A topic that is very prominent at this time in social media and mainstream media is the presence of police brutality in the United States. Two instances in the news recently are the disputes that resulted in the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.
Over the years there have been a large number of police brutality incidences reported in the United States. Unfortunately, there have been a large number of cases where the law enforcement officers have been at fault, but in turn, there have also been cases where the law enforcement officers have been falsely accused. In order to increase the public’s faith and trust in law enforcement, footage needs to be made available to, not only the press, but also the public eye with body cameras. Not only will these body cameras help prevent violence, but it will also show positive footage of good working law enforcement officers, and also hold law enforcement officers liable for their unjustified actions by being recorded.
A report made on May 31st shows that at least 385 people have been killed by American police since 2015 has started. FBI reports show that over the past decade, the annual average for fatal shootings by police is about 400, and this year they are close to surpassing that only half-way through the year. Two thirds of these people have been either African American or Hispanic with one in six of them being unarmed at the time of the shooting. More than 80 percent of the shootings were because of what had started as minor things that escalated into assaults. This is important because police brutality has become a bigger issue with police being more likely to shoot with race in mind.
Police brutality continues to be one of the most serious and contentious violations of human rights in the United States. The unreasonable amount of force used by police officers prevails because of a lack of accountability. This makes it feasible for officers who do violate human rights to get off clean and recommit the violation. A sad fact is that police and/or public officials deny time after time any claims of human rights violations, claiming it was an abnormality, when they should be taking action and holding officers responsible for their actions. (Williams 1998, 45)
Power abusing among cops remains a standout amongst the most serious human rights infringement in the United States. Over the previous decade, police have carried on in ways that have made individuals doubt "are the cops truly enforcing the law?" Extreme beatings, unjustified shootings, lethal choking 's, and harsh treatment have all added to the ever-present issue of police mercilessness in America. Police brutality has existed as long as policing has been around in this nation. It is noteworthy, however, that “in the years 2001–2007, the United States Justice Department reported a 25 percent increase in the use of tactics by law enforcement officials that allegedly violate citizens ' civil rights” (Walter). These occasions do not symbolize all of the policing severity that has happened, but they lay out as the basis for the issues that still presently exist. The truth is that a large portion of these episodes go un-noticed or un-reported. Through studies, people try to recognize the reasons for police brutality, and what they can do to end it.
The United States is facing a continuous wide spread of police brutality from the past to today. TV Networks, newspapers/magazines, bloggers and forums are getting involved into the discussion about police brutality. After a father bought a toy gun for his son for his birthday, his son went outside to play and a police officer saw him with the gun not knowing it was a toy and shot him several times. This incident occurred in Sonoma County in October 2013. Something close to that happened in November 2014 where a Cleveland police officer killed a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun. On April 12, 2015 Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore City police and while being transported he allegedly fell in a coma, with injuries to his spinal cord. Use of excessive force by police is common in black communities. Officers aren’t trained effectively and they act out of fear. On uslegal.com Police brutality is described as a civil rights violation that happens when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is not necessary. Excessive force by law enforcement officers is a violation of a person 's rights.
Police brutality is a major issue in America and has been a hot topic that is the center of controversy. There have been many efforts to stop this abuse of power. Those efforts prove to have little results that will stop it. In some cases, law enforcement officers abuse their power and go too far, but it is not always the police officer who is at fault. Many claims have been proven false and the victim can turns out to be someone merely trying to get away with a crime. Claims can be proven accurate or inaccurate by installing more cameras on police officers, being equipped with a less deadly weapon, mandatory psychological evaluations and even having anger management inserted into the training process or even as an annual requirement. Though claims of this abuse of power may be true or false, there are plenty of proposed solutions that could stop or greatly reduce claims of brutality.
“To Protect and Serve” (Dorobek) is the official motto of the American Police Academy and to do that requires a balanced relationship of trust and support between police officers and the people they serve. In different ways, civilians and police officer’s both have a responsibility to uphold the law. It is a police officer’s responsibility to defend their community. A civilian’s civil duty is to support their police force to ensure they can carry out their job in the safest and most peaceful manner. However, a gap in communication has damaged the relationship between officer’s and the members of the communities they serve. In order to put an end to police brutality and repair the relationship between the American Police Force and the communities they serve, the enforcement of body cameras, new and better methods to train, and special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations are all essential.
