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Citation
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Rushing MD, Montoya-Barthelemy AG, Abrar FA, Medina EM, Popoola-Samuel HAO, McKinney ZJ. Am. J. Prev. Med. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020 triggered local, national, and international social unrest, driven by a prevailing and well-founded sense of discrimination within communities of color all over the world, especially with regard to police violence. There continues to be a pressing need for clinicians to understand the public health impacts of law enforcement violence that result in adverse health outcomes.
The research is quite clear regarding the preventable racial inequities related to law enforcement violence. In 2018, the American Public Health Association produced an excellent and comprehensive review of the literature, showing that law enforcement violence in marginalized communities poses a threat to public health through deaths, injuries, trauma, and stress that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. In the U.S., Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are 2-21 times more likely to be killed by police than their White counterparts, with young male BIPOCs suffering the greatest relative losses.
In fact, there are inequities at every stage of a BIPOC's interaction with the police. This is evidenced by increased police presence in their communities; more common deployments of militarized police units; more frequent stops, ticketing, and arrests for minor infractions; greater size of bail and severity in sentencing; more frequent sentencing to execution; and higher rates of wrongful convictions. Finally, there are higher rates of police-mediated nonfatal violent incidents (not necessarily resulting in injuries) among BIPOC individuals as well as injuries resulting from such violence
Language: en |