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Body cameras essay introduction
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It seems that anymore all we hear on the evening news is something about a shooting. Whether it be about an officer himself being shot or firing his gun, the unnecessary violence needs to stop. Officers in large cities, and sometimes even small ones, are getting to be a little too power hungry. They do not care about who they fire at anymore simply because they themselves are officers and, in the words of several people, they are above the law. Too many people are being killed for unlawful reasons by officers and not getting the justification they deserve. December 9, 2013 a police officer in San Antonio shot a student on campus after a sarcastic remark in a traffic stop. “Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?” Which is exactly what the officer did. A video from a dash cam showed what seemed to prove the officer had liable reason to shoot the man but when audio was released with the video the perspective really came into view. In the video the man is seen stepping out of his car as the officer told him to do, but when the officer tells the man to get his license and he reaches in the car to grab it he is shot. The officer is heard telling the man to “put his hands up and get out of the car.” When the man was shot he had his hands in the air, with his wallet in hand. While the officer had the right to defend himself against a potential threat it was extremely unnecessary to shoot at the man. Thankfully the man was not killed in the shooting but the man’s lawyer stated that his client was not unhandcuffed until an officer remembered that he did not have his handcuffs and went to the hospital to retrieve them. In Texas an officer with a body camera was on call where there were potentially dangerous dogs. According to the police department the dog became aggressive while the officer was trying to secure the dog, the dog was shot when it charged at the officer. This does seem reasonable, yes, but according to the family the dog was not aggressive at all and when it approached the officer it was wagging it’s tail and generally happy. On the camera from the officer he is heard whistling at the dog and is seen approaching it before shooting
The Bryan v McPherson case is in reference to the use of a Taser gun. Carl Bryan was stopped by Coronado Police Department Officer McPherson for not wearing his seatbelt. Bryan was irate with himself for not putting it back on after being stopped and cited by the California Highway Patrol for speeding just a short time prior to encountering Officer McPherson. Officer McPherson stated that Mr. Bryan was acting irrational, not listening to verbal commands, and exited his vehicle after being told to stay in his vehicle. “Then, without any warning, Officer McPherson shot Bryan with his ModelX26 Taser gun” (Wu, 2010, p. 365). As a result of being shot with a Taser, he fell to the asphalt face first causing severe damage to his teeth and bruising
Police officers are trained by specific rules in the academy how to handle dangerous situations and how to prevent victims. Police officers in dangerous and extreme situations have to make split-second decisions about what to do next: fire their weapon or not. In recent years, many unarmed people were killed by police officers which made US nation to raise questions about whether the police make right decisions or whether the police have too much power. Since people don’t know by what rules police officers are trained to handle certain issues, we wonder why did the police officer killed an unarmed person and why the police officer didn’t do something else to prevent a dangerous situation or a person. Cedric Alexander, veteran police chief, in the interview for CNN said that if someone is causing a danger, police officer has to shoot him in the area where the most important organs are and stop this person (Visser, 2016). Most of the time this dangerous person dies immediately. Alexander also said that a police officer has to shoot at the person’s chest because this is how most likely to take a person down and stop him (Visser, 2016). Therefore, if the police officer will shoot at the dangerous person’s shoulder for example, this person still can shoot at the police officer or people who are the closest to the dangerous person.
On October 20, 2014 a young male teen was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois. The shooting occurred in the middle of the road and the suspect that was fatally shot was named Laquan McDonald. McDonald was just 17 years old and was the suspect after initial reports placed him in the scene of a possible car jacking. It was reported that Laquan McDonald had a knife and was also seen slashing tires of a police cruiser. When police had finally had him surrounded in the middle of the road, one officer opened fire and released 16 shots into his body. Another deputy on hand said the use of force was not needed because Laquan was not in any way trying to attack the officers present. The officer who fired the 16 shots into Laquan is named Jason D. Van
In conclusion, the Kent State shooting was a tragedy that has never really had anyone held responsible. Thirty-eight years later, “Official investigations as to exactly what happened at Kent State were inconclusive.” The days preceding the shootings, the students burned down the ROTC building, protested on the commons, and threw rubbish at police officers. The violent actions of the students put the law enforcement officials and National Guardsmen around them on edge. On the other side, the Guardsmen arrived in full combat gear to put down unarmed college students. There was no reason for the soldiers to fire at the students that were hundreds of feet away from them. Whether one of the soldiers fired in a moment of panic or if they were order to commence shooting may never be known.
