Examples Of Overkill In To Kill A Mockingbird

1,100 is the estimated number of homicides due to some form of police brutality in 2015. Fifty-five years ago Harper Lee wrote of yet another case of police brutality in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The theme of the book, that the United States justice system is corrupt and unjustly biased, is developed through the unfair treatment of Tom Robinson at the local jail and throughout his case. Racism is exactly what many would expect from a small town in Alabama in the 1930’s, and Lee delivers in that realistic aspect of her novel. One example of such is this: “He despises negroes, won’t have one near him” (170)

The 1930s was the beginning of an extremely unethical era, which led to the spread of corrupt ideas and principles through the nation. This is shown in the article, “Standards Focus: Historical Context, Based on True Stories”. As the author is telling of the events that occurred during The Scottsboro Trials, it is mentioned that out of the nine black men accused of rape, eight “were given death sentences, despite the fact that the defense attorney pointed out that one of the men was blind, the other too elderly and crippled to commit the crime, another underage, and that they were not even in the same rail car.” (Secondary Solutions). The verdict that the men were guilty was made because with the rough life people were living, they were willing to lie to keep themselves protected, and those who believed this act was wrong were not strong enough to protest. This is a parallel to To Kill A Mockingbird, because despite obvious evidence that Tom Robinson is innocent, he is still determined to be guilty. In the trial in Lee’s novel, the victim was hurt mainly on their right side. It is said that “He [Tom Robinson] rose to his feet and stood with his right hand on the back of his chair. He looked oddly off balance, but it was not from the way he was standing. His left arm was fully twelve inches

“From that point on,” after witnessing the body—and Mamie’s courage—“Mississippi began to move” (Bush 3). On July 2nd 1964, John F. Kennedy signed the civil rights act into law. Now, This was meant to be a turning point in history and the act of gunning down a black youth became a staple case of racism considering it was the case that led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. However, within the emergence of this new racism, “African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged in 2015 by investigation into the use of deadly force by police” (Swaine 1) even though African American males only make up 2% of the population. From Emmett Till’s gunning down in 1955 to Walter Scott’s in 2015, we are witnessing history repeat itself when America can clearly see, “of course the evidence is not there, but we are still claiming skin color was not a factor” (Crump 2). The city of North Charleston, S.C., was all too willing to accept the officer’s version of events, even though the physical evidence clearly showed that the officer had landed four out of eight bullets in Scott’s

“To Kill a Mocking Bird” is not only a great book but also a book that portrays a clear and concise message. This book is about the murder, immense persecution, and hatred towards an innocent man, Tom Robinson. This book Written by Harper lee is about a rape case against an African American man during the years of 1932 to 1935 in Maycomb, Alabama. These years were filled with racism, hatred, and segregation. A rape charge against a black man, Tom Robinson, with the victim being a white woman, Mayella Ewell, was ultimately a death sentence during these times no matter the actual truth to the incident or if it even occurred in the first place. This story portrays the truth of racism and the extreme level of tyranny directed towards African Americans. Lee lays out in detail the entirety of Tom Robinson’s case from the

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

In the book To kill A Mockingbird a symbol of racism is shown in the scene where Tom Robinson is shot repeatedly 17 times for no reason. “The guards having pointed there weapons in the air and fired a few warning shots, then shot him no less than seventeen times claiming that he was in a blind rage.” This shows that the guard was clearly trying to go for the kill and not to just mame him. He was racist and wanted to kill him and to do so he shot him over and over again.

Police brutality, or the general brutality towards black people, is not a new issue in America. Over 700 unarmed African-Americans were murdered in 2015 alone. Michelle Alexander argues in “The New Jim Crow” that the criminal-justice system in America has purposely been used as a means for oppressing black people after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. In 1903, Hon. Frank Moss, a former police commissioner of New York City, published this paragraph:

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and

According to Discover The Networks, criminologist Michael Tonry wrote in 1995, “Racial differences in patterns of offending, not racial bias by police and other officials, are the principle reason that such greater proportions of Blacks than whites are arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned.” Even in these times, racism is still alive and present. It has gotten better, but there is a very real possibility that this is the most controlled it will get. Back in the early 1990’s, racism was legal. Today, it is not. Yet, there are still instances where even the government demonstrates racism. The attitudes between specific characters and communities, as well as the racism affecting the trials, show astounding similarities between Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scottsboro case.

