Desiree Sandoval Blog Post #4 Racial Tensions High Following Verdict

The title of the article I chose is Racial Tensions High Following Verdict and comes from CNN.com. This article describes how a police officer in Hartford, Robert Lawlor, shot and killed an 18-year-old young man, Jayshon Bryant, who is African American. The officer said he shot Bryant because he was speeding in his car toward another officer and Lawlor also thought Bryant had a gun. It turns out no weapon was found in Bryant's car. The family is devasted at Lawlor being aquitted of manslaughter. They believe racism was involved in the verdict because they believe that since Lawlor was white and Bryant was black, the law did not recognize Bryant's death and did not take just action, according to the family. Lawlor would not apologize for his actions because he believs he did nothing wrong. He believes that he did what he had to do in his line of work because he felt that Bryant was a danger during that situation. He believes the decision he had to make, though he admits it is one of the hardest any human being has to make, was right considering the circumstances.

I chose this article because I believe it relates to social control because it deals with our the idea of Policing that we discussed in class. We spoke about how police sort of have this title and special authority over us because we as a society collectively give them this superior notion. What the family argues for in this article seems to relate to this special position that we give to police in our society. It seems that they are at a level above us and do not have to be accounted for the same things as regular citizens and so it seems unfair in the eyes of this victim's family. In all fairness though, police, just as this officer, have a job to do and their lives are under threat every day to try to keep people in society safe, most of them are just trying to do what they think is right to protect everyone.