Examples Of Police Militarization

The militarization of the police is becoming more and more prevalent issue in our society. There are positives and negatives to this issue, but in my opinion it is a negative occurrence. Excessive use of force further divides police and community, which eventually may lead to severe consequences that may be irreparable.

If you grew up in an average middle-class town in the United States you were probably raised on the premise that the police were there to protect and fight crime, however, in many of today’s urban centers throughout the country, the tension between the police and the citizens has a very different relationship. The term ‘police’ brings many images to mind, while the objective of the police is to prevent and detect crime, this is far from the way so many Americans feel. Far from the original purpose of the police, the use of brutal and sometimes lethal force has evoked questions regarding the skewed system and the relationship between both in the communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the issue in the article, The Paranoid Style of American Policing, often bringing up complex issues, and effectively brings the issues to life through anecdotes. Coates presents a logical, thought out and well-executed argument surrounding the cracked police system in America. Due to the well-supported thesis, the structure of the argument, and lack of fallacies, Coates position is adequately supported through the use

Rise of the Warrior Cop, by Radley Balko, centers around police in the United States and how it has gone through militarization throughout the years. Militarization is a process in which the police departments take on tactics that are similar to the tactics used by the military. Police forces were initially made to make our environment a safer place to live in. In this book, Balko explains how that has changed. Practices of policing first began when people would get hired, unofficially, to keep slaves under control and catch them if they try to run away. These people were sometimes known as slave catchers. Soon it evolved into formal policing, allowing police to catch criminals and make the neighborhood safe. However, today it is not so much about catching criminals; it involves a lot of violence and Balko questions whether this is even constitutional. In his writing, Balko brings awareness to the horrible tactics police are using in today’s society and how we could fix it.

Over the recent years, police have been one of the organizations to be associated with the largest cases of misconduct. Police brutality can be termed as the process of misuse and abuse of authority by the police. The rising cases of police brutality are causing more harm to the public, compared to the actions perpetrated by real criminals. Although police claim that it’s sometimes necessary to curb crime, the process is illegal and police officers should be charged just like any other criminal offender. It should be the responsibility of the justice system to establish effective strategies to deal with the rising illegal activities in order to restore public trust in the law

Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert (1998) explain that through the police subculture deviance enters into law enforcement. The police character that is developed can be attributed to several paradigms such as psychological, sociological, and anthropological. The individual personalities of an officer and the authoritarian personality, characterized by cynicism, aggression, and conservatism, is that the psychological paradigm analyzes (p. 85). The socialization process which officers experience when they go through the academy, training, and field experience, contrast that dispositional model of the police personality, and this is the focus of the sociological paradigm. When officers internalize these norms and values that are learned, this professionalization occurs. The occupational culture of policing and the -beliefs, attitudes, and values that make up the subculture is seen as the anthropological paradigm or the culturalization perspective (Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert, 1998, p. 87-88).

I am researching about the brutality of police and police militarization. Recently with shootings involving police officers have led to protests and controversy with people not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. This has led to outrage by many citizens, as well as Donald Trump stating that the NFL should take action against this. This issue has had people agree and disagree on the actions of the football players and this separation has increased following the shooting in Las Vegas, which took the lives of almost 60 people and wounded over 500 more. Police brutality has been a huge deal, especially with the LA Riots resulting from the beating of Rodney King, and recently with Ferguson and San Diego last year. The issue with Police Militarization

This research question will clearly address the variations of police practices over the past 5 years in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, due to the recent incidents regarding police brutality and corruption. Using Chapter 12 Politics, Power, War, and Peace, will help show the relationships between politics in law enforcement and police officers, which deals with a lot of power and peace. Chapter 12 Politics, Power, War, and Peace, Section Cultural Controls in Maintaining Order states “Every culture has various forms of cultural control to ensure that individuals or groups conduct themselves in ways that support the social order. People who challenge or disturb the order face negative consequences” (W. Haviland; pg 315). In Baltimore

However, for much of America’s history, its police agencies themselves have been quite distinct from the military, serving numerous roles that range from “crime fighting” to “social peacekeeper” (Winright, 2014, p. 10). However, in recent years the crime fighting role of the police – sometimes referred to as “the military model of policing” – has become increasingly emphasized, often to the detriment of other police roles (Winright, 2014, p. 10). In conjunction with this, and in response to changing threats and mandates, police agencies have increasingly come to resemble the military in their tactics, equipment, and training (Bieler, 2016). Increased police militarization in response to changing law enforcement roles and specialized criminal threats is a necessary component of modern policing, but poses real dangers of abuse, escalating violence, and miscasting of the police role that warrant significant oversight and

Protecting citizens, keeping peace within communities and most importantly, enforcing the law, are all functions included within the police force. Police have a general discretion in carrying out their functions; however, how the various police roles are prioritised will have an impact on issues such as, the policing of political protests. My aim is not to undermine the police institution but rather to critically highlight and explain why there are a few officers who are held responsible for ruthless acts, and why they tend to use unnecessary force against certain “types” of citizens. In particular I want to know if “types” are in fact ethnic or socio-economically

Criminal justice majors have defined militarization of police forces as “the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model” (Greenwald, 2014). Whereas, Kraska and Kappeler (1997) defined militarization as “a set of beliefs and values that stress the use of force and domination as appropriate means to solve problems and gain political power, while glorifying the tools to accomplish this [with] military power, hardware, and technology”. Militarization of police involves the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers (Balko, 2013), including such things as the use of armored personnel carriers, assault rifles, submachine guns, flashbang grenades, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, SWAT teams, etc. (Wood, 2014).

My social advocacy group’s position regarding the militarization of police is that it is necessary for every local police agency to be armed and trained to neutralize any threat it may face to protect the citizens within their district. There have been 142 shootings around schools in the years following the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut (Fantz, Knight, & Wang, 2014). From 2004-2008, there were an average of 564 work related shootings for every year (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). In 2014 there were a total of 3,961 bank robberies. Of those 1,881 involved some type of a gun, 93 were an explosive device, and 31 had another type of weapon. These resulted in 13 deaths, 63 injured, and 31 hostages (FBI, 2015). This

The movement from the former systems of policing to community policing system calls for major changes. These changes may be in terms of goals, aims, policies and activities of police units, as well as the general image portrayed by police force. Consequently, this movement bears an eminent amount of disagreements as well as resistance within the police force. The police officers and their managers are the major parties involved in the matter of resistance. The managers fear loss of power and authority to control their officers when they become community police, on the other hand the police officer do not welcome the new role of solving community problems (Rohe, Adams and Arcury, 2001). This is because they are used to the normal role of enforcing laws. The implementation process therefore demands training of police officers on their new roles.

Though there are laws intact to stop the different forms of transgression from happening, many police officers have used their authority to do so. According to our book, even in 1931 police officers were condemned for widespread brutality and misconduct (p.240). However, many of the claims made towards police misconduct today are for excessive force- partly due to the amount of publicity, physical injury, and death that is caused from this form of behavior. Also, not all cases of excessive force are considered irrational because it depends on the circumstance of the suspect as well. This means, in some cases the police officer may use excessive force to defend himself in certain situations, or to defend other people from harm.

Police brutality is an old problem that has been around in this country for many years. Unfortunately, civilians have experienced it in their thousands, suffering varying degrees of damages, ranging from injuries or even loss of their lives at the hands of the brutal police. Even more disheartening is the fact that numerous officers in the American police force believe that their brutal and hostile tactics are contributing and giving justice to society, which is their basic role in the world (Vila and Morris 29). However, the

In today's society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public's view of it. When we mention today's police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to