There is an expanding belief amongst many in America that there is growing disunity between police and certain communities.  Specific problems in the criminal justice system's operational procedures are being brought into the spotlight with the rise of the digital era.  The use of cameras and social media has brought several instances to the light between the police and the policed in which a certain level of discrimination occurs.  The situations in which improper police practices occur tend to happen more often than not in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status across America. Though through the use of technology whether that be body cameras on officers or community intervention i.e., social media and news outlets it is made abundantly clear that some irregularities are proceeding in specific types of neighborhoods unjustifiably.  Arrest statistics made clear that racial minorities are disproportionally being represented within the criminal justice system due in part to more frequent policing in their neighborhoods. Systematic discrimination refers to the policy, practices, law, and behavior that perpetuate disadvantage for racialized persons.  Law enforcement and lower class communities experience conflicting viewpoints daily.  The conflicts are created by racism, systemic discrimination, and media just to illustrate a couple of examples.  Despite all of the problems faced by law enforcement and lower class, body cameras, better community-policing to eliminate the bias, and training have been shown to reduce conflict created by these issues.  The increased tensions between law enforcement and community are the result of police and community bias, the focus of police training, and media's influence on perceptions of both parties.

In the lower socioeconomic neighborhoods today, individuals are being targeted by officers.   Citizens have grown weary of law enforcement and statistically speaking for good reason that Blacks are 6 times more likely than whites to be arrested in America (Hyland, 2015). With news outlets sensationalizing coverage of several cases it is a growing belief that law enforcement has immunity to any persecution in part of their actions. Displayed by the low number of officers actually being convicted of wrong doing, in the court of law when concerning these cases Eric Gardener, Tamir Rice, Etc.  Types of systematic discrimination through the policy of law practices has been occurring before and during the Jim Crow Laws of America's past. These abhorrent laws helped to perpetuate a disadvantage for racial minority persons throughout America.  Media coverage today brings light to some of the discrimination cases that occur with law enforcement currently which more often than not displays law enforcement in a negative manner.  Law enforcement and lower class communities experience conflict daily due in part to some of the law practices in effect today.  These conflicts are created by policies of systematic discrimination, and sensationalized in the   media on the daily.  Despite all of the problems faced between law enforcement and the lower class, solutions have been shown to reduce conflict created by these issues.  The increased tensions between law enforcement and lower socioeconomic communities are a result of police and community bias, the focus in today's criminal justice system should be on better police training, and helping to mend the media's influence on perceptions of both parties.  

There has been a long-standing rift between socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and police in the U.S. With the rise of the internet and social media excessive force or police brutality has been a huge topic that seek to define a lot of difficulties within the relationship between the community and police.  The history of police brutality has been around for a very long time, predating the 1960's when Marin Luther King, Malcom X and others were protesting on behalf of the marginalized African American community throughout the United States. News coverage of the police abusing their power over peaceful African American protesters was seen in the forms of sending dogs to attack peaceful civilians, spraying protesters with fire hoses, tear gas and many other forms of revolting conduct.  The difference between back in the 1990's with Rodney King and today is the major impact of social media has had on brining the issue to everyone.   The Civil Rights movement gave a voice to the minority race that wanted equal rights for all which they thought was promised by the 14th amendment.  People like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and Harriet Tubman were the progressive leaders of change channeling the voice of an unheard people.  Most of these people gave up either their freedom or there life to fight what they believed is the greater good for everyone.  These historic figures link directly to the movement we see today with community leaders and civilians protesting the police brutality problem communities across the nation.  

The ever evolving social media presence today has made it easier for people to be informed upon this often neglected topic.  People are starting to have a voice and organize group efforts while making social trends which help to get their opinions heard.  These kinds of stories seem to occur now more frequently in contrast to the past because of the news reporting style and social media being able to convey it anywhere and at any time.  This leaves room though for discrepancies in reporting with some media outlets trying to get a story out so fast they sometimes report incorrect or exaggerated facts.  With this it can easily cause a problem in the community because people want to change with discrimination but if they do not have the right information and overreact it can harm both parties.  In 2014, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act which listed deaths caused by law enforcement.   In today's media frenzy society the reporting of a person's death caused by police has to be more transparent with more justifiable reasoning of the use of lethal force.  Recently within the news and social media outlets it would appear you have a pandemic of police brutality across the United States.  Actually recently in the City of New York it is mandated that, "New York Police to Strictly Track the Use of Force". This is the first time in which an officer has to describe and report every instance that some type of contact with a citizen has occurred (Baker 1). This new rule makes an officer responsible if they do not report the force utilized during any incident with a civilian.  In addition New York officers are being provided Tasers so the officers have multiple options to handle a situation between citizens and not just the threat of lethal force (Swarts 3).   Despite these past and present efforts to help assuage community animosity the use of "excessive" force is still constantly called into question today.   

