Unraveling Police Brutality Implicit Bias, Perspective, and Mental Health

Perceptions and Prejudice: The Officer’s Perspective

Walking around the neighborhood, my eye caught the inside of a 7-11 store in Sanford, Florida. I saw a boy, a black boy. I walked closer to see his baggy sweatpants and a grey hoodie. He walked out, seemingly high and suspicious. I dialed the 911 number to report the suspicion I observed, and then they advised me not to follow him, but I disregarded what they said. Something was up with this guy, so I went up to him to show him who took precedence here.

There was yelling and attacking, and no other way to control the situation than shoot. That is the mind of a stereotypical and prejudiced police officer. Innocent Trayvon Martin, seventeen years old, died that night as he was heading back to the house of his father’s fiancee after buying a quick snack of Skittles and soda. George Zimmerman, the officer, accused Martin of attacking him when not one fingerprint was found on Zimmerman’s body (Botelho).

This type of prejudice is one that lies within the American Identity, making it at the root of police brutality. It lies so deep that the occurrence of the issue has been prevalent for centuries upon centuries. After exploring the continuous complications with police brutality in America and how it violates our right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ I started to wonder what goes on in the mind of a police officer that leads them to strip the lives away of these innocent civilians.

After reading All American Boys, a novel by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds, my interest in the perspective of police officers sparked. Throughout the book, there were multiple different points of view on the story of sixteen-year-old Rashad Butler. It was very interesting to see how certain characters could think it was plausible that something so unjust could be rationalized. After noticing the shifts in perspectives with the victim versus the officer, I started to pay closer attention to them within the book.

Paul Galluzzo, the police officer who shot Rashad, had the mindset of teaching Rashad the lesson he deserved, “Fuckin’ thugs can’t just do what you’re told. Need to learn how to respect authority. And I’m gonna teach you” (Kiely 23). This declaration of power he placed over Rashad showed how cops not only feel superior but act violently upon their feeling of superiority, specifically against minorities. Galluzzo called Rashad names and threw him around as if he meant nothing.

Unveiling Implicit Bias: The Battle Within

However, Rashad is a civilian of the United States who deserves the rights of life, liberty, and happiness that our country is supposed to be upholding for all Americans, regardless of their skin color. Later on in the story, my interest in this topic deepened when I got to read about the perspective of Paul Galluzzo after the beating took place. Trying to justify his actions, Paul stated to Quinn, a boy who witnessed the beating, “Well, I’m telling you this. There was a woman in the store.

The kid took her down because she caught him stealing. I went in to protect her, and then he went after me, okay? What was I supposed to do? It’s my job, Quinn. I was protecting the lady. I was just doing my job” (Kiely 209). Even after this officer had time to take into account his actions, he still had the same point of view of targeting African Americans. He almost killed Rashad without understanding both points of view, and he justified that by saying he was “doing his job.” This book stood as a turning point in my thoughts about police brutality, as it taught me the different perspective police officers have.

After learning about this different perspective, I had a desire to learn more about the point of view, not only in All American Boys but in other real-life situations. Dushaw Hockett, a Ted Talk speaker, once stated, “If we want to move to a radically different place, a radically better place, on issues of race and difference in this country, we have to pay attention to something called implicit bias” (Hockett). After watching this Ted Talk, I became interested in how implicit bias may impair a police officer’s judgment toward African Americans.

I found that even by the Preamble of The Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”(Preamble), implicit bias cannot be escaped as it is instilled in people’s minds. Even though every United States citizen is guaranteed these unalienable rights, these violations still occur. In many cases, people do not realize they have such an implicit bias, leading them to question their identity.

In an NPR podcast, Mahzarin Banaji, the implicit bias theory creator, talked about the study she participated in and the moment she realized our decisions are driven by forces we’re not even aware of. An experiment was done in the late 1990s where she was advised to use one key on the keyboard to associate dark-skinned faces – faces of African Americans – with negative words and another key for light-skinned faces with positive words. She stated that this was very easy; however, the test switched, so she had to associate dark-skinned faces with positive words and light-skinned faces with negative words.

