Even though in the 1960's Civil Rights banned segregation and discrimination, African Americans found themselves in dilapidated housing, inadequate schools, high unemployment rates, poor healthcare, and high crime rates. Frustrated and angered Afro Americans began rioting due to indiscriminate police bias and brutality. For the most part, police brutality has not been addressed as part of the nation's public agenda (Dunn).
Use of the Stanford Experiment can help explain the police misusing power. In this experiment 21 college men were selected to participate. Half the men were "guards" and the other half were "prisoners". They were put into a fake prison. Guards had to learn to become compliant and authoritarian. The experiment, planned for two weeks, had to be stopped due to the intensity of the subject's responses. The guards had become brutal and the prisoners had become depressed and stressed (Zimbardo). This experiment proves people abuse power. Police brutality occurs because the police have a disillusionment on the level of power they actually have. .
The sensationalism of the media brings police brutality against African Americans to the public eye today. Rodney King, now deceased, black male suffered a violent beating by Los Angeles police officers. The beating was captured on video by a citizen, George Holiday. The video showed four Los Angeles police officers kicking, stomping, and beating Rodney King with metal batons. (Lindor). The video revealed that the problem of excessive force in American policing is very real. (Stewart). On March 2, 1991, Rodney Glenn King was watching a basketball game and drinking beer. After the game, he wanted to go pick up some girls. King and two friends decided to make the drive. Two officers spotted King driving at high speeds. They went into pursuit of the speeding car which was up to speeds of 117 miles per hour. King ignored the flashing lights and ran a red light.
