Police Brutality and the Criminal Justice System

African Americans, Police Brutality, and the Criminal Justice System: an Introduction

by Clarence Taylor, the Journal of African American History

Abstract: There has been a major focus on African Americans and the US criminal justice system, particulary around the issues of mass incarceration and police brutality. The New Jim Crow argues that while the Civil Rights Movement had been successful in eradicating overt racist laws, policies, and practices, by the 1980s the gain made by the civil rights and Black Power campaigns had been largely eradicated due to mass incarceration. Further, the “War on Drugs” served as an excuse for overtly racist behavior by law enforcement officers. After release from the criminal justice system, African Americans are labeled felons and pushed into second-class citizenship where they are denied basic citizenship rights, such as the right to vote and sit on juries, and rendered ineligible for many housing and employment opportunities.

Read more here.