The Hostage Crisis

The way in which a police officer reacts to a situation relies on the characteristics of the suspect and location, and the personal beliefs of the police officer. The characteristics of a suspect include the individual’s race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, and behavior. These aspects play a single role in a law enforcement officer’s behavior under a nerve-wracking situation. People will argue that an officer judging by a suspect’s characteristics is sexist, racist, etc., but, truth is, everyone judges by

McMains, M. J., Mullins, W. C. (2015). Crisis negotiations: Managing critical incidents and hostage situations in law enforcement and corrections.

Not only did the American public hope to be able to rely on and trust their federal government, but they also desired strong management of foreign affairs. During the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, America faced many blunders overseas. One particular high-profile issue was the Iranian Hostage Crisis where, “Iranian students stormed the U.S embassy in Tehran and took 53 Americans hostage,” and the attempted rescue of said hostages which resulted in a collision between two helicopters and eight dead marines (Davidson, et al 937). The Carter Administration’s handle on foreign affairs proved to be disastrous. As a result, the Republican party’s platform for the election of 1980, in which Carter was running for reelection, focused heavily on

The Iranian hostage crisis occurred on November 4, 1979. This crisis was a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran, which lasted 444 days. A group of Iranian students from the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line took over the United States embassy in the capital city of Tehran. This crisis is known as the longest hostage situation in recorded history. A total of 52 diplomats and citizens were held hostages within the U.S embassy. In Iran, this crisis was widely viewed as an attack against the United States and its influence within Iranian borders. During this crisis, the United States also granted asylum to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after he was overthrown in 1979. The people of Iran demanded that the United States return

One of the earliest incidents involving hostages was the Romans use of them to further their agenda. A lot has changed since then and so have the tactics over the years. The hostage crisis that really changed everything was in Munich in 1972. As a result of the incident the NYPD created tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for resolving those types of conflicts while minimizing the loss of life. “Shortly afterward, the FBI developed a national training program for police officers who wanted to learn about hostage negotiation” (McMains, J., Mullins, C, 2014, p G5). As the years have changed so has the way that negotiators have dealt with the different scenarios which also require different tactics. In this paper we will discuss a crisis incident that occurred in Chula Vista, CA on May 28, 2015). We will then demonstrate how the reading coincides with the events that unfolded there.

The range of the amount of force an officer can use can go from simply making a presence to deadly force. The topic of the use of force is controversial because it contradicts the police’s main priority to protect life. Officers have the obligation to use force only when it is unavoidable, needed, and can be justified. Police are bound to face resistance because of the obvious reason that the nature of police work is often confrontational. Officers are trained to handle expected resistance.

In the last past years, our country has observed numerous cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have witnessed police brutality take place in front of their houses. Officers are faced with many threatening situations every day, forcing them to make vital decisions and to expect the vilest and hope for the best. The law enforcement officers granted the ability to take any citizens' privileges to restraint and sometimes even their lives. Besides, with that sort of authority comes responsibility. For this reason, that is one major fear with that amount of discernment granted to law-enforcement officers. Consentquey, there are times they must have, to execute use force or even the use lethal force.

If the police repeatedly tells the accused to stop, or do something certain that is not often caught on video. What is caught on video, is the police ultimately having to use force to get what is asked done. They have to push, get on top of, taser, or aim a gun at the suspect to get him to comply and thats the only video proof the bystander, friend, or family member gets on video. Where the violence comes into play is when even after all those extra measures are taken, the suspect still continues to resist. Rather if you are or a police officer or not, in the state of Texas,(not sure about other states laws) if you feel threatened by someone and you feel like that person is about to harm you, you are allowed to use as much force as possible to help yourself out of danger. “No law enforcement officer wants to shoot and kill someone — ever”(Klimas). I firmly believe in this quote and I agree; there are very few people who wake up in the morning with the thought of “I think I'm gonna kill someone today” and if they do they are usually not able to gain a job in law enforcement for other, mental, reasons. Video evidence really is not a good piece of evidence if it starts in the middle of an altercation. For a video to be considered reliable evidence, the video should have to be started well before the officer arrives, and then cut off when the suspect in in custody, or the situation is at an end. Pictures are also not an accurate use of evidence because they are only a snap shot of what was happening at that exact time, there is absolutely no way to know what happened before or after the picture was taken, so you cannot be for sure how to correctly interpret the

There is a life preservation policy that has been ignored more and more lately. Officers are told to do everything possible to refrain from taking life. Unfortunately, however, some decide to take the easy way out. What many people do not know is that other officers are supposed to stop the use of excessive force. In these instances, the officer who is using too much force needs to be turned in to the supervisor to prevent this from being a constant occurrence. Officers are not allowed to choke or strangle, however, videos show some officers doing far worse than that. Things could be handled in a number of different ways such as talking calmly to the civilian, keeping distance, and trying to refrain from being viewed as a threat ("Police Use of Force Project").

For the past couple years there has been so many incidents involving some sort of police brutality. The mainstream media has shown police misconduct, case after case it has become a routine and making people wonder if our officers of the law really doing their jobs? Unjustified shooting, and fatal choking’s have all contributed to the problem of police brutality in America and also has become very controversial. The police carry an enormous burden each day, which makes their job really hard. Police work is very stressful and involves violent, and split second decision. Nevertheless, cases like the shooting of Samuel DuBose, and Walter Scott and the choking of Eric Garner has raised questions regarding our police system. In many confrontations the police are put in a position in which they have to use force to control the situation, but there are different levels of force and most of the time the situation dictates the level of force that’s necessary. In addition, I will explain different cases of police brutality, the use of excessive force, and the consequences the officers have faced.

In certain situations, the police may have to act quickly on their instincts. Sometimes, a situation is unpredictable and a decision needs to be made in a split second. The quick decision may to be to take a person down physically with the officer’s own hands, or to use deadly force, unfortunately. Anything can happen and the officer needs to be ready for every scenario. The different levels of force can be anywhere from just a police officer being present, to having to kill someone to prevent him or her from hurting anyone else. It’s a harsh reality, but sometimes the officer needs to make the decision to die or to protect him and do what he needs to do.

What might be going on in their minds for the hostages, is If they are going to come out of this situation alive. If they will be able to see their loved ones again. Is there a way out. Why them and why now. As for the Hostage takers in their minds they are probably thinking how things escalated so quickly. It was probably not meant to go that far. They have to decide whether they will go out guns blazing or surrender, during the hostage situation. After the hostages are released, there should be an immediate intervention. To increase their personal recovery. Follow up resources for hostages can include counseling and therapy. Multicultural considerations to take into account can be language. Possibly not all of the hostages are able to speak

The coverage of Moscow theatre hostage crisis by the Russian media demonstrated how media coverage of terrorism can lead to government censorship and manipulation of the media. In the case of the Moscow theatre crisis, this censorship and manipulation included the shutdown of various independent media outlets, the creation of legislature that further diminished the possibility for a free and independent press in Russia, and the outright travel embargoes for journalists. These restrictions, created during and immediately following the hostage crisis, not only changed the state of the media in Russia to a "dictatorship of the law", but also changed the perception of Russia’s control of the press around the world as well.

Police officers are faced with a wide variety of threatening situations on the job every day, they go through an intensive training at the academy to prepare them for the safety keeping job they have. The use of force may or may not be a significant predicament but it should be viewed by the community as well as the police. Often police officers find