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 119). Atticus Finch told his children never to shoot a mockingbird because all they ever do is sing for everyone's enjoyment. In the book Tom Robinson represents a mockingbird, always helping others and not doing any harm; yet he is still treated with no respect and killed at the end of the book. The reason Tom Robinson was treated poorly was just because he was African American. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization, point of view, and diction to highlight how African Americans were treated in the south.

According to our lecture,“Racism and discrimination are what we call a ‘root problem’ in society because it also affects the way we discuss” various social topics such as violence (Reali, 2018). Hence, the stereotype that young African-American men are violent, which is most likely why the policemen automatically detained Grant and his friends for violent behavior. As for discrimination, the policemen also treated these Black men in an unfair manner by using the N-word, pushing, and physically harming them. It brings up the question of “What would have happened if these men were white,?” and if things would have turned out differently if they were. Furthermore, the gunshot that killed Oscar Grant is another example of the policemen’s prejudice and discrimination towards African-Americans, since he allowed a prejudgement thought influence his actions, even though there was no need to use violence (Reali, 2018). In my opinion, this goes back to the prejudice and discrimination that has lasted hundreds of years against African-Americans that still continues to affect these minorities. One of the characteristics of this minority groups is the unequal treatment they experience with having “less power over their lives than members of a dominant group have over their own lives,” clearly being the case, in which Grant had no power over the fate of his life. (Reali,

During the 1930’s the 13th amendment might have freed minorities from slavery but it still let them get oppressed. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a disabled African American man by the name of Tom Robinson is used as a plot point in the book to help the reader understand the racial problems in the 1930’s Maycomb, Alabama. He was put on trial for the alleged beating and raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. The verdict, which was biased, sent Mr. Robinson to jail to be served the death penalty but was shot seventeen times when he tried to jump the prison’s fence. Tom Robinson is the personification for the treatment and injustices caused to the African American community due to racism.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows a lot of racial or social issues, especially against the African-Americans, such as racial inequality and poor treatment of the poor or homeless; both of these are still at least partially seen today. Harper Lee uses the unfair trial of Tom Robinson and his cruel death to show racial inequality, especially towards the African-Americans. Towards the end of the trial, Lee describes how the jury acts when they come back in as: “A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson…” (Lee 282). Then, Judge Taylor announces the verdict: “Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty…” (Lee 282). Later on, Atticus comes home after finding out about Tom Robinson’s death: “Tom’s dead…. They got him just as he went over the fence…. Seventeen bullet holes in him” (Lee 315). Based on this evidence, it is clear that racial inequality was evident in the 1930’s because with prior knowledge from the novel, we know that Tom didn’t stand much of a chance against the jury because of his being African-American. Also, if a white man had done what Tom did, he probably would have been given a fairer trial than Tom was. Even though, the police obviously wanted him dead as he tried to escape prison, there was no reason to shoot him seventeen times. Racial inequality can still been seen in the country, and around the world, but doesn’t seem to be as bad as it had been; some statistics show it improved soon after, but some facts show it took longer. One statistic showing that racial inequality has gotten better states, “In 1980, over 50% of the Blacks aged 25 or more had completed high school, and, by 2012, 85%” (Coleman 183).One fact stating that racial inequality took a while before improving states, “Even after the slaves were freed, the African Americans continued to face legal discrimination and segregation until the victories of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s” (“Preface to ‘What…’” 1). This evidence shows that racial inequality didn’t really improve at first. After the civil rights movement, things improved for the African Americans. From the statistic, the reader knows that between 1980 and 2012, a little over 1% more of the

Most of the police brutality cannot be attributed to any significant proof but is only based on racial profiling. As such, the police attempted to detain suspects who they assumed to be behaving in a suspicious manner, any form of resistance resulted in fatal shooting. Furthermore, in most cases, blacks who were shot were not armed even though police tried to prove that they had within their reach dangerous items like knives (Russell-Brown, 2004). While carrying out their duties, police officers justify their actions against black people by arguing that they felt threatened or were in a position that forced them to shoot. It shows that speculation and a negative attitude against black people were the main reasoning behind the brutal treatment

According to an updated article in the New York Times, only 4 of the 53 police officers were black in Ferguson, at town where an unarmed black teenager was shot by a white police officer. This article pulls up old issues about racial inequality, which Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird also explores. The main character, Scout’s prejudice against African Americans is created by the influence of other people, such as classmates and neighborhood adults, and is overcome by the reprimanding of Atticus, Scout’s father.