Situation Definition:
A major ethical concern in our world today is the way police officers treat people of color. On Father’s Day of last year, a young girl by the name of Tatyana Hargrove was on her way home from buying her father a gift when she was approached by police officers in Bakersfield, California. Police stopped her at gunpoint and asked to search her backpack. This then led to her getting punched by the police, bit by the police dog and one officer even had her knee in her back to the point that she could not breathe. At the time, the police were looking for a suspect described as a 5 foot 10 bald man who weighed 170 pounds. Hargrove was 5 foot 2 female and weighed 115 pounds. Police did not realize it was a female until they asked for her name in the police car. By then she already has cuts and bruises to show for and an experience that has changed her to this day. To me this brings up the ethical message regarding diversity in the media and how police officers treat people of color. This also poses the question of the brutality this young woman faced just being an innocent young girl walking home on Father’s Day.
Analysis:
According to an article written by the Washington Post, Hargrove’s attorney, Neil K. Gehlawat, believes his job is to hold officers accountable for what they have done. “But our hope is that, by going through this process and by potentially having this case heard by a jury, that they will send a loud and clear message to the officers in the department that what happened is not appropriate and it should not happen again,” (Gehlawat, 2017). I completely agree with what her lawyer has to say because what happened was just completely unacceptable. It’s hard to believe that not one police officer present couldn’t have made the distinction that she was a female and did not match the description what so ever. Going off that, these officers must be held accountable for their actions. Although the Bakersfield police chief did call Hargrove and her parents to apologize, no apology could change the fact that she is scarred forever. According to her parents, Hargrove used to be independent but now she is fearful around police vehicles, sirens and lights. The brutal way the police held Tatyana down by putting a knee in her back led her to have trouble breathing. This is similar to the story of Eric Garner, who was arrested and died from a choke hold by the police officer. According to an article written by Holly Fulton-Babicke titled “I Can’t Breathe,” she says “Garner’s death sparked heated national dialogue over the use of force in policing, and more specifically, the disproportionate brutalization of black people by law enforcement,” (Fulton-Babicke, 2018). The death of Eric Garner occurred 3 years prior to the police brutality that Tatyana Hargrove faced and to this day, it still happens in many areas of our world.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I remember reading about Hargrove’s experience with police brutality and discussing it in my courses last semester. I hope that people becoming more educated on this topic and hearing about situations similar to Hargrove’s will raise awareness in our world for this to end completely. I believe that the police that approached Hargrove should be held completely accountable for their actions and that an apology to the family is just simply not enough. From this story, I learned firsthand how people are permanently impacted and changed in every area of life over experiencing these horrific situations. Overall, this is just completely unacceptable in my opinion and I hope if anything, this is a learning experience for all police officers in our world.
References:
Wang, A. B. (2017, September 05). Teen girl files claim against police who mistook her for a black male suspect and punched her. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/05/teen-girl-files-claim-against-police-who-mistook-her-for-a-black-male-suspect-and-punched-her/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e3dd8f17f0a8
WebAccess. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www-tandfonline-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/07350198.2018.1497888
