False Accusations and interrogations are very serious situations that many people in today's society have often experienced more than once. These accusations will always be considered unless further proven true with evidence and facts behind it. These are situations that are rarely spoken about or fought to be solved.

False Accusation

In our previous stay woke meeting, not only did we discuss the full purpose and effect of Power mapping but we had also discussed the troubles of false accusation. False Accusation is a very serious situation many people of today's generations have often experienced more than once. The very concept behind a “False Accusation” is a claim or allegation of wrongdoing that is seen as completely untrue to the perpetrator. These accusations will always be considered unless further proven true with evidence and facts behind it. These false accusations have been seen as great difficulties, jeopardizing many individuals' reputations as well as their future after being put into strenuous and pressuring situations. Many people from our meeting had shared a brief Storytime of being falsely accused of certain crimes and or actions. A majority of their stories had included the police as the ones who had accused them for conducting the crimes stated, for example, one colleague had stated that she was pulled over and from the police eyes, they were suspected that she took part in “grand theft auto” because her license plate seemed to have been either crooked or wasn't claimed to be hers. This made the car seem as if it were stolen. This led to a serious verbal dispute between the police officers that pulled her over to the side. Not only that, but another colleague had explained that through race and preconception, he was falsely accused of a crime in his previous years, and had missed out a lot on certain events after he was wrongfully arrested for actions he has not committed for over a year. It was difficult to prove himself as innocent when placed under that situation. It was deemed evident that many police officers of modern society have been making accusations, solely based on race and age which is unfair. This could lead to long term effects of destroying the reputation and records of the many innocent youth within the U.S, causing them to face more obstacles when aiming for their career goals and college acceptance. As the meeting came to a conclusion, we believe that power mapping could actually help to reduce the amount of false accusation being consistently placed onto minorities and young people. With good relationships and networking, it could be used to prompt a social change that reduces the unnecessary accusations being placed on many people of modern society. The inaccurate claims to crimes that were not committed by the “perpetrator” can ruin a person's life and aspirations as it could possibly lead to an uncalled for arrest with no evidence behind it. Hence, the entire concept of these accusations are both unfair and unjust for the people within the U.S. The use of movements by social advocates of change and power mapping could allow for this to be prevented before it escalates any further than it needs to.

False Interrogation

False interrogations are often regarded within our modern society as “false confessions”. As discussed in our previous stay woke meeting with many of our colleagues including Ms. Jasmine and Min. Onleilove Alston, it was confirmed that many police officers and law enforcers use this tactic on a daily basis in whichever way pleases them when encountering an alleged suspect. The entire concept of this form of policing, involves persuasion and mental/psychological factors to influence those being interrogated. False interrogations can be unjust and are consistently occurring within our community, and in numerous cases it is mostly used on people of color as well as teens which can lead to an unfair conviction for random crimes. Within our meeting, one guest speaker from RTG had given us a brief description of what exactly a false interrogation/false confession is and how he handled it in his first encounter. Firstly, it's actually depicted as persuaded false confession which occur as police or law enforcers are to use interrogation tactics to cause an innocent suspect to “doubt his memory” and cause the person to become temporarily persuaded. This persuasion would cause the person being interrogated to believe he’s most likely the one who has committed the crime. These are seen as psychological methods of causing innocent people to believe they had played a big role within crimes they never even knew any information about. The guest speaker from the RTG program in our meeting had explained that he once had a share in the stressful experience. He stated that they use these psychological methods to cause him to be held accountable for certain crimes during his time in high school. “The experience itself already felt unjust the moment they fed words into my mouth to develop a false confession when there was no actual proof of me taking part of that action”. This quote significantly notes that police persuasion and their psychological tactics allows their power to unjustly convict innocent civilians of actions they showed no evidence of taking part in through the uncalled for accusations and intense interrogations. Also, this led to him being unfairly taken into police custody for further investigation. Additionally, this method itself demonstrates corruption of police abusing their powers onto young minorities within our communities for their own benefit. This can be deemed as wrongful conviction as well. To conclude, the entire concept of police officers and other law enforcers using this tactic is completely unjust and unfair to many people within our communities. This is completely unnecessary as it takes away the future and freedom of many innocent civilians and is considered common in minority populated places in our city. By supporting advocates that make it a priority to use power mapping to reduce the percentage of false interrogation taking place in our community, I confidently believe it would be possible to help reform the many unjust and unfair tactics that police of our modern society constantly implements itself.

—Gbenga Akinrosoye