Is America a Land of Freedom? Police Brutality Against African American

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, , language: English, abstract: Is America a land of freedom where everyone exercises his or her democratic and human rights, and treated equally by the law? The constitution of the country granted its citizen freedom and equal treatment by the law. The ideal value of a nation also augments the very constitutional rights that have been granted. However, the actual values and practices that have seen ever since the country was founded have been inconsistent with the ideal values of America. Particularly, in recent days, America is a mess, and seeming to be full of contradictions. There are various unfair practices that have been occurring in the country.

Among these unfair practices, the most widespread have been police brutality. As per Cassandra Chaney and Robertson Ray, "police brutality is the use of excessive physical force or verbal assault and psychological intimidation, which has been found to be detrimental to the victim, his family, and members of his community". It is any unreasonable force used by law enforcement officers in the name of protecting the public or themselves. Police brutality could be either verbal assault, psychological threat, or physical force, which sometimes results in death of the victim.