Racial Ethnic Makeup

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Should the racial, ethnic, or gender makeup of a police force resemble the makeup of the community it serves? The shooting of an unarmed African-American man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, Aug 2014 raises the issue of racial makeup of police forces in the discussion of the incident. In Ferguson, for example, in the population of 71 percent of African American while 83percent of sworn police officers are Caucasian. Will this overwhelming ratio really affect the effectiveness and fairness when the law enforcement carries out their duty? If we are asked “Should the racial, ethnic, or gender makeup of a police force resemble the makeup of the community it serves?” I would assume that it is still not assertive and arguable.…show more content…
To cut the story short, the minority may have better academic scores or performances, they need to face the reality that opportunities of employment and promotion are still being mainly preserved for the white. So, before discussing the racial, gender makeup of the police force resemble the makeup of the community it serves, we cannot oversee the obstacles of the minority of being put and promoted in certain selected career field. If we trace the growing diversity that now exists in American police departments, meanwhile, we will not be surprised that the disparity and ratio of racial, ethnic, gender makeup of the police force to the communities is outstanding. All police departments are called on to enforce the laws and maintain public safety and public order. In order to better facilitate public safety and serve the communities, better strategic designs, tactical approaches, organizational structuring are expected. With satisfactory and appropriate racial and gender makeup of a police force, we can target the enhancement in community welfare and more positive interactions. We can also build active partnerships between the police and their constituents. However, as I have mentioned above, before getting our heads into the hot debate of racial and gender makeup, much efforts should have been put on raising the thresholds of allowing , assisting and promoting the minority to every different career field. Take an instance into consideration, when we consider the…show more content…
In the article “Diversity in Police Departments”, the data reveals the current situation, “In terms of race and ethnicity, 22.7% of all full-time local officers in 2000 were minorities. This represented an increase of about 61%, or 38000 officers, from the 1990 levels. African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and other ethnic groups accounted for 11.7%, 8.3%, and 2.7%, respectively, of all local police officers in 2000. In terms of numbers, the number of Hispanic or Latino officers represented an increase of 17600 officers from the 1990 level, while that of African American officers represented an increase of 13300.” The author quoted MacDonald (2003) “The growing challenge for police in multiethnic, liberal, democratic societies is to find the correct balance among the public goods at stake. They must enforce the law but also maintain racial and ethnic peace. These goals are incompatible to some extent….enforcing the law may disrupt the peace.” (p.233) With the others’ perspectives and data above, we hope that we are heading the right direction with the proper mentality to add some positive elements to advance the process. Achieving the proper racial, ethnic makeup of the police force should be the right goal to head to. However, if the topic of “Gender makeup of the police force” is involved, I may have a prejudicial view, though I am a female. My viewpoint is not against women but to protect my same gender. Law enforcement is the career

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