Rampart Scandal Essays

In looking at Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) history with using excessive force, there needs to be a way that hold these police officers accountable to prevent citizen-police tension and create transparency for the public. During the 1990s, 61% of police officers from the LAPD were white and considered aggressive with African American communities which suggest racial tension among the two groups (Suburbanstats, 2017). Eula Love and Rodney King are two victims of

Many of the issues facing police today can be traced back to the 1960s. We talk about the '60s being a time of peace and love, but that's not really what was going on. Now, at the time, the theory was that the police should be morally impartial. Police were supposed to simply uphold the law without getting personally attached to victims or suspects (Muscato 2003).

Throughout police history in the United States and around the world there have been numerous incidents of reported police brutality and other forms of corruption including taking bribes, theft, sexual deviance, and many more. In our present time corruption has decreased significantly from what it once was decades ago but still exists. One of the most publicized cases of police brutality, if not the most, was the beating of Rodney King. Most people have heard about the case and seen the video of the brutal beating that took place in Los Angeles on the night of March 2, 1991. The video shown to the public contained officers appearing to beat Mr. King while he is on the ground while

The shooting occurred at the Fruitvale train station on January 1st, 2009. At the station, a fight broke out in one of the trains and when the train stopped the fight started again outside of the train at one of the stops. While they were fighting on the train the BART officers were called. The officers came and arrested everyone that was in the fight. A guy named Oscar Grant was in the fight and was also arrested (Meyer). While Grant was being arrested by Officer Mehserle, he resisted the officer’s attempts. Since Grant was resisting he was pushed onto the ground on his stomach to be handcuffed. Johannes Mehserle was having trouble handcuffing Grant so the other BART officers helped him. When Grant was on the ground Mehserle was going to tase him since he would not stop resisting. When Mehserle thought he pulled out his TASER, he instead pulled out his gun. Mehserle accidentally shot Grant with his gun since he thought he pulled out his TASER (Bulwa).

At many times, these minorities have been stopped and arrested for illegal offenses, however we are not sure if these stories have been filed truthfully by law enforcement officers. Many police departments face issues concerning racist law enforcement officers who cause the problems of racial profiling. One such example comes from the Hillside Police Department, where several racial bias charges have been made against them. Racial slurs have become common in the Hillside district, where even the department supervisor does background checks on minorities IN the squad, even to kick them off the squad. In this department, only two officers are Hispanic and one is of African decent. The officers, many of whom are white, are encouraged to target minorities first to fill their ticket quotas for the month. Hillside officers defend themselves saying that Hillside is 40 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic. However, the actions taken by Hillside officer, such as targeting to fill quotas and background checking, seem disconcerting. The Reverend Jesse Jackson even needed to call for federal protection for whistleblowing police officers. Because of the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, passed this year, other officials who witness this discriminating act are protected. It says, "The identity of a law enforcement officer who complains in food faith to a

The officers were investigating a burglary when they happened upon the multi-millionaire and Notre Dame graduate. An investigation by the family's attorney revealed that DuBose cooperated with the officers' investigation until they began to "harass and intimidate" him (Amnesty International 1999a). The officers claimed that DuBose charged at them with a pair of nunchakus sticks, a martial arts weapon that he allegedly wrestled away from one of them. Several onlookers said DuBose was shot in the back (Perry A3). To add insult to injury after shooting DuBose the officers stood over his body for more than ten minutes before calling an ambulance (Amnesty International 1999c). An autopsy report revealed that DuBose was shot twelve times, six in the back (Perry A3). When asked to explain how a young man of DuBose's stature could end up being killed in this manner San Diego's police chief called it an isolated incident--an aberration (Jeffries, 2001)

