Toggle Menu

What Will Protect Black Americans From Police Violence?

Police interactions have gone viral, but will that stop the brutality?

Melissa Harris-Perry

October 16, 2014

Over the last few months, videos chronicling aggressive interactions between police officers and black people have gone viral. From chokeholds to taserings, to being shot and killed, the police have been caught again and again subjecting black Americans to disproportionate violence. But, as Melissa Harris-Perry explains, all citizens are protected by the fourth amendment, which states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” Are these videos doing anything to guarantee this right?   N’Kosi Oates

Melissa Harris-PerryTwitterMelissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair and Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs and the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University. She is also the co-host of The Nation’s System Check podcast.


Latest from the nation