Research Paper On Police Brutality

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

“Officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged with second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black Minneapolis man” (Capecchi). “Brian Encinia, former Texas trooper charged with misdemeanor perjury stemming from his arrest of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was later found dead in a county jail” (Almasy). “Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, charged with failure to supervise in connection with the 2014 death of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black Staten Island man who died after police to administered a controversial choke hold” (Eversley). These are a few examples of the mistreatment suffered by young black citizens at the hands of police officers that resulted in the death of a suspect. Throughout the nation, the mishandling of the authority given to police officers has increased and is not merely coincidentally occurring.

One day a boy named Tyrone and his father were on there way to Six Flags when they were pulled over by a police officer. The cop walked up to the vehicle and Tyrone’s dad asked the officer why he was pulled over. Then the cop asked Blue, Tyrone 's dad, to step out the car so he stepped out the car and the officer searched him. After that Blue tried to take off his jacket but the officer thought he had a gun and pulled out his weapon and shot Blue in his face in front of his 10 year old son. Blue was rushed to the hospital he was in critical condition, Blue died later that night. Police shouldn’t be able to get away with police brutality because officers are responsible

These two controversial cases were added to the national debate that was already going on over police brutality due to the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York. Every year in the United States many African-Americans are killed by police due to the lack of information that the officers receive prior to arriving to the scene, the amount of time the suspects are given to cooperate, along with race discrimination that still occurs today.

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

2. When the police kill unarmed citizens, the officer is often not charged but cities across the nation pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle these cases with the families of the victims. Why do cities consistently pay this money? What does the Bill of Rights have to say about police brutality? https://www.thenation.com/article/chicago-has-spent-half-a-billion-dollars-on-police-brutality-cases-and-its-impoverishing-the-victims-communities/

According to an article in the NY Times, and CNN News, one officer used an illegal chokehold to restrain Eric causing his death and a video was shown as evidence. The video shows that during the chokehold Eric was saying“I can't breathe”. The officer should have let him go so that he could breathe and he wouldn't have died. Things like this can't happen in this country. Even though there was a video showing the altercation happen, it still didn't matter and the officer was found not guilty. The question now becomes what needs to happen for this issue to

Recent Surveys have shown that police brutality typically occurs in areas that are predominately African American and that have police departments that are composed of non-minority Officer. For Example in Ferguson Missouri there is a population of approximately blank. Minorities account for only about 5.6% of the population. White American citizens only made up blank percent. The demographics of Ferguson’s Police Department show that white Officer outnumbered African American officers 51 to 3.

involved. This creates a predator to prey relationship where the police is the predator and attacks

The topic that I am proposing is police brutality. Are police officers committing police brutality or are they just doing their job? We as a community are hearing more and more about police brutality in the United States. It is really common to see on the news or social media videos of police brutally beating individuals that seem not to resist arrest or even with their hands up in the air as a sign of surrender. My intended audiences are, communities, and police departments. Communities need to understand why this is happening and if there is going to be any change. On the other hand, police departments need to not more a blind eye any more when these situations occur and start disciplining the officers. I am a true believer of

Police brutality against black men in America is thought to be something that does not exist anymore due to the civil rights movement in 1955-1968. Unfortunately, a statistic shows a black suspect is killed by a white police officer twice a week. (McKay) “While African-Americans constitute 13.1% of the nation’s population, they make up nearly 40% of the prison’s population. Even though African-Americans use or sell drugs about the same rate as whites, they are 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites.” (Hudson) These statistics confirm that not only are black people more like to be victims of fatal police brutality, they are also more likely to be convicted for a crime as well.

The police was arresting a overweight African American. While they were arresting him he had a asthma attack but while the man was trying to grab for his inhaler while he was trying to show the officers that he couldn’t threw him on the ground and forced him to put his hands behind his back, and in the mix of all that he died of a asthma attack. In America today there is a problem with police brutality, there are a lot of cases were the police beats or either kills the victim in minor events, also.

“To protect and to serve.” This has been the motto and duty of law enforcement agencies since their creation. The earliest police forces were established in England during the early 1800’s. These law enforcement agencies were established in order to help the people. However, not long after the first one was established, the first known case of police brutality was documented. Excessive use of force by a police officer dates back to the late 1800’s. Since then, thousands of innocent people have been improperly and cruelly treated by law enforcement officers. The United States has one of the highest rates of police brutality in the world. Though

Police officers have many tasks; one of them is to protect and serve civilians. Their work is dangerous, and they risk their lives to protect us. When they are put in a situation where they feel threatened, they should be able to use force to defend themselves. However, sometimes they use excessive or unnecessary force in some situation that do not require the use this force, and these cases are called police brutality. According to the book Police Brutality by the author Kelly Anderson, she writes, "abuse by law enforcement officers in the United States is one of the most serious human rights violations in the country, and Police brutality involves the unnecessary and unjustified use of force, either physical or verbal" (108).

Allegations of police brutality by the U.S. police departments have been on the rise for the past two decades. The use of excessive force by police officers beyond what is considered necessary is not a new fact to the world. Many of these encounters with civilians have been unjustified because the majority ultimately ends in death. The police involve the use of weapons such as batons, Tasers, pepper spray, or guns. This may also include false arrests, psychological trauma, and verbal abuse. Some individuals will state they are just doing their job, but others argue these cases can be traced back to poor training and policies. Every police officer has the right to protect himself and the community, but they should be able to discern when to use reasonable or excessive force on the civilian depending on the situation at hand.