Some police officers have taken extreme measures in regards to implementing the law when it comes to African Americans. Law enforcement is professional, effective, efficient, and often regarded as a model to follow worldwide. Some would hold that a significant factor in the history of this professionalism is training, which imparts the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that form its foundation (Pinizotto, Bohrer, Davis, 10). But, because of some of the current high profile cases involving law enforcement and especially young African American men, some questions have arisen about the conduct of police officers while performing their normal duties. When considering the normal duties of police officers; what generally comes to mind is, "protect and serve," because that's what their hired to do. This statement of protecting and serving the community sometimes is tested to its utmost when police officers are put in what they consider to be a life or death situation. Therefore, because most decisions made by the police officers is one of a judgment call, and some of their actions have been deemed as unlawful use of force or police brutality. Law enforcement is put in direct personal contact with citizens on a regularly daily basis, and without proper training the results could be catastrophic for all concerned.
There is a clear distinction in the way some police officers address and handle white Americans as opposed to those of color or African descent. Some whites have a different view of the justice system than blacks, because whites were not enslaved, mistreated and denied rights in past years. The justice system refused to protect blacks from slave owners, racist mobs, and white rapists. The courts in Philadelphia issued judiciary orders to arrest any "Negro" walking about the street without permission for his or her master, in 1963. During this time period some blacks had been emancipated, but were not given the option to show freedom papers once detained by the police.