History Of Police Brutality

Police brutality is defined as “excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians,” and this has become more prominent within the United States throughout the years (Danilina). There has many cases where police brutality has been seen via news channels, and it has dismantled the unity of trust between the civilians of the United States and the law enforcement who are supposed to protect the everyday people from harm. The issue is if the law enforcement is actually right within their means of protection, or have they gone too far with using excessive force in any situation that may or may not be harmful to them. There is, also, the question of whether racial profiling is the biggest contributor to police brutality.

Cases of police brutality appear to have been frequent then, with "the routine bludgeoning of citizens by patrolmen armed with nightsticks or blackjacks."[5] Large-scale incidents of brutality were associated with labor strikes, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Pullman Strike of 1894, the Lawrence textile strike of 1912, the Ludlow massacre of 1914, the Steel strike of 1919, and the Hanapepe massacre of 1924.

Although I should know by now, I cannot help but think that there has been an overwhelming amount of police brutality in recent years. Police brutality can be defined as, when a police officer uses more force than necessary. This issue has spread throughout the United States of America, and is putting the lives of our citizens in great danger. Police brutality is not only physical, but it can also be verbal attacks; and, in most cases, it is caused by false arrest and racial profiling due to police corruption. Police brutality has been and continues to be a major concern in society and it is used very loosely to any and all forms of police misconduct. Whereas, in reality, excessive force of police misconduct is what defines police brutality. The jobs of a police officer are too calmly resolve public disturbance and disputes. Police officers are supposed to protect citizens; instead they are hurting and using excessive force. It is not right and it is unjust for a police officer to hurt a citizen due to an assumption without any actual proof of criminal activity.

Police officers are individuals who enforce the law upon their community to ensure that their citizens remain safe. In the past couple of years, officers of the law have been involved in acts of brutality that seem to go beyond the proper measurements of protection for their citizens. Policemen are supposed to protect their citizens from danger and from harm, not impose a threat on them. The fact that officers have a history of abusing their power indicates that their trust amongst the community has been corrupted. Those who have been affected of police brutality feel as though they have been deceived. They no longer feel that police officers will protect them, but rather abuse them, and that is a problem. We have began to live in a community in which an individual feels frightened when seeing a cop, rather than feeling protected. Some individuals may argue that police brutality is not a problem due to the fact that it is not consistent enough to catch the attention of needing a solution. However, that idea means little when the level of brutality has led to the death of several innocent victims in some cases. We must not wait for there to be a pattern of death at the hands of police officials to consider this a problem. One death indicates that preventive measures must be taken to ensure that these officers are no longer put in the position to abuse their power to begin with.

Police brutality is a controversial issue that has recently been in the news, but seems to have always been an issue in America. Police brutality refers to the intentional use of verbal or physical attacks directed towards individuals by the police force that result in false arrests, sexual abuse, or death. (Dudley, William 13.) Most of these actions are linked to racial profiling: the targeting of individuals for suspicion of crime based solely on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. (Dudley, William 13.) Statistics about how often racial profiling and police brutality occurs, movements such as Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, and police reform efforts are just a few points as to why this topic is so controversial today.

When you think of the police, your opinion may vary. Let me ask you a question about our police force. But keep this in mind, in October 2015 alone, there was 81 deaths by the police. With that being said, who’s to protect us from whose protecting the block? I don 't care who you are, you have to be able to realize nowadays that the police brutality is getting out of hand, that the power surge is growing and growing. Look around, there 's an increase of civilians death via cops, an increase of reports of police wrongdoing, and an increase of more officers standing trial for a case relating to police brutality.

As a result of this "threat" of entering a labor union, the commissioner of police, Edward Curtis, told the men that no policemen were to join a union. After men decided to join the American Federation of Labor, Curtis decided to suspend those men. Leaders of the union were angered by this action and told the commissioner not to punish the men or else all union members would go on strike. Compromises were brought the Curtis, but none were accepted. Soon, a vast majority of the police department was on strike. It did not take long for violence in the streets to set in. Many volunteers were put in the line of duty. Angry mobs ran the streets, and many newspapers ran articles such as, "Riots in Boston", "Terror Reigns in City". This was a disgrace to the city of Boston. After eight deaths of seventy wounded, and thousand of dollars of damage done, the cities order was finally restored. The officers were given the raises that were requested and no longer had to pay for there uniforms.

The history of police brutality goes way back, even into the 1800’s. Back then it was said to be aimed at the poor labor workers. Workers would go on strike, such as the Great Railroad strike of 1877, the Pullman Strike of 1894, or the Lawrence Textile strike of 1912. Police would brutally beat the strikers to get them to stop. As a part of their revolt, labor workers that were participating in the strike would beat the police officers(“Law”).

Police brutality escalated back in 1877 against labor workers, strikes such as the Railroad Strike, Pullman Strike, Lawrence Strike all the way to the Steel Strike in 1919 created massive deaths by police.

Police brutality is a growing problem all around the world. Although we may only hear of certain similar situations that go on in the United States, Police brutality is happening all around the world. This problem seems to have been around for a while now. Police brutality has been defined as, “the unwarranted or excessive and often illegal use of force against civilians by U.S. Police Officers.” There are many forms of Police Brutality, such as harassment (false arrest), intimidation, and verbal abuse. Although Police Officers do have to use force to carry out necessary duties, “force can be used only in a manner that meets standards of reasonableness.” In October 15, 1966, a group of African Americans came together to form a group named the Black Panther Party to stop this cruel abuse of power (BBP Britannica).

Ronald Weitzer “Incidents of police misconduct and public opinion” Department of Sociology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA .

Over the years United States has witnessed a substantial increase in police brutality, it is one of the most common and serious violation of the human rights and it happens more often than we care to know in our communities, ranging from verbal to physical abuse in which usually an innocent person results injured as police officers lay their called justice upon the alleged criminals.

Since a very young age we have been taught to put our trust into police officers. If we are in distress, they are always there to help since it is their job to protect and serve the common citizen. So what happens when the individuals we are supposed to trust to bring justice are the ones causing the injustice we see in the news? Recently, several police officers have been under fire for their excessive use of force. The number of casualties caused by police officers in the recent years have citizens demanding a reform in the system that officers work under.

Around the mid 1800's, critical measures of foreigners started to move into the nation. This rush carried on for some time and still happens today just with substantially smaller numbers. With this extensive blend of individuals, hate crimes were normal. By the mid-nineteenth century, the crumbling of urban communities had prompted diverse laws that controlled public behavior and additionally made new open establishments including the police force. Nevertheless, this split up made a detachment between the law enforcement and citizens too. This ultimately resulted in racial, social, and ethnic profiling. Extensive scale incidents of brutality were related with work strikes, for example, the Steel strike of 1919, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Pullman Strike of 1894, the Hanapepe slaughter of 1924, and the Ludlow slaughter of 1914. (wordpress) Jumping to the mid 1900s, where

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.