Los Angeles witnessed a high amount of drug incidents and violence, which arose from the increasing drug problem. Unfortunately as the same time the nation witnessed a rise in the drug problem, it also saw a rise in police brutality. Throughout Los Angles and America there were many cases of police beatings, but there wasn’t any case that received as much attention and media coverage as the Rodney King incident. On the night of the Rodney King beating, “amateur video camera enthusiast, George Holliday, shot footage of LAPD officers beating a twenty-five year old African-American man following a traffic stop” (Alpert p.131). The question raised is why did something like this incident happen? In order to answer the question, a review of the police department is necessary. At the time of the Rodney King beating Daryl Gates had been the police chief of Los Angles for thirteen years. Chief Gates had power over the departments’ policies and personnel, and “his position was well insulated by unique civil service protections” (Alpert p.134). Chief Gates was recognized as someone who was professional and innovative on new ideas to enforce the law. He adopted militaristic technology as equipment to use in the streets. One example of the new technology was the motorized police battering rams, which were essentially tanks

Within the past year, law enforcement officers across the nation have come under intense scrutiny for police encounters that have resulted in the use of force and police involved shootings. Every time a person of color is killed by a police officer, the media broadcasts the shooting nationwide, inciting hate, anger and racism. Nothing productive is achieved when the media focuses on officers killing people of color. Instead, trust, faith and respect is lost from the public, and law enforcement officers are feared. People fear that when they encounter the police, they will be shot because of who they are. Sadly, all officers across the nation deal with the harsh scrutiny that has resulted from the actions of few. Majority of officers are good, hard working individuals who would put their life on the line to save and protect human life. Yet, on a daily basis, officers across the nation are disrespected and hated, simply for the job they do and who they represent. Despite recent events, police brutality is not an issue; law enforcement officers are still deserving of the public’s trust and this trust can be rectified with the understanding of use of force, increased community policing and continued use of force training for officers.

On June 18, 1972, the Washington Post published an article under the title “5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here”. The author, Alfred E. Lewis, claimed that five men, one being an ex-CIA agent, three being native-born Cubans, and the last being said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerilla warfare, were caught planting bugs in the offices of the National Democratic Committee. This article sparked an important breakthrough in American journalism. Catching the attention of Post writers Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, they began to pursue the story. The works later published by Bernstein and Woodward unmasked the man behind the bugging plot, Richard Nixon, President of the United States. After this discovery, known as the

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.

Robert Davis was an African American man. He was not a “thug,” he was not a “drunk,” he was a retired school teacher from New Orleans who was in his sixties. He was brutally attacked by three police officers. He suffered a broken nose and other broken bones in his face. The incident was recorded and went viral. Davis was arrested but faced no charges. Three police officers were charged but only two went to trial. In the end, two of the police officers were fired — the third never made it to trial because he had committed suicide. Davis was compensated for the assault.

The African American community in Los Angeles were outraged when they heard the decision that the five officers were found innocent the following year. The decision triggered three days of violent riots causing 54 people to die, 7,000 people to get arrested and costing the city millions of dollars for damages. During the riots, blacks would use baseball bats to batter cars driven by whites, another white individual got hit in the face by a block of concrete,

An individual who was living nearby the scene of the event filmed most of the scene and made it possible for the whole world to see the length to which the officers were willing to go in order to prove their point. This generated mass criticism throughout the world and influenced people to look at the racial problem from a different perspective. While it seems perfectly

gets admitted to the hospital. She also says that they followed protocol until august or september 2017 when the incident happened. A neighbor said they saw the officer tasered raul while he called out for his mother. Raul is recovering from the coma and he is confused on why the officers were beating him.

Growing up was a little boy who had a dream that wanted to become a hero, a hero that helps and save lives, a hero that is willing to a take risk for his country. A hero willing to save their family and friends . A Police officer was made to enforce the law, to serve and protect from crime and to stop all the killing and the violence. As soon start to get a little older,started to understand more and seeing them on the news saw the police were killing citizens, beating up teenagers, accusing others of having drugs and police were also dope dealing. My dream of becoming a police was fading away, my hero days were crushed and thinking police was our hero’s. Police were not creating justice in our cities.