Mike Davis And The LAPD :: essays research papers

The general assumption that people make of the role that police officers play is that they ar thither to Protect and Serve the community. What people many times do not realize is that in reality a large percentage of police officers in Los Angels, including the straitss of Police, do their jobs with a different intention in mind. Police officers as well as politicians claim to be overworking hard on property drugs off the streets when in reality they are bringing on the violence themselves by instigating problems that are not really there. Bringing violence to the community is to their thingamajig be wee-wee when crimes are solved and people are arrested police officers are portrayed by the media as the heroes. Not only is the LAPD committing a large number of acts of rot but they are all set toward youth of color.The ideal role of a police officer is to help and protect the people of the community for which they work to create a safe environment but when members of the LAPD a re biased and only interested in their own refinement, innocent youth are left to pay the consequences. Police officers mainly target their corruption scandals toward groups of young males of color because they find it easier to arrest them strictly because of their physical appearance and use probable cause as their excuse. From there, Kids are humiliatingly forced to kiss the sidewalk or spread eagle against police cruisers while officers check their name against computerized files of gang members.(Davis, 81) If their names and addresses are not yet entered they are added to the roster as well for future surveillance.(Davis, 81) There are two major Black gangs in Los Angeles, which are known universally as the Bloods and the Crips, they are most known for their organization of the sale of crack and out shooting the police with huge arsenals of Uzi and Mac-10 automatics. (Davis, 81) Because they distinguish themselves by the Bloods color-coding their clothes in red and the Crips in blue, police officers have used this against many black males wearing the color of these gang rivals. Many times the Chief of Police gives orders for the officers to stop and interrogate anyone who they suspect is a gang member, basing their assumptions on their dress or their use of gang hand signals. (Davis, 83) Law enforcement has also been ready to be deliberately provoking gang violence by writing over Crip graffiti with red, which is the Bloods color, or Blood graffiti with the Crip color.