The first day of philosophy with Tanya Rodriguez she taught a lesson on Injustice and injustice is and means. Throughout the in-class injustice assignment I learned the importance of structure in an argument. A good argument has strong premises and a true conclusion. While doing the injustice class assignment my partner Daya Hobbs and I chose to discuss the relationship between the Sacramento Police Department and the Black community in Sacramento, because we both had a negative experience with law enforcement here in Sacramento. The Sacramento police department lacks, when protecting Black people because while on duty often they abuse the amount of power that the job comes with and handle minor situations with violence, thus breaking the positive relationship with the Black community.
1) Police in Sacramento handle situations with violence.
2) Minor situations do not require violent force.
Conclusion: If police did not handle situations with violence, the relationship of police and the Black community would be more positive.
My experience as a young Black activist in Sacramento has not been easy and or welcoming. Protests have helped me find a passion of work for my life. Protesting brings an excitement to me personally because I am using my voice in ways that people like me have not always had the option to without horrid circumstances. Protesting throughout Black history was a pivotal method to make change politically, economically, and socially. So protesting for me is a honorable action that shows your passion and love for your cause of change and why that change is important and should happen. Protesting for me became super important once I personally experienced police brutality while protesting. Protesting for Stephon Clark and being arrested for 9 hours throughout the night for me was a very traumatic experience. I did not notice the effect that the incident brought mentally, until I was failing all of my classes, calling into work, and scared to walk home alone. Protesting made me feel empowered because I was exercising my first amendment but being arrested for trying to go home once the protest was over and being innocent made me realize the bigger injustice of how Black people are treated in America. Being an activist comes with both the positive interactions and the negative interactions and now I have realized how much of a character defining moment being arrested was. I felt empowered because Black people have been arrested for years for fighting for a voice and or equal rights. In a way I felt like I was paying homage to those who came before me. The Sacramento police department simply treated us with no care. Thirty-three of the eighty-four people were Sac State students. The officers treated us as criminals as they refused to let us disperse. Overall that night changed my perspective of the police department in Sacramento, I believe that the police should be forced to take training on how to serve the communities they work for. Training that will help change the narrative of how police view the black community so the relationship between both groups will be stronger. A healthy relationship between black people and the police department is important because in situations like protesting violent actions will never have to occur. Personally I believe once people trust in something, for example the police, it is easier to communicate with that someone or something. While protesting I felt vulnerable and powerless and that’s a feeling I did not want to feel anymore. Finding out now that we will be paid for the inconvenience of being arrested makes me feel like I walked away with something but the initial reason for protesting was to make sure the officers that murdered Stephon Clark were charged for the crime that they committed. Being an activist is something I see as honorable but sometimes you have to take away something positive to sleep at night.
TK’s Journey 