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Twenty-First Century Police Brutality Against African Americans: the Case of Ferguson, Missouri, and the “Black Lives Matter

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Twenty-First Century Police Brutality Against African Americans: the Case of Ferguson, Missouri, and the “Black Lives Matter 2017 Twenty-First Century Police Brutality against African Americans: The Case of Ferguson, Missouri, and the “Black Lives Matter” Movement Ophélie Eguienta 20702364 Sous la direction de Anne Stefani Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès Master 2 Recherche Etudes Anglophones Table of Contents Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 2 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. 3 Tables ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Figures ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6 I The Place of African Americans in the United States ........................................................... 10 1 Slavery, Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement ...................................................... 10 2 A Post-Racial America? .................................................................................................... 16 II Police Brutality ..................................................................................................................... 32 1 The Police in the United States ......................................................................................... 32 2 Police Brutality against Black People ............................................................................... 42 III Ferguson, Missouri .............................................................................................................. 50 1 Michael Brown’s Death .................................................................................................... 50 2 After Ferguson ................................................................................................................... 60 3 Change in Media Coverage ............................................................................................... 68 IV Black Lives Matter: A New Wave of Protests .................................................................... 78 1 The “Black Lives Matter” Movement: A New Version of the Civil Rights Movement ... 78 2 Other Lives Matter ............................................................................................................ 89 3 The Impact of Social Media .............................................................................................. 97 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 127 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 130 Primary Sources ................................................................................................................. 130 Secondary Sources ............................................................................................................. 160 1 Acknowledgments Foremost, I would like to thank Mme Stefani for accepting to supervise this research, and for being so thorough and so invested in my work. Your precious advice and guidance helped me reach my goal. I would also like to thank my dear Mélanie, who continuously encouraged me and motivated me, and always took the time in her very busy schedule to read and correct my work. I am very lucky to have you as a friend. Last but not least, my eternal gratitude goes to Sylvain, who supported me, happily took care of all the chores and every meal, and made me smile when my research was getting a bit too unsettling for my heart to handle. 2 Abbreviations ALM All Lives Matter BJS Bureau of Justice Statistics BLM Black Lives Matter BlueLM Blue Lives Matter DOJ Department of Justice FPD Ferguson Police Department KKK Ku Klux Klan NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People WLM White Lives Matter XLM X Lives Matter 3 Tables Table 1: Educational Attainment by Race of People between 25 and 29 Years Old. .............. 19 Table 2: Unemployment Rates by Race ................................................................................... 22 Table 3: Number of People in the Adult Correctional System per Year. ................................. 24 Table 4: “Sentenced Prisoners under the Jurisdiction of State or Federal Correctional Authorities.” ............................................................................................................................. 24 Table 5: “How Serious of a Problem do You Think Racism is Nationally?” .......................... 29 Table 6: Full-Time State and Local Law Enforcement Employees. ........................................ 33 Table 7: Rate of Minority Police Officers. ............................................................................... 34 Table 8: “Most Serious Offenses Charged in Violence-related Police Crime Arrest Cases, 2005-2011.” .............................................................................................................................. 38 Table 9: Occupational Deaths of Police Officers. .................................................................... 41 Table 10: Fatal Police Shootings in 2015 and 2016. ................................................................ 44 Table 11: “Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting.” ...................... 55 Table 12: People Killed by the Police in 2015. ........................................................................ 60 Table 13: People Killed by the Police in 2016. ........................................................................ 61 Table 14: High-Profile Police Killings. .................................................................................... 63 Table 15: Similarities and Differences between the Civil Rights movement and the BLM movement. ................................................................................................................................ 82 Table 16: Use of Facebook and Twitter. .................................................................................. 99 Table 17: Online Activity of Facebook Pages and Groups, According to the Frequency of Posts. ...................................................................................................................................... 102 Table 18: Number of Facebook Pages with “Black Lives Matter” in their Title. .................. 103 Table 19: Number of Facebook Pages with “White Lives Matter” in their Title. ................. 105 Table 20: Number of Facebook Pages with “All Lives Matter” in their Title. ...................... 107 Table 21: Number of Facebook Pages with “Blue/Cop Lives Matter” in their Title. ............ 108 Table 22: Comparison between Pages and Groups of the Various Movements. ................... 110 Table 23: Comparison of Tweets and Unique Users in Relation to Officers’ Non-Indictments. ................................................................................................................................................ 114 Table 24: Twitter Users by Race. ........................................................................................... 119 Table 25: American Internet User Rate by Race. ................................................................... 120 Table 26: Smartphone-Based Internet Dependency Rate by Race among American Adults. 120 Table 27: “Social Media News Use” in 2016......................................................................... 125 4 Figures Figure 1: “U.S. poverty rates vary significantly by race and ethnicity: 1961–2015,” nd. ....... 26 Figure 2: Jeffrey M. Jones, “Perceptions that Racism against Blacks Is Widespread in U.S., by Race” (Gallup, 17 Aug. 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2017). ................................................................. 29 Figure 3: Hannah Hartig, John Lapinski and Stephanie Psyllos, “How Serious is Racial Discrimination against Blacks?” (NBC News, 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 2 Aug. 2017). ................ 30 Figure 4: Janie Velencia, “Actions Taken Against Racism” (The Huffington Post, 17 July 2015. Web. 2 Aug. 2017) ......................................................................................................... 30 Figure 5: Tweet, 20 Jul. 2014 ................................................................................................... 58 Figure 6: “Tweets Containing #BlackLivesMatter over Time,” Freelon, p. 33. ...................... 81 Figure 7: “All Houses Matter” by Kris Straub ......................................................................... 90 Figure 8: Tweet, 21 Sept. 2016 ................................................................................................ 91 Figure 9: Tweet, 30 Apr. 2017 ................................................................................................. 91 Figure 10: Tweet, 18 June 2017. .............................................................................................. 92 Figure 11: Tweet, 1 May 2017 ................................................................................................. 92 Figure 12: Tweet, 20 June 2017. .............................................................................................. 93 Figure 13:
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