Police Brutality And The Police

-By definition the term police brutality is “applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure.” In today’s society we have police known as riot police, who are known throughout the world to use extreme force. Statistics show almost every time the riot police are involved in crowd control, there is at least one fatality and multiple injured. This is why I believe this is one of the most important issues in the World today. Police are there to protect us but from April 2009 to June 2010 in the United States there were 5986 reports of misconduct from police officers. Police brutality has today’s citizens doubting the police department, and how they go about their arrest. Police brutality is an everyday occurrence, especially in cities where there are large communities of Blacks, Latinos and Asians.

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

Police brutality is seen as a real problem in America today. What people do not seem to realize is that the police carry a massive burden each day. The work that officers do has the potential to be very demanding and sometimes involves dangerous situations. In these situations the officers are in the position where they may be required to use force to gain control. The continuum of force dictates the level that is most appropriate for the situation. Most people do not realize that is not the officers job the meet the force. However, it is their job to overcome the force. Police departments have very strict standard operating procedures about officer use force and how force is applied. With this paper, I will attempt to explain the continuum of force, police discretion, and why the police can do some of the things they do.

“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” These were the last words of Eric Garner, a middle-aged African American man. Garner died at the hands of multiple police officers who were trying to restrain him for selling cigarettes. These sorts of images are showcased on television way too often. To the point that some people feel helpless, they know that they alone do not have the power to overthrow the superiority of an officer. So they have really no choice but watch the tragedy unfold. Also fear that if they interfere, that they may be the next victim. “I am most struck by the behavior of the EMTs, who stood along with the police and did nothing as they watched Eric Garner die” (Williams 10). Although some people deny that police brutality is a problem, recent studies and events (such as the one listed above) prove that ultra-aggressive police officers, militarization of police agencies, and the effects of racism have increased police brutality.

First, it is crucial to note that police brutality is not synonymous to racism against a particular group. However, there is a stigma that police often racially profile a specific African Americans. In February 2015, two cases of police brutality did not involve African Americans; instead the two victims were a Hispanic shot and killed in Washington State and an Indian-American severely paralyzed in Alabama. Even with this considered, of late, a majority of police brutality cases have involved minorities and specifically African American males. Cases such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray have sparked a cultural uprising. These trigger event inspired the protests and riots against police brutality demonstrating collective action and physical violence, but the idea of police brutality is much larger than these individual cases, since it is a reoccurring cycle.

As of September 1, 2015, in the United States police officers have killed 776 people and 161 of those people were unarmed at the time of their death (MintPress). There have been too many incidents where police officers have injured or killed someone that could have been prevented. Using maximum force with a suspect has become a routine in many confrontations. Officers have not been given the proper training to deal with individuals and how to handle them without using a weapon. If they were given more training on how to deal with situations resulting in using a weapon to stop an individual during certain scenarios police brutality situations would decrease, lives would be saved, and police would get their good reputation back. However, police departments would have to spend more money on re-training. Some people agree with police brutality and think that a civilian deserved their punishment, which is not right because no one deserves to be beaten or killed. Situations involving police brutality have been increasing throughout the years, which is a problem that must to be solved.

Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict defines police brutality as the use of excessive or unnecessary force by police against the public. Excessive force is explained to be any behavior or force beyond what is reasonably necessary in order to control a situation. It is a common misnomer that people believe some police use excessive force more often than not. What’s more concerning is most of the time people believe that this excessive force is usually focused upon the African American men, women, and children. This misnomer is typically found to be found in city settings where the population consists of mostly African Americans. The population make up causes the common belief to seem more true than it may otherwise appear.

Every person should have equal rights and opportunities not based on their ethnicity, race, or culture. There are countrywide issues that have lead to racial injustice. In recent discussions on racial injustice, one major issue has been the many cases of police brutality and hate crimes against minorities. Many falsely accused people are being incarcerated simply based on the color of their skin or how they look. Racism has been a huge part of Americas past and will continue to be a part of our history as time progresses. It is our history itself that keeps racism in America regrettably alive. It is what has shaped our society today. The actions of unlawful police officers have been presented through media. By revealing the problems with our law enforcement this has allowed the public to see the roots of this issue. There are many factors that contribute to the issue of police brutality, they are all derived from the roots of the tree of our history. It is time that people take a stand against hate crimes such as police brutality.

A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.

The law of this world tells one to get rich but kills you when you try to make ends meet, one is told to stand up straight and be loud but sets your skin against you when your pride gets a little too loud. Over the past decade, police brutality has been an extremely controversial issue as it is a serious violation of the basic human and civil rights of American citizens. These actions of severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unjustified shootings have caused an outburst from the minority communities which has made it easy for many to be fooled through the language of persuasion.

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

There has been a growing number of cases in which police killings of unarmed people have drawn national attention. For years, there has been reports of police brutality in multiple cities across the nation. Subsequently, societies faith in the police to do their job without abusing their power of authority is deteriorating. As a result, officers are reluctant to do their job because of the criticism they endure everyday. The society and officers feel threatened by each other. In order to restore the support and trust in the police to do their job proactively would be body cameras. Some people advocate body cameras, others disagree but the cameras would be beneficial to society, the police department, and the judicial system.

One of the biggest problems that plague America is police brutality. The job of the police is to protect the community they’re assigned to work in, from any illegal activity that occurs. However, there are officers who believe they are above the law. Police brutality has been a political oppression that has been occurring more many years. There’s been many cases of excessive force towards innocent civilians by an officer that has sparked a national outrage. Stephan Lendman of Media with Conscience said in his article regarding the matter that “Police brutality occurs multiple times daily across America.” “In big cities. In small ones. In urban areas. In rural ones.” John Wihbey and Leighton Walter Kille from JournalistsResourch.org reported that “Research has definitively established that “racial profiling” by law enforcement exists — that persons of color are more likely to be stopped by police.” However, it does not mean that Caucasians are subject to be victims of police misconduct. Most recently there’s been an increase of police brutality among the transgender community particularly black trans women. Police brutality will come to end if the law set in place against it is enforced more with the lawbreakers to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as well as the requirement of body cameras for officers on duty.

Police officers are often put in situations where they sometimes don't know how to handle, and the use of excessive force causes a bit of drama around the whole United States, it’s definitely a topic that needs to be spoken about. Police have killed 1,026 people in the United States this year, 25 over the past two weeks, African Americans were 26 percent of those killed despite being only 13 percent of the population (Police violence, Pg. 1). You begin to wonder why this does not surface (Surface?)all over the internet. Now, I’m not saying all those 1,026 people have been innocent nor am I saying those people should be dead but it’s something that needs to be addressed before everything gets out of hand. Throughout this whole project I’ll (was Run-on af) show you how it’s a big topic that causes drama towards the men in blue and people of all kinds of nationalities.

One of the biggest problem we face today is social injustice, with the biggest cause by Police officers’ using excessive force on people, which is called police brutality for short. Police brutality happens to people of color because they are targeted more, “in the past 2 years 920 people have been unlawfully murdered by police officer”. The insane thing about this is that black people are more than twice likely to be unarmed when killed during police encounters than whites and within the same report found “blacks to be killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities. The police brutality is a troubling problem due to the excessive force of police officers use on people and a major problem that people fail to realize that it is a growing concern.