Essay Example on Police Brutality: A Call for Reforms in the US

Lately, the onset of gruesome deaths in society has become prone and, more specifically, on people of color. It is unbelievable that the incident of Minneapolis police officer, Chauvin Derek, who used excessive force and inhuman handling of George Floyd, a suspect in forgery, and which the need to adopt a shared vision, is a small percent of the police brutality incidences in the United States. Consequently, the need to reform the police officer has been realized and tabled after President Donald Trump signed the police reform pact on June 15, 2020. The protests have greatly influenced my thoughts on equality, institutional racism, and police brutality on racial grounds. Now, I can define my vision concerning the African-America aspect in the US in a different manner. I can say that my vision is how I see myself in the future, having realized that Americans are pushing for social change starting from police reforms.

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The current trends in police departments regarding discrimination based on color have greatly influenced Americans' personal and shared visions. Personal vision helps an individual resonate with something that makes them visualize their perspective and how far they would motivate themselves to take action to reach this vision. On the other hand, the mental model denotes the expectation that we have but affected by our past in a way that sometimes we fail expecting the things we think should happen, so our mental model shows us either the outcome is what we envisioned or not. Social practices cause a change in the definition of a shared vision (Homan, 2010). For that matter, people always misunderstand a shared vision. It denotes a shared aspect concerning a future change that aligns with people's agreed-upon vision; for instance, the vision that has emerged about future reforms will deter institutional racism.

A personal vision is something you must possess for you to know and understand what you want to do with your life and see the outcome as you grow and see how it goes in the future. For example, you have a vision for being a doctor in the future, and you have to work for it to happen. One cannot just have a vision and then sit and wait for the outcome. Personal vision is very significant in planning your own goals in life since this serves as your motivation to take action to succeed with this plan. There are instead many ways of how you can be able to make this happen, and determination is one. Determination is leading you to be inspired by the people around you and push you forward. All you need is courage and all your efforts to witness and see how far you have come.

The mental model has a huge impact on the minds of all people. This is serving as a vision of something we always expect, and we think it will happen next but sometimes fail and end up realizing that not all visions are being done as we expected them to be, for example. Every day you wake up and check your phone because you know your girlfriend has texted you. Your mental model tells you that whenever you wake up, it is the first thing you do, and you expect her to text you every time you wake up in the morning. One day you found out there was no text from her, which was unexpected. The point of view here is that we do not always get the same result as we expect them to be.

A shared vision pushes and motivates a group of people to agree with the personal vision of that person and do one thing together. For instance, the decision to engage in a protest is a shared vision that aims at sparking a series of unrest to remind the government about an aspect that is not right. The uncouth police action on George Floyd compelled the society and activists to champion for social change through the protests that started three weeks ago. After a video of the police, it was shared that George Floyd's arrest and demise were an act of homicide worth second-degree murder because he was black. The aspect made the society to form a shared decision to end institutional violence through a series of continual protests. Not because he is black, someone thinks they are uneducated people. No, because, like Mr. Cooper, he was a graduate at a University, but he is still down to earth, yet humble to other people. Any discrimination, judgments, racism, all negative perceptions of people from different races, should be addressed. If not legally, then maybe through the voice of many people by a shared vision. This way, no one being stepped on, no one is there on the top, and no one is at the bottom. In other words, equality should stand.

In terms of social justice, a lot of people are still getting poorer, as economic development is stagnant. Those who belong to the low-class families are becoming poorer while those families at the top have easy times with their lives. While low-income families are begging the government for needs, they are being ignored. What's worse is the number of poor people in society is doubled. We do expect that the government might lend a hand, especially to those people who are needy and badly need support. Still, unfortunately, this expectation is not what we assume to happen. Social injustice occurs when the poor are pushed beyond their strength to remain in their poor state through a series of institutional crimes. According to Homan (2010), the aspect is linked to racial discrimination as the police treat whites differently from blacks. Taking the case of George Floyd, and especially on the dramatic arrest, it is clear that Floyd was shoved to death in a deliberate act by the police and the dispatcher. It is reasonable to make mistakes. However, the one done during the arrest of George Floyd was unreasonable since Floyd did not resist arrest to be held on the ground for nine minutes, crying out that he could not breathe in vain (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, 2020). Another justified shared vision is as it was put across by Terrence Floyd, George's brother. He urged the masses to vote for change and stop unnecessary break-ins during street protests.

Conclusion

There is no use to toil and finish one's studies only to be discriminated in institutions on a racial basis. The government needs to embrace reforms. Unnecessary discrimination is uncalled for, and it is widely portrayed by government officers, not to mention the police officers. The world is full of challenges that not all people can handle. That is why we need to develop a shared vision to have an idea of how we could help out to make something work for all of us. Without focusing on personal insights, humans can build their mental model wherein if we stated from good, and there is a big possibility to end up better, rather than starting up unfortunate and unexpectedly end up nothing at all. This should remain a lesson for everyone that not everything we see is real. We should focus on not just what we want but hear the people and lend a hand to them to be one in one nation. With time, justice will be for all despite their race, creed, or color so long as the fire keeps burning concerning sharing the vision to achieve a change in terms of institutional racism and police brutality on people of color.

References

Homan, M. S. (2010). Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real world. Nelson Education.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. (2020). George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Daily Social Distancing Show. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Retrieved June 17, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4amCfVbA_c&feature=youtu.be