Police Brutality And The Law Enforcement

In recent years and in light of recent tragedies, police actions, specifically police brutality, has come into view of a large, public and rather critical eye. The power to take life rests in the final stage of the criminal justice system. However, the controversy lies where due process does not. While the use of deadly force is defined and limited by departmental policies, it remains an act guided chiefly by the judgment of individual officers in pressure situations. (Goldkamp 1976, 169). Many current studies have emphasized the racial disparities in minority deaths, primarily black Americans, killed by police through means of deadly force. The history of occurrences reveals the forlorn truth that police reforms only receive attention in wake of highly publicized episodes of police misconduct. The notorious 1992 Los Angeles riots brought the matter to mass public attention and prompted improved law enforcement policy. Significant local reforms resulted, for instance, ending the policy of lifetime terms for police chiefs. Additionally, on a broader platform, in 1994, Congress approved provisions to the Crime Control Act in effort to tackle police abuse in a more structured way.

In recent years and in light of recent tragedies, police actions, specifically police brutality, has come into view of a large, public and rather critical eye. The power to take life rests in the final stage of the criminal justice system. However, the controversy lies where due process does not. While the use of deadly force is defined and limited by departmental policies, it remains an act guided chiefly by the judgment of individual officers in pressure situations. (Goldkamp 1976, 169). Many current studies have emphasized the racial disparities in minority deaths, primarily black Americans, killed by police through means of deadly force. The history of occurrences reveals the forlorn truth that police reforms only receive attention in wake of highly publicized episodes of police misconduct. The notorious 1992 Los Angeles riots brought the matter to mass public attention and prompted improved law enforcement policy. Significant local reforms resulted, for instance, ending the policy of lifetime terms for police chiefs. Additionally, on a broader platform, in 1994, Congress approved provisions to the Crime Control Act in effort to tackle police abuse in a more structured way.

Police brutality is not a new topic in America. I have researched cases that date all the way back to 1991; although I am sure there are cases long before this. One thing I have noticed is how the public responds to police brutality incidents. As we have seen in Ferguson, people of the city are rioting to try to get their points across. Not much has changed. People back in the day did the same exact things, or maybe even worse. The Rodney King incident of 1991 in Los Angeles, which I will go into more depth later in the essay, sparked outrageous riots. Over a period of five days in the spring of 1992, more than 50 people died and more than 2,000 people were injured in these riots. They also damaged over 1,000 buildings and cost the city of Los Angeles over $1 billion. These are ridiculous statistics and, unfortunately, not much has changed. (cnn.com)

In recent years’ police departments have been brought into the public eye based on the public belief that police brutality has become a norm within the police system in recent years. Yet this has occurred for decades in police departments, not only that but there are multiple forms of brutality to take account of in the criminal justice system specifically towards African-Americans. The criminal justice system has become accustomed to creating a system of racial control after the ending of the Jim Crow Era. Causing every level of the system to work in a way that limits the freedom of African-Americans the most common being that of police misusing

However, police misconduct drew the first significant national attention during the era of Martin Luther King Jr. in which certain police departments, primarily in the South, would suppress movements for racial equality with excessive force and violence. Concerns over police excessive force instigated once again in 1991 when four white LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) officers brutally beat an African American motorist named Rodney King more then 50 times (Issues & Controversies, “Police Brutality”). Primarily white police also neglected, terrorized, and assaulted African Americans who sought "to assert their right to vote, march, or enter newly desegregated schools" (Issues & Controversies, “Police Brutality”). Due to consistent racial bias in various events of police excessive force against minorities, especially blacks, scattered about in history, prejudice against minorities has been a clear concern that is still not truly addressed, even to this

Most people think that the police are not biased and that their use of excessive force is closely monitored. That is not true. Today many of the police, within the minority, are subjected to killing or fighting innocent people. The new definition of the police department has turned into a department that only resorts to violence as a first priority. The Police Department’s use of excessive force has brought to the attention of the people after multiple cases has happened where the Police are out of control. Police Brutality basically means it is an excessive, unnecessary force when dealing with civilians. But Many police officers argued that they are not using an excessive amount of excessive force. And that the news are painting the

