Criminal Justice Essay Examples

August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, a 18- year old black man was shot and killed, brutally at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson. Brown was leaving the gas station when he caught the attention of Wilson, who was supposed to be responding to another call. He thought Brown looked suspicious because he was a big, black “intimidating” man. Wilson “claimed” Brown was reaching for a gun so he fired twelve unnecessary shots at Brown while his hands were up. It turns out that Brown was not in possession of a weapon. Darren Wilson made up this allegation to make it seem like self defense, and to make Brown seem at fault for the shooting taking place. When Wilson went to trial the court found him not guilty. White police officers are not beingg held accountable so these police shootings are becoming more brutal and frequent. The Mike Brown

The shooting occurred at the Fruitvale train station on January 1st, 2009. At the station, a fight broke out in one of the trains and when the train stopped the fight started again outside of the train at one of the stops. While they were fighting on the train the BART officers were called. The officers came and arrested everyone that was in the fight. A guy named Oscar Grant was in the fight and was also arrested (Meyer). While Grant was being arrested by Officer Mehserle, he resisted the officer’s attempts. Since Grant was resisting he was pushed onto the ground on his stomach to be handcuffed. Johannes Mehserle was having trouble handcuffing Grant so the other BART officers helped him. When Grant was on the ground Mehserle was going to tase him since he would not stop resisting. When Mehserle thought he pulled out his TASER, he instead pulled out his gun. Mehserle accidentally shot Grant with his gun since he thought he pulled out his TASER (Bulwa).

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Recently, I saw the film, “Fruitvale Station” in which a BART police officer fatally shoots Oscar Grant. On January 30, 2010, prosecutors charged, police officer, Johannes Mehserle with murder for the shooting. He resigned his position and pleaded not guilty. Michael Rains, Mehserle's criminal defense attorney, argued that Mehserle mistakenly shot Grant with his pistol, intending to use his taser when he saw Grant reaching for his waistband. On January 30, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson set bail for Mehserle at $3 million. A week later, with the help of fundraising from the police union, Mehserle posted bail.

According to the article, “Views You Can Use: Was Justice Served in Ferguson?” Rachel Brody proclaims, “The jury, composed of nine whites and three blacks, found no probable cause to charge Wilson, who is white, and returned a “no true bill” on all five indictments against him for killing an unarmed black teen.” But one important fact that is consistently left out is that the grand jury that decided to not indict the officer has been sitting there for a while. They were given this case and were not chosen to handle this case but were just sitting on the stand when the case arrived. According to the article, “Views You Can Use: Was Justice Served in Ferguson?” Rachel Brody proclaims, “Were 12 shots necessary? Was there some other, non-lethal way to subdue the suspect?” When a man approaches you with his hands near his waist, looking like he may have a concealed weapon, wouldn’t you be afraid too? You would be forced to take any actions to protect yourself, no matter how lethal they may

The desk officer was shoot in the shoulder and elsewhere, not wearing a bulletproof vest, but was carrying an extra pistol, deflecting the bullet to his leg. This officer was a seven year veteran. The second officer that was involved started shooting at Yealu, but wasn’t shot at by Yealu. After the gun fight, Yealu was hospitalized in critical condition. Police officers received a search warrant to search Yealu’s house, finding hundreds of rounds of ammunition and weapons, two assault rifles, one shotgun, and two handguns authorities said. This shooting had reached the LAPD’s fourth on-duty injury of the month.

On 19th January 2015, Liang’s trial began. Liang’s partner testified that senior officers taught them to take their firearm out during training as they approached a roof landing as the roof landing is a dangerous place. One Detective Nathan Garcia who testified that Liang had been in attendance at all firearms training during his time at the academy in 2013 also admitted that he did instructed that when approached the roof landing, one should have his firearm out, finger alongside the trigger. Garcia also testified cops are taught to beware of a possible ‘ambush’ on vertical patrols.

On August 9, 2014 a white male police officer named Darren Wilson fatally shot an African-American male named Michael Brown to death in Ferguson, MO. An investigation was immediately launched through the collection of evidence from the crime scene, an autopsy of Michael Brown’s body, and interviews with witnesses. For several months following the shooting and after the Grand Jury met, there was immense public speculation over whether Officer Wilson justifiably shot in self-defense or in racially motivated cold blooded murder. The ballistic evidence collected from the crime scene and from the autopsy corroborated Wilson’s story that he was justified in what transpired that fateful afternoon.

To compare to the Rodney King beating, a New York 22 year old resident born in West Africa, was shot at 42 times by four New York City uncover police officers. Unfortunately, 19 of those bullets hit Amadou Diallo killing him. Diallo was returning home in the Bronx, from his job in Manhattan. From his doorway the four police officers open fire when Diallo went to get his wallet out of his back pocket. The officers believed he was pulling out a gun. All four officers, who were in plainclothes, said they approached Mr. Diallo because they thought he fit the description of a man wanted in a rape case. The officers faced prosecution on second-degree murder and other charges but were acquitted by a jury in Albany. The trial had been moved because of concerns over pretrial publicity. (Buckley, 5)

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It was a very tragic situation, an officer should always know who/what they are shooting at every time they pull the trigger. It is a hard story to read and the radio talk amongst the police is even worse. After the officers had fired their weapons, in the graphic footage from one of the officers body cams, you could hear the two officers talking. An officer can be heard in the footage

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Oscar Grant was reported to be rowdy on the train and was shot at point-blank range. The policeman later revealed he was trying to grab his Taser not his handgun. While reading this review, the author was using present day situations such as the Zimmerman case to reflect on how two different cases can be the same but in different standpoints. Trayvon’s incident was not recorded, but Zimmerman was reported to be running behind an unarmed suspected to have a gun. The author wanted to say that cases are similar considering that both officers were not prosecuted. A better example he could have used was the Walter Scott shooting. Both men were believed to be causing a disturbance, the policeman was trying to grab their Tasers, and someone was

The DOJ report mentioned that there appeared to be soot around the wound on the right hand which is “evidence of close range discharge of a firearm” (p. 9). The report listed eight gunshot wounds on Brown’s body. The DOJ concluded that six of the eight bullets that impacted Brown’s body entered through the front. The two bullets that were determined not to have entered through the front were the ones that struck the right arm and right forearm. The bullet to the right arm was concluded to have an “indeterminate trajectory” and the bullet to the right forearm entered through the back (p. 9). All but one of the gunshot wounds were found to be inflicted from a distance. The bullet that entered through the back of the forearm can be explained by Brown swinging his arm in the act of running towards Officer Wilson. This evidence supports Wilson’s statement that he fired at Brown not at close range, but while he was charging at him from a distance. It further shows that it was impossible that Michael Brown was shot in the back as some had previously