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Melanie Karg
Mr. Rogers
Government 3
16 October 2016
Mock Congress Research Paper
Turn on the evening news, look up the daily events on the Internet, listen to the radio, and
what will you hear? More than likely you will hear the statement Black Lives Matter. This is in
response to a major campaign going on throughout the nation in regards to police brutality and
the injustice against African Americans in the Criminal Law System. One of the most difficult
issues facing our nation right now is the disparities between communities of color. Arrest data
shows that black and Hispanic men are more likely to be stopped and searched by police officers
than other ethnicities. This suggests that there is a large amount of hidden bias within law
enforcement that influences the way we see and treat others. The Anti-Bias Act of 2017 shall be
enacted in order to reduce the implicit bias that is causing the disparities among races in the
Criminal Justice System in our nation. By putting this bill into effect it will raise the
consciousness of law enforcement officials, decrease the percentages of people of color being
victimized by unfair targeting, and will decrease the high rates of African Americans being
incarcerated for a longer prison term than whites for similar crimes.
By enacting the Anti-Bias Act of 2017, implicit bias that is causing many of the
disparities among races in the Criminal Justice System will be reduced. There is much
resentment building in communities of color that feel the Criminal Justice System is rigged
against them and that our system is failing them. Amnesty International released a report, called
Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department in late June 1996

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that documented a disturbing pattern of police violence in Americas largest police force.
According to the report, most of the victims were minorities, while most of the offending police
officers were white (Cothran 61-62). This quote demonstrates that law enforcement officers
often have bias towards people of color and often act on this bias, which creates the
discrimination currently taking place within our system. Innocent minority citizens are detained
on the streets and in their cars in a higher rate than whites. Those stops done by police officers
involve inconvenience, humiliation and a loss of privacy towards people of color (Justice on
Trial). This quote implies that law enforcement officers are targeting people that may be
innocent, but due to their color, are undergoing searching, frisking and having their rights
violated due to possible bias that may underlie their decision-making. Instead of having our
communities divided we need to repair the relationship between police and community by
making law enforcement officers aware of this bias that is taking place and begin to reform our
Criminal Justice System.
Our Criminal Justice System is designed to protect us but many feel that it is currently
failing to do so and actually targeting specific races. The Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard
Law School issued a report titled Beyond the Rodney King Story: An investigation of Police
Misconduct in Minority Communities. This report found that police abuse falls
disproportionately upon minority people. It found wide spread police failure in following up
complaints by non-white citizens (Gottfried 57). This quote shows how people of color are
being targeted and victimized by police officers simply because of their ethnicity. It also
demonstrates how minorities are being disregarded when they are filing complaints regarding
situations they need help with. Communities with high crime rates are targeted by police
officers, minorities are besieged with recurrent police contact leading to extensive criminal

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records for even minor non violent crimes (Innocence Project RSS). Many minorities are being
targeted repeatedly and undergoing harsh punishments for even minor crimes. This unfair
targeting leads to more African Americans being targeted and then incarcerated and ending up in
the prison system.
Requiring mandated trainings with this bill will also decrease the high rates of African
Americans being incarcerated for longer prison terms than whites for similar crimes. African
Americans now make up nearly one million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population,
meaning that African Americans are incarcerated at six times the rate of whites (Criminal
Justice Fact Sheet). Not only are more African Americans being imprisoned but also they are
getting sentenced for longer periods of time often for the same crimes. These disproportionate
numbers in our Criminal Justice System needs to end and reform is needed. Nationwide blacks
represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are
judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Criminal
Justice Fact Sheet). This quote shows the severe impact that this over criminalization of African
Americans is having even on our youth. African Americans are being overrepresented in our
Criminal Justice System and this needs to change. Although African-Americans constitute only
12 percent of Americas population, they represent 40 percent of the nations prison inmates
(Tonn). Our law enforcement agencies need to look at the impact they are having on our justice
system and build upon diversity and multicultural training that will lead to colorblindness
being put aside and help protect all people.
Many say that the reason for blacks being arrested at a higher rate than whites is due to
the fact that police are doing their duty as a police officer and are trying to enforce laws and
secure areas of higher crime. Opponents of this bill claim that a city where the majority of

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citizens are black will always have a higher rate of black people getting arrested, it will always
have a higher rate of blacks getting stopped, and will always have a higher rate of blacks getting
killed, and the reason why is because a city with those characteristics will always have a higher
rate of blacks committing crime (BBC News). However, this argument fails because there
certainly is implicit bias in many police street encounters with black males. Many police officers
in the United States view blacks in these encounters as a threat. Similarly, many of the blacks in
these street encounters with police officers are afraid of the police (BBC News). Other
arguments claim that in a given year the breakdown of people of different races being killed by
police officers is actually lower in blacks than whites. The overall rate of nonfatal violent
victimization against blacks declined by nearly 57% between 1993 and 2001 (Andersen). This
argument fails because, during the years of 1993 to 2001 the rate for the overall population
declined by 54% which than impacts the data being looked at. The population within each race
has to be carefully looked at or else the data looks skewed. There are disproportionate numbers
of African Americans being targeted and punished for crimes in the Criminal Law System.
The Black Lives Matter movement is one of the biggest demonstrations going on in our
nation to try to build awareness for the divisions tearing communities apart. The biases that
currently exist throughout law enforcement need to be closely examined and change must come.
In order to bring awareness to this crucial problem the Anti Bias Act of 2017 needs to be enacted
in order to raise the consciousness of law enforcement officials, decrease the percentages of
people of color being victimized by unfair targeting, and to decrease the high rates of African
Americans being incarcerated for longer prison terms than whites for similar crimes. This bill
will require mandated bias training for all federal law enforcement officers.

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Works Cited
Andersen, Lisa. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report. Black Victims of Violet Crime.
bjs.gov/content/pub. N.p., n.d. Aug. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. NAACP . N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2016.
Cothran, Helen. Police Brutality Opposing Viewpoints. Bender, 2001.
Gottfried, Ted. Police Under Fire. Twenty-First Century Books A Division of The Millbrook
Press, Inc., 1999.
Justice On Trial. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web.
"The Black Cop Who Has a Problem with 'Black Lives Matter'" BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18
Oct. 2016.
Tonn, Shara. Stanford research suggests support for incarceration mirrors whites perception of
black prison populations. news.stanford.edu/2014. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
What Wrongful Convictions Teach US About Racial Inequality Innocence Project.
Innocence Project RSS. N.p., n.d. 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.