She then exclaimed, “My fingers appeared to be frozen on the keyboard. I literally could not find the right – the right key. That experience is a humbling one. It is even a humiliating one because you come face to face with the fact that you are not the person you thought you were” (Banaji). This study further explained to me how implicit bias is inculcated into people’s bodies. Moreover, prejudgment is an issue that is hard to cease. After realizing this, I then started to question how does this prejudgement affect the mind and mentality of an African American on a daily basis?

Impact on Mental Health: Racial Targeting’s Toll

Throughout this research process, I have not only learned that the mindset of a police officer affects them physically and mentally too. When compared, the scare most American teens have about shootings happening in their schools is similar yet extremely different to the scare many African Americans have about being racially targeted in a harmful manner. This racial target affects the mentality of these humans daily because they are judged by each and every move they make.

Studies are finding that the high rate of unarmed African Americans being killed at the hands of police has caused more incidents of stress, depression, and other mental health issues among this minority. According to Psychiatric News, a report was released after an officer shot and killed Antwon Rose, an unarmed black teen who was fleeing a traffic stop near Pittsburgh. This report was about the mental health of the African American community in response to this tragedy.

Jacob Bor, Sc.D., of Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues wrote after the report, “Specifically, our estimates imply that police killings of unarmed black Americans could contribute 1.7 additional poor mental health days per person per year, or 55 million excess poor mental health days per year among black American adults [in the United States],” (Morgan). This decrease in mental health is due to the violation of the very right all Americans are supposed to obtain – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The mindset that people have over African Americans is already affecting the lives of many who are killed, but it now also affects the whole community’s mentality due to the deprivation of their own rights. The African American community makes up about 13% of the United States population (United). This means that more than 1 in 10 people in our country feel threatened, vulnerable, and lack self-worth every single day. This idea was further explained when talking about one of the books my classmates read, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

A main point in the book group discussion was how exposed Star Carter, the main character, was to this injustice as a kid. The second chapter started with, “When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me. The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me. Momma fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. He argued that I wasn’t too young to get arrested or shot” (Thomas). The mentality Star was exposed to just as a kid led her to thoughts of worthlessness her whole life. This example of Star’s life has an exact correlation to the lives of every African American living in the United States. The fearful life of doubt and diffidence is all due to the stigma forced against them, leading me to question if there is a way to terminate the stereotypical mindset altogether.

Seeking Change: Overcoming Implicit Bias

Going into the research process, I wondered about the mindset of a police officer, leading me to question how it affects blacks mentally. After learning and processing the information obtained, I wanted to see a change in this injustice. Even though we are aware of the tragedies that occur daily, there is a cycle: we observe, we mourn, and then we move on. If our society keeps moving on each and every time a police brutality case is dismissed, it will be difficult to live up to our found principles – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans.

Nevertheless, terminating the issue of the stereotypical mindset is complicated as implicit bias takes control of our brains without warning. Ted Talk speaker Dushaw Hockett, however, thinks there is hope for the future in regards to controlling our implicit bias, “It’s preventive in a sense that there are strategies coming out of the science committee that suggest with internal motivation and habitual practice, we can do things to reduce our vulnerability to act on our biases” (Hockett). These new ideas play the role of a sense of hope our country is in need of. A sense of hope to the mentally drained 13 percent of our population.

References:

1. Botelho, G. (2013, July 14). Trayvon Martin Shooting Fast Facts. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/index.html
2. Kiely, B., & Reynolds, J. (2015). All American Boys. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books.
3. Hockett, D. (Speaker). (Date unknown). Dushaw Hockett: A future beyond bias. [Ted Talk]. https://www.ted.com/talks/dushaw_hockett_a_future_beyond_bias
4. The Declaration of Independence. (1776). Preamble.
5. Banaji, M. (Speaker). (Date unknown). How our minds are biased, and what we can do about it. [Podcast episode]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/490021838/how-our-minds-are-biased-and-what-we-can-do-about-it
6. Morgan, W. (2018, May 2). Police Killings of Unarmed Black Americans Impact Mental Health of Black Community. Psychiatric News. https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.5b1
7. Thomas, A. (2017). The Hate U Give. Balzer + Bray.
8. United States Census Bureau. (2021). QuickFacts: United States. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219