Television series ‘Scandal’ tackles police brutality issue

On Aug. 9, 2014, 18-year-old African American Michael Brown was shot at least six times by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and left dead in the street for four hours. Justice for Brown has yet to be achieved, as Wilson was never held responsible for his actions and now lives in seclusion on the outskirts of St. Louis.

In Season 4, Episode 14 of the political thriller “Scandal,” creator Shonda Rhimes masterfully incorporates the Black Lives Matter movement, the activist campaign that spreads awareness of the police brutality issue that plagues the nation, while referencing the events of Ferguson and other protests.

“Scandal” itself portrays a scene of a 17-year-old African American male, Brandon Parker, who was shot dead by a police officer named Jeffrey Newton. This eventually led to the chanting of “Stand up! Fight back! No more black men under attack!” by peaceful protesters.

The actions in the episode parallel those in the Ferguson shooting: In both cases, protests erupt across the nation, demanding justice. However, things play out much more ideally in this fictional scenario; in Brown’s situation, the grand jury decided not to indict Wilson.

In the show, officer Newton goes on a racially charged rant about how crime amongst black people is a bigger problem than police killing black people.

He even says, “Brandon Parker is dead because he didn’t have respect, because those people out there who are chanting and crying over his body, they didn’t teach him the right values. They didn’t teach him respect. He didn’t respect me. He didn’t respect my badge. Questioning my authority was not his right! His blood is not on my hands!”

This outburst, in fact, shows some of the thought processes behind officer brutality in real life. It is quite frightening how those who are paid to protect the people of the United States believe blacks should be stripped of their basic human rights for simply not paying respect to officers, when the distrust and the supposed disrespect stems from the actions of the police in the first place.

The assumption that all blacks are criminals is a major problem in a society in which police officers denounce blacks trying to plead their innocence as “resisting arrest.”

Since Brown’s death, cases having to do with racial discrimination have seemed to multiply.

Just months after Ferguson, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police officers in Cleveland for only pulling out a toy gun. The officers did not aid Rice following the shooting, and he died the next day.

More recently, former tennis star James Blake was misidentified as a wanted suspect by NYPD police officer James Frascatore. Frascatore went undercover and was caught on tape tackling and arresting Blake. The incident revealed how the officer assumed Blake had committed a crime based solely on his ethnicity and appearance. This sparked a debate about racial profiling and resulted in Frascatore surrendering his badge.

Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland — these are just some of the victims whose deaths were direct results of police brutality.

The truth is that African American adults and children alike are frequently antagonized and targeted by police officers, who are given only a slap on the wrist for their brutality.

This episode of “Scandal” reveals just this while setting a positive precedent for police institutions in dealing with cases of police brutality and racial profiling.

After yet another year of unimaginable atrocities, we are left with but one question: How many racially based shootings or arrests have to occur for us to realize that it is not enough to talk about change? We need to act.