Police Brutality Research Paper

Police brutality is one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States and it occurs in every community. The job of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crime. They are engaged in a dangerous and stressful occupation that can involve violent situations that must be controlled. In many of these confrontations with the public it may become necessary for the police to administer force to take control of a situation. Sometimes this force takes the form of hand to hand combat with a suspect who resists being arrested. Not all police officers in communities are good cops. At least once a year the news is covering a story about a person

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)

Historically, minorities have been victims of police brutality in the United States. Since the middle of the 19th century a dominant white social class maintained racial injustice through a police force willing to use violence against minorities. This violence expressed itself in the years immediately after the civil war through brutality in various forms. America has a lengthy an disgraceful tradition of police brutality to attain a sense of law and order in its society. Police misconduct can be described as any inappropriate behavior on the part of any law enforcement officer that is either illegal or immoral or both. Law enforcement agents are should behave to a standard that is greater than the average civilian. Police brutality comes from

Police brutality makes people wonder “are our officers of the law really doing their job or am I next?” This causes people to lose faith and trust among the police force. According to HuffPost, journalist

It is crazy how much police brutality goes on in the United States. Some names of popular cases are Philando Castile, Rekia Boyd, and Tamir Rice (Lopez, Johnson 6). Is it a coincidence that all three people that were just listed are African American, or that the majority of police brutality cases involve people who are not white? Racial corruption exists in the judicial system as shown by unlawful shootings, stereotypes, and stand-your-ground laws. Somebody has to stand up and do something; everybody has to stand up and do something. But how can anything be accomplished if citizens are just shut down, laughed at and problems only get recognized for about a week or even a couple months and then forgotten about? This is a clear, known issue throughout

The topic of police brutality is very popular in the media today. According to CNN’s Eliott C. McLaughlin, “It feels like every week, a name is added to the list: another man, often black and unarmed, has died at the hands of police.” The Huffington Post even has a whole section of its website dedicated to police brutality. It includes a listing of all the recent events of police brutality, violence

Many police brutality videos and cases have gone viral over the past few years; many cases have been televised live because it was such a big controversy. Fatal shootings are becoming very common. But the police officers that are held responsible are being released and are able to go back to their normal jobs. For example Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, and Eric Gardner were prime victims of police brutality and ended up losing their lives. Police officers claim that they simply felt like their life was being in danger and were simply doing their jobs by keeping the streets safe.

For example; many citizens may fear law enforcement officers because of police brutality so having law enforcement officers showing the community that they are caring, here to help as well as trying to keep the community safe may reduce the fear of law enforcement officers because the citizens know that law enforcements officers are only here to help and therefore may help the citizens feel safe and secure without fearing the police. This will also help the citizens to reach out to a police officer if trouble ever happens. Another example is that law enforcement

Unjustified police brutality has been an issue for quite sometime, but only recently has it become an incredibly serious problem. This recent issue has become more serious over time because of the wide use of social media, or perhaps it is because of this new generation who finally decided to shine some light on an otherwise kept in the dark situation.Police brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct. Police misconduct in general is disapproved by not only citizens, but people of power as well, like politicians, because Section 1983 in the U.S. Code makes it unlawful for anyone acting under the authority of state law to deprive another person of his or her rights under the Constitution or federal law”(“Police Misconduct and Civil Rights”). Unjustified police actions can easily be outlawed on paper, but it’s the actual action that causes much debate. “Whether the officer's use of force was reasonable depends on the surrounding facts and circumstances”(“Police Misconduct and Civil Rights”); this piece of information allows room for injustice to prevail. Police brutality must be addressed because the United States is presumed to supply its people with “justice for all”. With this country on the brink of prejudice, it’s hard for people to see the equality the country is meant to inhabit.

What do most people think of the topic of police brutality? More than once, images and stories of minorities ' civil rights being taken away become the topic of conversation. It is heart wrenching to see these videos and hear these stories of police brutality in today’s media. Every day there seems to be another headlining case on the topic of police brutality. Police brutality isn’t just law enforcement officers abusing the power granted to them; however, it is a much larger issue than we originally thought. Police brutality is innocent lives lost, suffering and mourning families, civilian riots and unjust court systems. Police brutality is victims left beaten, shot, strangled and even burned to death on the streets. What was thought to be just a problem of the past is now a part of our horrifying present.

To illustrate this, “[t]he National Center for Women and Policing (NCWP) discovered that Los Angeles paid out $63.5 million between 1990 and 1999 for judgments or settlements in civil liability lawsuits involving excessive force by a male officer. Only $2.8 million was paid out for cases involving female LAPD officers”(Introduction to Police Brutality, 2018). In nine years, the citizens of Los Angeles paid a total of $66.3 million towards cases of police officers not doing their job correctly. Police brutality not only takes a toll on the community emotionally and mentally, but also financially. In fact, “[e]ven for those viewed as unjustified, few police officers are ever held accountable. Since 2005, just 85 officers have been charged with a crime. Less than 40% have been convicted, some on lesser charges”(, Police shootings aren’t just a ‘local matter’, 2018). The people of Los Angeles alone are spending money on cases that aren’t always effective. Police officers using excessive force when necessary is causing more problems than anyone is aware of, money is just one of them. A change is going to be made due to the new generation coming of age shortly, but the change requires civilians and officers to put the work

Police brutality is the use of excessive or unnecessary force by police officers toward a specific group of people. Police brutality is a nationwide problem that has caused death, racism, and a bad reputation for police officers. Police officers use force to intimidate or intentionally hurt civilians but this excessive force has resulted in death of civilians. Police officers have killed “over 1,096 people in 2016 alone” (Rodgers). Police have abused their power and used excessive force to the point where it has resulted in a massive death toll. Police officials have also began to use racial profiling as a form of police brutality. A study showed that “32 percent of black people killed by police this year were unarmed, compared to 15 percent

In our society today police brutality is a huge issue. Periodically in the news there are stories of police and their wrongful doing, and nine times out of ten they will get away with it. The government puts most of the money into jails, if they put more money into our educational system, particularly to the schools in low income communities. Then there would be less dropouts, gang activity etc. When hiring police officers, background checks should be thorough. Pay for officers should be higher.

It breaks my heart to read about another person whose a victim of police brutality. The thing that saddens me even more is that I belong to a generation of selfish people ; a society filled with them too. It is amazing to me, how a person can live in this world and not be moved by the horrible events that are taking place. I guess a nonchalant attitude towards events effecting others are a result of the time period. We're living in a society full of distractions, so of course our focus is not the heinous crimes that are taking place. Out mobile devices & technology keep us from paying attention to the real issues . Instead of trying to figure how to raise awareness on police brutality, or fight back like those before us we're entertained by

Because of police brutality, communities won’t trust the police anymore. The society needs to find a solution to police brutality. Police officers should have the goal of building trust and forming a relationship with communities and citizens especially with African Americans. I think that an effective solution like psychological evaluation would help monitor cops who shows signs of mental disturbance that might conflict with their work. Additionally, when the police are writing their report paper about an incident that happened, the police should try not to cover up the incident but rather write what really happened. Another effective solution is that, the police officer should be able to make good decision. For example the police should