With the current Spring Valley, South Carolina situation, this is perhaps a great time to address that police brutality does not, in any circumstance, exist. A few days ago, a video had surfaced the internet, showing a 15-year-old African American female being forcefully pulled out of a desk at school. After seeing this video, many concluded that the police officer was wrong for his actions, without listening to the facts first. As more videos arise, we begin to see the actual circumstances. In the full length videos, you are able to hear the teacher of the classroom asking the female student to leave after being disruptive in class. After refusing to leave, the teacher calls down to the office, requesting someone to come and escort the female from class. A police officer, who happens to be at the school as a resource officer at the time, enters the classroom and requests the female to leave class with him. After refusing, she is told that she will be forcefully removed if she does not comply. She once again refuses, which results in the forceful removal of the young woman.

In looking for answers as to why police brutality is such a big issue today, we see that the problem lies in past actions that were not dealt properly. First, Prohibition reduced respect for authority and law enforcement, as the police committed various unconstitutional acts. Next, the War on Drugs and the War on Terror changed the image of law enforcement from that of a peacekeeper to that of a domestic soldier. As a result of this inaction, American society finds itself in a crisis situation, where people cannot trust the police and where police are struggling to regain credibility with the American population.

Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.

This paper will differentiate between reasonable force and excessive force. I will describe when excessive force turns into police brutality and how the police culture can influence police brutality. I will discuss some of the many negative repercussions that excessive force / police brutality have on the law enforcement officers, agency, city, community and profession.

On March 3rd, 1991, Los Angeles police officers were led on a high-speed chase by a black male by the name of Rodney King. King was engaged in a high-speed pursuit after California Highway Patrol officers noticed him speeding on the freeway. After stopping King and the other occupants in the car, King was removed from the vehicle to be beaten and arrested by officers in a famous video recorded by George Holliday that eventually aired on national news. This incident of police brutality sparked the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 as well as smaller riots in other cities in America and raised national awareness of police brutality. Even though it has occurred since the late 1800’s with poor or striking workers, the Rodney King incident introduced police brutality to many Americans. Based on the fact that police brutality is at what seems to be an all time high and is being considered by many to be a national crisis more than 20 years since the Rodney King incident and 100 years since infamous labor strikes, it should be obvious that something must be done in order to combat this widely occurring problem.

A er the Rodney King incident in the early nine- ties, law enforcement agencies across the country began to re-evaluate their use of force policies and training. Many o cers had to change their belief about the treat- ment and mistreatment of suspects. A Gallup poll in March 1991 concerning mistreatment by police and

Rodney King. Trayvon Martin. Looking at where we are today after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, it can feel like nothing has changed in the way we police the police.Many things haven’t. Juries acquitted police. Cops got their jobs back. And brutality happened again.Some things have gotten worse. Like police militarization.But some things have gotten better, or are still moving toward reform in the wake of a prominent brutality incident. A history of these incidents reveals that some major recent police reforms got their start after highly publicized episodes of police violence. But it was only after years or decades and dogged, persistent community-building that some progress started to manifest.

The 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police provides rich case material in how an attack perceived as unjust can backfire. George H. W. Bush said, “The last thing the leaders of Los Angeles expected in the early 1990s was that their city would become the scene of the nation 's deadliest urban race riot since the Civil War.” The race riot that Mr. Bush is referencing are the Los Angeles race riots that occurred as a result of Rodney King’s arrest in 1991 exemplified the deep tensions between black citizens and the police force which caused a change in police policy.

The most famous case of police brutality occurred on the night of March 3rd, 1991, when Rodney King was pulled over by LAPD officers. A video taken of the encounter shows King being savagely beaten by metal batons long after being subdued. The LAPD responded, saying the department had “inadequate supervisory and management attention”, noting that “of approximately 1,800 officers against whom an allegation of excessive force or improper tactics was made from 1986 to 1990, more than 1,400 had only one or two allegations. But 183 officers had four or more allegations. Forty-four had six or more, 16 had eight or more, and one had 16 such allegations” (West Valley College). Clearly, a vast majority of police officers abuse their power. But clearly this is not on an individual level;