https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-24/officials-activists-agree-its-time-to-reimagine-lapd-but-continue-to-spar-over-how
There was a report that the Los Angeles Police Department circulated a picture of George Floyd with the words “you take my breath away,” like a Valentines card (AP News). If this were to be true,
it would show the corruption and bias of power. However, even if this claim of the vulgar Valentines card is not true, it gives a good example of how the police and their authority can be biased. Although this is not against the law, it is racist and disrespectful, making it an example of injustice.
An injustice is when someone’s rights have been violated or a wrongdoing (Merriam-Webster). As mentioned, the Valentines card is not a violation of a law, but it is a wrongdoing. The reason the Valentines card is a wrongdoing is because it disrespects not only George Floyd, who is now dead, but also his family.
This injustice of disrespect towards African-Americans (racism) is a systemic problem, meaning it occurs continuously throughout time and in the same area. In this case, area refers to the police and police departments. Recently, “Eight Minnesota jail guards filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging racial discrimination after they were barred from working on the floor where a former police officer charged in George Floyd’s death was being held” (AP News). This story shows how police officers and police departments repeatedly show patterns (systemic) of disrespect and injustice.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/looking-back-at-the-extraordinary-simone-de-beauvoir-on-the-70th-anniversary-of-the-second-sex-1.5101852
In terms of Simone de Beauvoir, the police department can be defined as the “One,” while African-Americans are being defined as the “Other.” The following excerpt gives a better understanding of this concept, “no subject will readily volunteer to become the object, the inessential; it is not the Other who, in defining [them]self as the Other, establishes the One. The Other is posed as such by the One in defining himself as the One” (Simone de Beauvoir). With context, this excerpt is saying that African-Americans (the Other) did not choose to be the victims of systemic injustice within police departments (the One). Instead, police departments and the racism within them, have chosen African-Americans to be the subjects of injustice.
Works Cited
Beauvoir, Simone de, et al. The Second Sex. Vintage, 2010.
Forliti, Amy. “8 Minority Jail Officers Allegedly Kept off Chauvin’s Guard.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 9 Feb. 2021, apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-discrimination-lawsuits-minnesota-minneapolis-a913a42c8239d8dc07d72edfe8c45ac5.
“Injustice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/injustice. Accessed 27 Mar. 2021.
“LAPD, Police Union Outraged by Report of Floyd ‘Valentine’.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 15 Feb. 2021, apnews.com/article/los-angeles-police-racial-injustice-california-us-news-d1bd9a0806541718bc0451e3df181013.