Though some problems seem complex, solutions are always present to promote minimum amounts of tensions between the lower class communities and law enforcement.  In the article "Race and police brutality: Roots of an urban dilemma" by Holmes, it states how police bias is very much alive and is heavily prevalent in society today.  There are several credible statistics upon excessive force which shows that systematic discrimination is fortified in law enforcement.   In the article, "Police Use of Nonfatal Force, 2002-11," by Hyland gets information between the years 2002-2011 of different races and compare them and see how many people experience a threat or use of force (Hyland, 2015).  The information is shocking with how the amount of forced used against African-American race was double upon any other race (Hyland, 2015).  Also, throughout the years, the frequency only increased (Hyland, 2015). This bias against the minority race was evident in the  Stop and Frisk policy passed in New York City.  Stop and Frisk has been a huge problem with racial profiling for over 30 years. With a lot of the statistics showing the police officers are more likely to stop minorities this creates a tension in the community.  The numbers increasing for the last couple of years with African Americans and Latino making up for most of the stop and frisk in NYC (Hyland, 2015).  With 160,000 stops, only 13% get charged with anything and with the majority of the numbers being minority's cases, which causes problems (Hyland, 2015).  These statistics are one of the major reasons the bill was repealed, as a proposed solution to help dissipate the system of racial discrimination.  People in the community was furious about how Stop and Frisk policing were racial targeting minorities in lower economic areas.  However, the Stop and frisk law created a huge separation between the community and police still present today.  

Ariel Barak, William A. Farrar, and Alex Sutherland gives examples of how efficient body cameras with the relationship with the community and police.  With body cameras now an emerging new technology in law enforcement people get to see firsthand on what police officers see when making an arrest.  This would also require officers to wear body cameras now to prevent the racial profiling.  According in the article, "The Case For Body Worn Cameras: Transforming Policing And Community Trust." body cameras is a benefit to the community (Stocker, 2015).  The evidence would provide information in the excessive force cases brought on by the community.   But, it would help both sides, the community and police whether its in-car cameras or body cameras.  According to Stocker, "The capturing of digital video data helps to serve as a means to reduce civil litigation against law enforcement agencies, personnel, and the jurisdictions in which they served. "Ultimately, the cameras, whether installed in the vehicle or on the officer's body, function as a psychosomatic mechanism that answered public demand to monitor police actions and deter dishonesty and latent corruption by the police." (Ariel Page2).  The one factor why every police department does not have body cameras is funding.  Body cameras would lead to less cases of excessive force in the community.  Law enforcement agencies need to invest and look into more evidence that proves that it is a benefit in the community.  The police departments just do not have the efficient funds to supply every officer with one of the top of the line beneficial technology (Stocker 1).  The media has influences one of the problems between the community and lower class.  With smart phones common all over the world recently it is easy for people to video tape incidents between police and an individual and put it out so everyone can witness the issues.  Media does a great job getting the story out to the people but sometimes they do not let out the full videos and it puts police in a bad light.  If body cameras are going to be mandatory for police officers which will provide addition evidence for individuals questioning the use of excessive force.  According to the article, ""Study Shows Less Violence, Fewer Complaints When Cops Wear Body Cameras," the study shows a 53% dropped on use of force incidents with the officers with the body cameras (Wing, 2015).  Also, the complaints against the officers dropped a remarkable 65% with the officers (Wing, 2015).  Body cameras are going into the right direct with police advancements.  These statistics show direct correlation with the better policing by officers with cameras.  

Recently police training has been a huge problem on why the tensions with the community in lower class areas been horrible.  Andrew Peralta says, "When you're training all about shooting, handcuffing, the physical part  --  and not about the verbal part  --  it can create an imbalance," (Swarts, 2015).  With law enforcement cutting down on the budget and reducing the training for officers can hurt the community and the officer.  Today's training of officers is only trained mostly on the defense part of policing, and not the social aspect of the job this can create a bias and can be crucial.  With better community relationships with police can effect and benefit the way people perceive the police.  The excessive force police use on the minority race is being more commonly viewed.  People are starting to see how serious the situation could be.  The police officers are conditioned and trained to anticipate danger and respond quickly to threats creating a bias.  An interest at stake is innocent people are being taught, at a young age, that police are not there to help and serve the community.  People do not value the help that the normal officer has to give to the community with his or her life at stake.  According to Williams in the article "Analysis Finds Minorities Arrested at a Higher Rate than Whites in Mpls," gives examples of how minority individuals are being harassed by police more often than other races.  This goes back to the training of the police officers and creating a bias against the lower status communities.  Letting the community know that police are here to protect and serve the people.  The training recently has been decreased with money that goes into it for budget reasoning.  This makes it harder for police officers to get the right training that is needed to help the relationships between the community and police.

Police officers the way the media sometimes portrays them as horrible people.  Some cases police are wrongly accused for an incident that did not occur.  In the article, "What About Police Brutality?' by Joe Wolverton gives examples of how this can happen first hand.  In the story provide by Wolverton, an officer arrested a suspect and brought him to jail.  The next day the suspect claimed the officer used exercise force on the individual, and the media got information about the incident and made it a huge story.  But with video of evidence in the dashboard proved that injures occurred before the officer was arresting the suspect.  Police officers today have a bad image and the bias the community has on them does not make it any better.  With more police officers in patrol cars it hurts the community relations compared to a foot patrol officer.  This is one of many incidents with police officers being wrongly accusing. 

The significance of my argument is to have better policing to reduce discrimination and to eliminate the bias between the community and police.  It would change the police training and for minorities it would stop the feeling of them being singled out.  It gets us in a situation where change is needed in the communities because without it protest, riots, vandalism could result if incidents go horribly wrong.  It addresses the problems I outlined by giving solutions to the problems faced in lower economic areas.  What we can do now is encourage the youth and build a relationship young with law enforcement.  Also, we can pressure police officers to come up with better policing tactics with body cameras, Tasers, etc.  Everyone can affect the change by starting neighborhood watch programs and or community policing programs in your community that could benefit the relationship.  They would collaborate with the community and police as much as possible, it would help with the bias on both sides.  

