My experience with homelessness due to the removal of my two children from my care in 2019 is the reason why I decided to go to school and finish my education. I came to American InterContinental University (AIU) to have a career in Criminal Justice because when my case first opened, I had no knowledge of the law. Taking classes at AIU aside from my comprehension has been a blessing. I wanted to be a child protection attorney. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 7,065,000 children were in jeopardy of being removed from their homes in 2020 due to reports of child maltreatment. Children should remain with their families because they need that bonding with their parents and family members. During this experience of being an advocate for other families to prevent what happened to me from happening to others, I did not know that there was an issue of police brutality happening.
Watching the video of George Floyd’s murder opened my eyes. I started protesting with groups that were against police brutality in the hopes of raising awareness of its connection with child protection. Even though I’m passionate about child protection, I went out of my comfort zone and educated myself on police brutality and why it happens. Child protection has been doing things that are very similar to what police officers have been doing to Black and brown families throughout the years. Law enforcement and child protection work together to destroy families rather than help the families become successful.
Child Protective Services (CPS) is an agency that is supposed to protect the children and strengthen the families. But, lately, due to the disparities happening within the system, child protection has been failing to protect the children from harm. This failure plays a role in how law enforcement is involved. Let’s say someone was stalking a family, getting to know their every move and routine, and was keen on exhibiting predatory behavior toward children. If the parents have three kids in the household and one kid was targeted by this person, that would require law enforcement and child protective services to step in. If the child was harmed and the parents did not know about it, this could easily get their other two children removed, leading to having to prove to the courts that they are fit parents. It may not always be the parents’ fault that something happened, but that does not matter to the state. According to the state, the parents should have been more aware of the situation and protected their children from harm. This is an example of a scenario that could cause the public to not want to trust law enforcement or other agencies to help them with anything.
In order to gain the public’s trust, police need to work with other agencies to ensure that people are being held accountable for their actions with factual evidence and listen to what the public wants. For instance, there were nationwide protests and riots all over the world due to the fact that George Floyd got murdered. George Floyd was murdered by police on May 25th, 2020 due to an allegation of him purchasing something in a store with a fake 20-dollar bill. The example of George Floyd is the reason why law enforcement and other agencies need to get the proper training they need and correct their mistakes. Police officers and CPS need to be held accountable for their actions too. This is why police departments need to be reformed.
Black Americans are tired of law enforcement taking advantage of their power to control and dictate what Black people do with their lives. Why do people become police officers if they do not uphold the law? And why do police who murder people get a slap on the wrist and get away with it? It is really scary to know that there are police officers out there who become officers for the wrong reason. Accountability applies to everyone regardless of what job or career they are in. Accountability is important because in order for things to change, we must continue to work together and make changes.
Police brutality is an issue that needs awareness. Police brutality is an issue that needs to be addressed on how to hold officers accountable for their actions. If officers were trained on how to treat others and get the proper help they need, then the use of force would not be an issue. We need to have officers that are respectful, but also hold integrity in doing what they need to do to keep the community safe.
Other news outlets don’t cover child welfare and juvenile justice like we do.
News for people, not for profit.