement for over 25 years, so I have been surrounded by it all my life. In the last year my family and I always seem to talk about this problem every time we sat down for dinner. Since I personally know many people in law enforcement, I know how these good people have to put their lives on the line everyday for a country that does not stand 100% behind them.

My first source is an article written by Robert Seraphim an author for the American Nationalist Party titled: "How the Mainstream Media Fuels Racism to Provoke Race War".  It informs the reader how the mainstream media controls everything we hear, see, and read, to create opposing factions. The media repetitively does this by showing one faction extremist from the opposing faction causing the other to generalize the entire opposing faction with the extremist. 

The article shows how the media failed at creating a "white versus black" race war after the 2012 shooting of an unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin because it was later revealed the shooter was Hispanic. The media moved so quickly many reporting mistakes were made, NBC was even caught editing police evidence for new broadcast. The article then describes the race war created by the media after a white police officer in the southern state of Missouri shot an unarmed black man in 2014. MSNBC tried to generalize white Americans by broadcasting an interview with the "grand wizard" of the Klu Klux Klan who threatened to use lethal force on Ferguson protestors. At the same time Fox News is generalizing the black community by showing a New Black Panther member calling for violence in Ferguson. 

This author is reliable because he is pointing out the divisions of the people and how the divisions is created. Seraphim informs the reader of the bigger problem many fail to see and gives supporting evidence from both sides. This author is not looking to divide the people more than they already are but instead he is looking to unite everyone

My second source is from of The Journal of Pan African Studies written by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson called, "Armed and Dangerous? An Examination of Fatal Shootings of Unarmed Black People by Police". This is an opposing view point that has three fundamental goals: to examine how the killing of blacks by police is due to White Supremacy, that non-indictments of police suggest that black lives do not matter, and the shooting of unarmed blacks escalates the mistrust of police in the community.

I will show that many of the facts given mislead the reader which causes people to jump into conclusions. At first read the paper may sound good, but when picked apart and analyzed it is filled with hatred and biased opinions towards police officers. The writers of this, along with many others say they want an end to racism and violence towards blacks; but all this did was create more of a division and fueled more hatred. 

Both authors of this source are credible because each is an Associate Professor at an accredited university and each has obviously done their fair share of research on the topic. On the other hand, each author is too biased on the subject. Each seem to think that the real issue between the black community and law enforcement is due to racism and the lack of  affection for black lives, but in reality the problem is themselves.

The third source being used is an article written at the end of May in 2015 by Kimberly Kindy for The Washington Post called, "Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 Approaching 400 Nationwide". The article is more purely for the statistics and facts of fatal police shootings including all races, ages, and sex. It informs us that there have been 385 fatal police shootings in 2015 and shows the victims characteristics in graphs through the article. 

I plan on using tons of statistics from this article, including that the majority of the victims killed by police were armed while only 1 in 6 was either carrying a toy gun or unarmed when killed. Also I will show that out of 385 fatal police shootings, 171 were white, 100 were black, 54 were hispanic, and 40 were asian or other. Which disproves the credibility of my second opposing source that claimed as of April 15, 2015 two hundred and fifty five African Americans had been killed by agents of law in the United States.

This author is creditable because Kindy is a senior national investigative reporter at The Washington Post. She may have a small amount of bias towards the subject just like anyone else, but this article is meant to give straight forward facts on fatal police shootings in 2015. 

The research question is arguable because I am going against a topic many people feel very strongly about. Any time race is involved people get offended and emotional towards the subject which causes conflict. In my essay I am putting some of the blame on the African American community for their behavior towards law enforcement, which would probably upset a lot of people. I believe that for there to be change people first need to realize their mistakes, yes nearly 400 fatal police shootings in only 5 months is obviously a problem. But the problem really is not with law enforcement or the way they do their job. I think that we as a society need to realize this is not due to racism, police brutality, or bad cops. This is a problem with our behavior, attitude, and lack of respect towards not only police officers, but authority in general. At first I did not think there was nearly 1,000 reported fatal police shootings in 2015, but that fact just supports my claim that the problem is the behavior in our society, not with law enforcement. I am thinking about revising my research question by changing political correctness as a cause for police losing their legitimacy because I only can write my own biased opinion. Also, I may revise my research essay to argue that the recent shootings of unarmed African Americans is not a consequence of White Supremacy or racism, but due to the lack of respect for authority, the mainstream media, and the crimes committed in the African American community. 

