Police Have Murdered A Total Of 942 Civilians Essay

Racial Injustice and police brutality is a huge subject that has been for decades. According to data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011), between 2003 and 2009 at least 4,813 people died in the process of being arrested by local police. Of the deaths classified as law enforcement homicides, 2,876 deaths occurred of

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.

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:

killed by police far too long. In the last ten years, it has tripled. So many of our young men are gunned

Each year citizens die in encounters with law enforcement officers. It is reported that “Americans are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist” (Rucke, 2013). Although there is no official data base tracking these occurrences it is estimated that between 500 and a 1,000 people are killed by police officers each year. To put this in greater perspective this number equals approximately 5,000 since the 9/11 terror attack which is roughly the same number as U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq (Rucke, 2013). This statistic is justifiably concerning. The cause of police related killings are multifold and cannot be attributed to only one factor. Many deaths may be unavoidable and perhaps, dependent on the situation, necessary. I contend, however, that many of these deaths may very well be preventable.

More than 920 people have been killed by the police in 2015 so far (“5 Facts about Police Brutality”). That’s a high statistic but what I didn’t tell you is why all these people were killed by police officers. Many people falsely assume what police brutality is. First off, brutality is the use of excessive or unnecessary force. Police officers should have the right to use lethal force in situations if they deem it necessary.

Most of these deaths would go unreported and unnoticed. While many of these civilians were minorities, innocent, and unarmed, the violence that they have been showing in public is scaring most civilians as they think that police officers will not be able to protect them, but can actually harm them. One of the victims who faced police brutality was Alton Sterling from Los Angeles. In the article “Alton Sterling And When Black Lives Stop Mattering” by Roxane Gay, she clearly explains the death of Mr. Sterling in the hands of police officers. Gay discusses the event as when Mr. Sterling was selling bootleg CDs outside a convenience store and was tasered by two police officers but was shot to death later on. She writes, “The body cameras the police officers were wearing “dangled,” according to the police department’s spokesman, L’Jean McKneely, so we don’t know how much of the events leading to Mr. Sterling’s death were captured”. Gay includes why there were no further investigation was involved later that night, which she also writes, “Mr. McKneely said the officers were not questioned last night because “we give officers normally a day or so to go home and think about it””. In some cases, body cameras that are attached onto them can capture events, except in Mr. Sterling’s case which makes it very suspicious. Gay talks about how anxious she gets to the fact that many guns are triggered against black people and how many families are grieving each time a police officer kills an innocent black man. These kinds of cases make a minority feel like their voices do not matter. Due to these cases, many minorities especially African-Americans feel unsafe and scared. It is safe to say that all lives matter, but there are still groups who are getting treated unfairly to a point that they would kill them for no strong reason due to their ethnic backgrounds. These kinds of injustices should be heard and should give a

Police use of deadly force in America has become a largely talked about issue and seen more and more every day. In 2012, 602 people were killing by police, 326 of the ones killed were white Caucasians, and 123 were black. The reason I point this out is because a lot of people try to make it a race issue. Which in some cases may be true, but believe that it is more than just race it’s about the police being corrupt all round. The police officers power needs to be limited and these killings need to be stopped.

Some many cases that have affected my heart and have me thinking about what I should do as an African American women. I remember witnessing police brutality for the first time with the Sean Bell case. It was such a big story. I remember I was twelve when that happen and during Christmas and New Year’s Eve my family will talk about how tragic and angry they are about the case. But, what was so memorable about that case to me and what made my family so angry was Sean Bell and his friends were shot over 50 times on his wedding day. It’s almost make you realize that there is a war between black people and police

recent statistics by October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, 21 people were killed by

Murder is defined as: the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. Police are supposed to enforce the law and bring peace to our streets. Although many of our nation's police force has used too much force and has led to some of the murder within America. Lately there have been many reportings of police brutality acts on innocent citizens. The amount of force police officers are allowed to use needs to be lowered to stop outbreaks with the police from happening.

In the 1970’s the American government used the SWAT team in an estimate, few hundred times a year, however, in the recent days, there has been over 40,000 military style raids a year. Looking at the statistics from the National Counter Terrorism Department released in 2011, the number of private US citizens who were killed by terrorists in that year were 17. From a film by Charles Shaw, it is documented that at least 500 innocent Americans lose their lives to police brutality. 5000 have lost their lives since 9/11. The is equal to the number of US soldiers who died in Iraq.

According to the FBI’s most recent accounts of “justifiable homicide,” in the seven years between 2005 and 2012, a white officer used deadly force against a black person almost two times every week. Of those black persons killed, nearly one in every five was under 21 years of age. For comparison, only 8.7% of white people killed by police officers were younger than 21. If you are an unarmed American male under the age of 21, being black (instead of white) more than doubles your chances of being shot to death by the police. When I read this I was left in complete shock that number say a lot about police brutality. That’s is 8 police attack a month, that really puts me in an angry mood. How could this continue on, who knows if this number has increased since then? With all the police attacks that has happened in the last couple of months is really sickening. And of those attacks, they were all under the age of 21, in fact, that puts me into that category and I couldn’t imagine being one of those victims. How someone could put through that police attacks. Police are supposed to protect and serve the community, but I guess that isn’t the case at all. And what stands out the most is the end of that sentence, your chances of police attacks are doubled, that really opens my eyes to the cruel world we live in. This makes me want to push that much harder to become a better person. And the only way that could happen is that I get a college degree, but who knows if that would be a

Police shootings of young Black males that ultimately result in their death have become an all-too-common occurrence in this country. The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner have highlighted police relations with this population. Before viable solutions can be established, a number of areas need to be addressed that relate to the historical context in which police relations with this group exist that impact current relations between the police and young Black males, why their lives are seemingly given less value by society than those of their White counterparts, the role that spirituality and religiosity play that may help to make connections between them and the police, and the benefit of the Black church in fostering amicable police relations with young Black males.

People are enraged by the fact that 35 people lost their lives to police in circumstances where lethal action was not necessary. Readers use this statistic to further argue that police need to be held responsible for their violent actions, especially when they kill people with a weapon that is not intended to be cause death. Many citizens, especially in Baltimore, are speaking out against police brutality; statistics, like the one described previously, help form biases against the police force. This statistic causes readers to draw conclusions about police brutality, even though there is no comparison to previous years or a description of how the victim died.