Police brutality is an ongoing problem in the United States. Law enforcement agents are there to protect the public for they have the legal right to use physical, and even deadly, force. However, many of these officers abuse of that power. In the past year, there have been more than 900 cases of police abuse. Most of the victims have been innocent, unarmed, and/or of color. Police brutality is becoming more and more of an issue as society keeps growing. This nationwide problem could be solved in many ways, but having peaceful protests and by educating our police officers about racial differences are two good possible solutions.
News headlines demonstrating the brutality of law enforcement has been becoming more frequent over the past couple of years. When you hear about these cases of police brutality, how often is it that law enforcement officials are punished for the crime they have perpetrated? Most of the time the law enforcement officials, who are very well in the wrong do not get any kind of punishment whatsoever for the crimes that they have committed and it all comes back to the power that they have. Police brutality cases have been on the rise in the last couple of years where it is not even surprising when we hear about it which is really disheartening. The law enforcement brutality census is mind-boggling. At the end of 2015, the Washington Post released an article which stated the statistics of police brutality. According to the Washington Post, 965 people were fatally shot by police officers in 2015, 564 of these fatalities were armed with a firearm, 281 were armed with another kind of weapon, and 90 of them were unarmed (Kindy, Fisher, Tate and Jenkins, 2015).
Police offers are surpots to uphold the laws of the nation and protect the citizens of their nation from harm, but that is not always the case. Throughout history, the ones that are designated to protect the public the one are harming the public. When the police abuse their power, it is not uncommon for them just to look the other way and not charge the other office of any crime. In the United States the defining of police brutality is the wanton use of excessive force, this could be physical, verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer. Often times, the victims of police brutality are arrested for a crime, not the police officer; it is not until the citizen become aware of the brutality and demand that the office be
Police abuse stays a standout amongst the most serious human rights infringement in the United States. The police transmit a colossal weight every day. Police work is exact traumatic and includes numerous fierce and dangerous circumstances. In numerous threats the police are placed in a spot in which they might need to utilize intensity to resistor the circumstance. There are assorted levels of quality and the circumstance charges the level utilize more often than not. The police have extremely serious tenets about police use dynamism and the methods in which they utilize it. The vicinity of police ruthlessness is turning out to be a greater amount of an issue as society develops. The issue postured by the unlawful activity of police force is a progressing reality for people of a disfavored race, class, or sexual introduction. Police fierceness must be halted with the goal that police bear in mind who they are serving – not themselves, but rather people in general. This implies even the offenders, who are a part of the general population, have certain rights, especially, social liberties. Police severity causes a noteworthy worry in today 's general public in America and a determination is up and coming.
First, you may ask yourself, what Police Brutality defines itself as? “Police Brutality is when an officer using more force than necessary to control a situation.” (Smith). Police Brutality occurs with OC spray, batons, stun guns, or handguns. But Police Brutality can also be seen with a use of threats or intimidation. In today’s world, we see plenty of stories all over social media, the news shows live broadcasts on protesters against the Police and excessive force. If you stop and look around, most of the Police Brutality taking place today deals with race or politics. It always seems that the people with a badge, like to think they have the upper hand with a higher power because they feel as if they are backed by the government and that everything will be taken care of. Well this is getting much too out of hand, and something needs to be changed, or there may end up being a war between the people and the police. There needs to be a way or policy enforced to help civilians feel a better sense of protection with the police.
In order to decrease police brutality and stop abuse of power there is a solution that can be set for both the Law Enforcement and the community. Wearing body cameras is ideal, for example, in Rialto, California, the police department has set an experiment to wear these body cameras and the results were rather shocking. The abuse of “force” or power by police went down by 59% and police complaints down to 88%. ("If Ferguson Officer Wore a Camera: Our View.")
Police brutality has adverse effects on society in its entirety and, hence, there is need to stop these acts so as to improve cohesiveness and the observation of the law in society.