Human Voices

Metodi Popovski

If there is one constant in the universe it is that there is more than one side to every issue.
In trying to address our nations problem with police brutality and race, I interviewed two cops
and a teacher. The teacher, Dr. Jimenez, was a victim of police brutality while the cops gave me
information about how they deal with criminals and their thoughts about our nations pandemic. I
found it surprising that even though both of these interviews come from very different people
with different professions, they were some similarities as well as stark differences. The
differences were based around how each party viewed minorities, and both parties agreed that
police brutality is an issue. In light of these two interviews it is clear that both parties agree that
police brutality is a problem in our society, but they cannot agree to what extent race is a factor.
The interview with the police was very thought-provoking. I started by questioning the
officers training, and what their training suggests that they do in certain situations. This line of
questioning convinced me that the officers under went very dynamic and structured training.
An interesting part of the interview was when the officers told me that they were taught to be
sympathetic in their training. This offers perspective on any police related evidence I may
encounter in my investigation. The interview also taught me that even though the officers were
well trained in dealing with various situations, the officers constantly stated that their actions
depend on the situation instead of depending on what their training taught them. The officers
also agreed that the media played a pivotal role in the making of police stories with Officer
Shwla stating that the media only shows one side of the story. Officer Steve believes that
police brutality has gotten better. He cites that there is more training regarding police brutality,
and that police brutality has decreased over the years. However, he does not state that it is not a
problem in our current culture.

In regards to race, Officer Shlwa had something a very interesting bit. She stated that
some officers stay in one district, with one demographic there, for an extended period of time
and that was where they could be in a position to develop a racial prejudice, but most cops travel
in between districts and eventually the police officers learn that its all the same at the end of the
day. When questioned about racial prejudice, the officers mentioned that it was about the way
the individual was raised and mentioned personal factors. It the grand scheme of things it felt
like the officers were avoiding my some of my questions, or maybe my questions were too hard
to answer. It should be noted that once I stopped recording me and the officers had a 90 minute
conversation about policing. Maybe the recorded made them nervous.
Professor Jimenez had a quite different perspective. He was a minority living in a town
where there was a lot of police presence and his interactions with the police were not always
pleasant. The professor saw that people were targeted because of their race. Early on I saw
that in our society we had racial tension. He has experienced racism and beliefs that racism can
seep into other institutions. The scenario that stuck out was his own interaction with the police.
The incident starts when he was walking home in the neighborhood of Pilsen, and a bunch of
girls stopped him and asked him to take a picture. The girls were intoxicated, and they were
using racial slurs. Dr. Jimenez calls them racist, but they got become defensive and said that
[the professor was] singling [them] out. The girls waved down an officer, and the officer stated
that you should go back to Mexico, where you came from. In addition, the officer believed that
the professor told the girls to leave the neighborhood, and the officer did not believe the
professor when he said that he did no such thing. The interaction escalated when the officer
threatened him and kept calling him advanced towards him. This is an example of police
brutality as the result of racial prejudice. Racial prejudice was present in the words used to insult

Dr. Jimenez and in the implications that the professor would tell the group of girls to leave the
Hispanic neighborhood. When the professor reported the incident to the police department, the
person who interviewed him about the incident seemed unconcerned about the incident. The
results of the report were that there was inconclusive evidence even though the professor had
the car number and cameras in the corner of the street.
Its clear that there two stories here. I would argue that racial prejudice does have
an effect on police brutality because of Dr. Jimenezs experience and because the police officers
stated that a cop can be in a district for very long and become racial prejudice. It is not hard to
image that the cop that insulted the professor was in that district for too long and has developed a
racial prejudice. In addition, throughout the interview with the police the officer constantly
mentioned that there were bad apples in every department that act out on their aggressions. Cops
are trained well, but their work and actions are situational. It is not hard to believe that a cop can
become too aggressive when frustrated and commit police brutality especially if he has a
prejudice to the people he is confronting.