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. Cases of brutality from people, who are supposed to protect against it, have existed even when the United States was a new country. The oppression by people in power, even the U.S. Constitution excludes “Illegal persons” as three fifths of a person, which includes slaves, immigrants, and Native Americans. Another example of
Police brutality is the lavish physical assault or verbal assault during police procedures which can involve interrogating or apprehending a suspect. Police brutality originated from the labor worker strikes in the 1800’s through the 1900’s. The violent brutal act of these officers usually formed around the lower socioeconomic class. Since then police brutality has hit an all-time high in the 21st century. In New York alone there has been reportedly over 72 police brutality reports some reports even ended in the deaf of a citizen. There’s been claim of police officers violently choking citizens at traffics stops and beating citizen up in public. There’s been new technology such as body cameras which are used by most police but not all.
Police brutality and police militarization have become a hot topic in the United States of America. There are many cases where police officers motives are being questioned, leading the public into an uproar. Just to name a few of these cases, we have Micheal Brown from Fegurson, Missouri, that started it all, which took place on Augest 19th, 2014. We also have Eric Garner from New York, taking place July of 2014. July of 2016, Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Walter Scott from South Carolina in April of 2015.
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.
There is a major issue with police brutality within the confinements of the United States of America, within society in general. The problem of police brutality is not just a problem with African American, it is spread throughout all the races. “Mr. Castellani who is 20 years old, yelling and pointing at officers, who are posted down the street, after his ejection from an Atlantic City casino for being underage. Four officers rush him, take him down and begin beating him -- a fifth officer soon joins in.”(The Baltimore,Leonard Pitts Jr.). It just so happened that this man was black and had been brutally attacked by police because he said something they didn't like it. It isn't always African Americans that are attacked thought, in 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the hospital by police men claiming Duran was intoxicated and hallucinating. He was brutally attacked because of what he believed in, it didn't have anything to do with his skin color, as he was attacked by white police man and Duran turned out to be a Caucasian man with a family and a job. All of that was taken away from him the moment the cops dragged him into the hospital claiming he wasn't right in the head and the cops found him like that. In 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the
Police brutality and corrupt cop issues have increasingly risen. The problems posed by the illegal exercise of police power, which is an ongoing reality for individuals of a disfavored race, class, or sexual preference. There are innocent people beaten or put in jail or prison. They can be helped, but the ones beyond help are dead. There are good cops and there are bad cops. Under the law, article 7 states:
"Relations between the police and minority groups are a continuing problem in many multiracial societies. Surveys consistently document racial differences in perceptions of the police, with minorities more likely than whites to harbor negative views." (Weitzer and Tuch, Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct, 2004)
Brutality, corruption, and misconduct in police, or people in high ranking organizations, can be backtracked all the way to early times. There was not a good way to keep record of these instances, but the earliest known case of police brutality happened on June 10, 1893 and was reported on by the New York Times. Officer McManus tried to subdue a suspect and when he the suspect did not comply, McManus used excessive force to subdue the man. This was seen and the New York Times was told and because of this, the officer lost his job of employment. Brutality is something that will never be resolved, and happens in different departments all around the United States. This is not something that has just been centered on the United States, there are cases around the world that happens however with different countries there are different rules and ways to subdue a suspect. While this will never be fully resolved, there is always room for improvement and with help from officers this can be reduced. Police brutality is a term that many officers try to avoid, because with this term usually there are repercussions that coexist. It is a term that is concise and to the point; in subduing a suspect there was force used that was unnecessary. Whether the suspect was harmed or not, or whether the arresting officer believes he used reasonable force, there is a correct way to subdue a suspect and also a wrong way. Police brutality and misconduct can be defined by the Santhanam Committee Report
Police abuse remains as one of the most deliberate human rights violations in the United States. For over a decade police have acted in ways that makes us question their professionalism. Makes the wonder if law enforcement are taking advantage of their criminal justice “powers” October 22 is “National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and Criminalization of an Entire Generation”. (Aol News). On October 22 many people across the country wear black to fight back against police brutality. Bad police have to be stopped so they don’t forget who they are serving – not themselves but the public. Police Brutality has caused a major concern in the United States.
There used to be a time when you heard the word police and all you thought about was protection, safety, and honor. Now a days when you heard the word police, it is associated with brutality, racism, and unfair punishments. People are more afraid to get pulled over by the police in during a routine traffic stop than being pulled over after committing crimes. We have heard hundreds of cases where young Americans, mainly young African American males, that are gunned down by police officers. The worst part of this scenario is not the fact that someone innocent lost their life, but that the person responsible does not have to pay for these crimes. The most that we have seen a police officer get is paid time off and sometimes they do not get this “punishment”. That is crazy seeing that if someone else shot and killed someone they would have to serve the maximum sentence available for that crime. These brutal acts can be dated back as fair as to the Civil Rights movement and they are only getting worse over time. As I stated before, police brutality has been a problem in the United States for a long time and the punishments for the officers have yet to be fair. There are, however, many things that can be done in society to prevent police brutality from becoming normalized. Since police brutality has been a growing
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.
In light of recent events, Minneapolis finds itself within heat of national topic, police brutality. Jana Kooren of ACLU of Minnesota writes in The Hard Truth of the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Protests: Communities of Color Have No Trust in Their Police Force. The authors main point of the article was to articulate the disaster that affects African Americans disproportionately. Jamar Clark is one in a thousand this year who have died in the hands of police who have overexerted their power. He sadly became another member of this deadly year, when two police officers shot him when he allegedly interfered with emergency responders helping an assault victim. She continues to emphasis how this problem is not local at it’s root, but national.
different people, groups, and institutions influence policy decisions. Police brutality is influenced by many, such as our American political ideals of civil rights and liberties, the political process in terms of the media and our political institutions, one which the courts.
Police Brutality has been a problem since the early 1900’s, the problem majorly struck when Michael Brown was shot in 2014, this caused nationwide protest. “Activists blocked intersections, riot police arrived in armored vehicles and about 200 demonstrators were arrested” (The Washington Post). Organizations have been around to stop police brutality of African Americans, like the Black Panthers in 1966, who wanted freedom of African Americans and to stop all these problems that were occurring. Their goal was to have equal rights. The difference between the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter is they mostly focus on police brutality. Studies show black citizens are more likely to be stopped by officers also white and black deaths in
Justice has become nothing more than a word in American society. Badges allow militarized police officers to brutalize and kill unarmed citizens. Police brutality is not a new issue, it first appeared in 1872 when the Chicago Tribune reported the beating of a civilian by a police officer. Although police brutality has been present for decades, the severity has tremendously increased in the past twenty years. It is critical for citizens to become aware of the growing statistics and casualties of the epidemic. By educating Americans on the problem, it may lead to preventing further incidents.
Police brutality against minorities across the United States has become a huge topic of interest. There are multiple events where interactions with minorities have had a horrible outcome. Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive force against a civilian and has caught the attention of many in the past few decades. This paper will argue that law enforcement officers disproportionally target minorities as criminal suspects. Racial profiling takes place due to law enforcement officers already having a bias from the composition of minorities that have been charged, convicted and incarcerated. The rate of minorities being brutally abused or ending up dead after interacting with law enforcement officers, leads me to believe that officers have a bias towards minorities based on their bad encounters. Does the race of an individual contribute to police brutality?