Police Brutality Over The Years

-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.

When the judge, Bernard Kamins, who was Caucasian declared three of the four (also white) officers not guilty the public saw his decision very racist. The riots began in the evening after the judgment, and grew over the next two days, but they would continue for several days. Angry Los Angels residents went out to the streets to show their fury. “These people are angry and they have every right to be!” said a man to the news cameras during the destruction. Authorities failed miserably to control the people. As time went by the madness did not decrease but enlarged.

Recently police have come under fire for the deaths of many unarmed African American males. This has broken the trust between civilians and police and torn our country apart. People are frustrated about the killings of unarmed citizens and how it seems every officer can get away with killing an unarmed suspect. Back in 1994 a law was passed that required the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to record date on police involved shooting and deaths by police officers. Except where are the numbers that would show there is an increase in unarmed African American deaths from police officers?

When one thinks of a cop. What should come to mind is “hero.” But nowadays cops are seen as people you want to stay away from. In the past, they were publicly displayed as heroes on television shows and parents, as well as children, knew the names of the officers patrolling their neighborhoods. However, times have certainly changed because police departments have increased the size of their force and tactics have switched and have become less about protect and serve, and more of a militaristic approach. Police officers have abused their power for too long because they have access to so many different types of weapons and there’s been so many cases involving police brutality that it needs to come to an end and they need to be held accountable for what they’ve done.

A team of the Los Angeles Police Department followed King for approximately eight miles as he was speeding within city limits. Consequent to capturing him as a result of another crew interfering, the police officers drew an aggressive King out of his car and the fact that he was resisting arrest influenced them to proceed with using extreme force involving "striking him with a baton 56 times and forcefully kicking him six times" (Rodney King beating 1).

riots started the afternoon of April 29, 1992, when four white Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted in the brutal, videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Los Angeles was rocked by widespread rioting and acts of arson. The verdict was an unethical climax to a year of political uproar and national outreach, and the reaction to it prompted Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to declare a state of emergency and request assistance from the National Guard as chaos spread from the city’s mostly black south side to downtown Civic City Center. In one of the many outbreaks, looters ran wild and drivers were pulled from their cars and attacked at an intersection in Central Los Angeles. Truck driver Reginald Denny was delivering sand to a cement plant when he drove into an intersection of the Los Angeles riots that had begun a few hours before.

In the 1990s, police brutality hit its peak. One in particular, the L.A. riots, caught many American's attention. One of the more well known, was Rodney King. King was brutally beaten by a group of police officers after attempting to pull him over for speeding at 110 mph. The police claimed that King resisted his arrest after being pulled over and that he was on some sort of drugs, although neither of these claims proved to be true. The police that surrounded him continued to beat Rodney for 15 minutes which left him with severe damage including skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and brain damage. This was the first police brutality occurrence to be filmed in Los Angeles and then eventually brought to the media. Following the leaking of this footage, the four police officers were put on trial for using excessive force. This situation forever pointed out what was wrong with police officers and

On April 29, 1992, a jury convened to try four LAPD officers for the beating and use of excessive force against Rodney King, a black motorist involved in a high-speed chase with the police prior to the incident. The beating occurred in March 1991 and had been videotaped by a witness. Within days, every news channel in America was broadcasting the disturbing video in which King had been kicked, tazed, and beaten over fifty times by the four officers with police batons (Sides). King had offered little resistance after exiting his vehicle. The images of excessive force were printed across all media channels, confirming complaints of police brutality against minorities, specifically by the black community (Monroe). Subsequently, the black community became outraged and festered in their anticipation of a guilty verdict for the four officers.

(Garcia) A year later in April of 1992 a jury acquitted the officers and “rioting, looting, arson and extreme violence (ensued) across the city of Los Angeles”. (Adams). Two of the officers were later convicted by a federal jury of violating King’s civil rights. (Garcia)

Racism act plays a major part in police misconduct. Decent numbers of minority groups are more likely to be victims of unfair police treatment. A case that still stands as a classic in police history is Rodney King. Rodney King beating is truly a depiction of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stopped motorist Rodney King who was speeding 100 mph and charge for a traffic violation. During the arrest King was hit over fifty times with nightsticks after initially resisting police orders. A witness to the event, George Holliday, videotaped the arrest, which was later viewed on local station KTLA and commercial news networks nationwide. Within a week following the incident, a Grand Jury

The beginnings of the riots came on March 3, 1991, when Rodney King was stopped and brutally assaulted by police. King was stopped after a high speed chase police after police caught him intoxicated and was subsequently forced out of the car (History.com). From there, police began to unlawfully assault Rodney King, leaving him with a fractured skull, along with a broken cheekbone (History.com). A witness, George Holliday, filmed the officers beating Rodney King; a day after the tape was airing on CNN for the rest of the country to witness (Los Angeles Daily News). Four officers were later arrested and put to trial a year later, however all of them were not pleaded guilty. The verdict angered a massive amount of African

These three cases all have a black person as a victim and white officers as the abusers. This factor can be found in many cases that deal with police brutality. Let’s say the one being suspected is indeed in the wrong , which in some cases stands true. Does that automatically possess a criminal with superhuman strengths? Since it seems to take three or more officers to take one person down. After Rodney King was left disabled and the officers were clear of “any threat” they continued to beat on him. Frank Jude had four officers on him , all acted inhumane leading to Jude being stabbed in the ear with a pen. Robert Davis who was suspected of being intoxicated also had four officers assault him. For starters one who is intoxicated has poor

On March 2, 1991, a brutal beating of a 26 year old man by the Los Angeles Police department, set tensions high between the black community and the police department, not only in Los Angeles but all across the country. This is not only considered an extremely controversial incident, but also a contradicting case. Is it a coincidence, or has the justice system failed to charge and imprison police officers who use excessive force on black members of society? By analyzing the incidents leading up to this event, the actual evidence presented in the trial, and the police reports and conversations post beating of Rodney King, it will be clear whether or not justice was served and how the results of this trial affected the Los Angeles community, and policing in the U.S for years to come.

must start with a brief history of this social issue. The history of police brutality was first documented as early as 1872 in an incident that happened in Chicago and has been a growing issue over the centuries in many major cities throughout the United States (Cosgrove, 2017). Police brutality is one of the products of early immigration in the U.S, in the 1800's when the U.S started receiving large numbers of immigrates it cause deterioration of the cities which cause the original citizens to be prejudice against the new immigrates who brought with them, diverse cultures (Scott, 2015). Afterward, the new cultures who came to the U.S were not looked upon as equals, these cultural differences may as well have caused this behavior to be accepted.

Moreover, one example that led to looting was the Rodney Glen King case which was about an American taxi driver who became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. The police attempted to pull him over in Lake View Terrace in the San Fernando Valley after he was caught speeding at 110 mph. He led the police on a short pursuit because he knew being pulled over would violate his parole for a prior robbery. The police claimed that he was resisting arrest once he was pulled over. They claimed that they believed he was on drugs, although he was not. The police proceeded to beat Rodney King severely for about 15 minutes, resulting in skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and permanent brain damage. In the end, 53 people were killed, most of all were the