Mckay, Dan, and Jeff Proctor. “APD Shootings: No Easy Answers - Data Show Assaults on Officers, Incidents Don’t Always Track.” Albuquerque Journal (NM) 19 Apr. 2011 : A1. Print.
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
There are at least 6 to 8 complaints of every 100 officers made each year. At least 30 percent of the complaints are for excessive use of force and that doesn 't include all the undocumented complaints civilians make that are failed to be reported. In the past year, police officers have killed more than 776 people. This information has only recently been brought to light. For once the media is not exaggerating on the crimes police are committing; this is happening right here, right now in our own country. What can people do to stop these unlawful police officers from hurting innocent civilians? Having the officers wear body cameras can be a start. Even though there is not enough research to prove their effectiveness, body cameras should be
However, if the officer is in immediate threat, he has the right to use deadly force to protect themselves from being the victim. “The Court held that the use of deadly force is subject to the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement, and that the Tennessee statute was unconstitutional in so far as it authorized the use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances” (Gross,2016). Nonetheless, it also depends on the seriousness of the crime as to how excessive the force may be to control the civilian actively resisting apprehension. Conversely, “what Graham did was to set the tone for how officers should be trained to react in a given situation” (Doerner,2016). Therefore, there are variables set in place to control and monitor the law enforcement standards and training aspects
In the article about a skateboarder in NY it says "Over abuse of power as always!" Mu wrote on his Facebook page. "I'm so over the injustices so many people face in this country. Social, economic, race, class, everything!" It’s shown that a skateboarder is mistreated because he didn’t know the rules of the park, then refuses to give officer his board. The NYPD officer pulls his head back by his hair before putting him in a headlock. After tackling Mu, the officer pulls out his pepper spray and shoots it in the skateboarder's face. The officer did not face any consequences after this incident. This example shows that police officers do not get punished for their actions. This connects to the man that was shot with his hands up in the in sign of surrendering. The power of officers were abused because there wasn’t any need be any violent when no threat is being presented. Another example is a man is texas who suffered from injustice when he was shot with his hands in the air. In the articles it states “A second video has emerged showing two Texas police officers shoot and kill a man who appears to have had his hands up.” This quotation shows that a man commits a crime, is caught and then surrenders to the police with his hands up in the air. The texas police officers shot the man which clearly wasn’t a threat considering he was giving up with his hands in the air. The texas officers show injustice because they abused their power when taking unspeakable actions to kill this
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways.
Statistics states that every eight hours an American citizen is killed by a police officer. The question is why; however, why is the rate of police brutality rapidly growing? The people put in place to protect and serve are the very people we need protection from. Statistics also state that this year alone there has been 980 police brutality cases in the United States. What is it going to take to get a handle of this situation? The answer may lay within the higher leaders of this great nation. America has too many things to deal with without having to worry about what our police are doing. Police brutality is wrong and the problem needs to be addressed. We need to stop pushing it off and patting them on the back and saying “It is okay, you
He was reaching for his gun; he wasn’t reaching for his gun. His hands were up; his hands weren’t up. A confrontation between a police officer and a civilian can quickly escalate to anger. When the dust has settled and the endocrine system takes a break, it may be problematic to ascertain who did what to whom. Police officers in America should wear body cameras because they help provide transparency and accountability of officers, provide appreciated evidence in attaining witness/victim statements, and may even lead to exoneration of the falsely accused.
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
Every year in the United States, an average more than 100,000 people are shot. In just the last three years, a total of 325,609 people have been killed from gun violence; if one were to think about it, that’s more fatalities than the population of Pittsburgh (307,484.) There have been shootings in schools/universities, shopping centers, and even a gym that have gone to show that no one is safe, no matter their surroundings. Gun violence just doesn’t effect one, it affects many. There are so many questions as to why things like this are happening, but many just want all of the violence to refrain. There are many issues with gun violence that has taken a huge toll on families and communities throughout the United States. Just in this year alone,
The reason police officers react slow to their situation is because they often pick the wrong amount of force. In Wolf’s study (2009), he talks about how most police officers have to analyze the situation and the offender, when the situation comes up. It is critical for a police officer to make the right decision, when taking action against a suspect. We see this in the case of Tennessee vs Garner. In the case the police officer used the wrong judgement and faced the consequences. Should deadly force be used by police departments? Deadly force is used when the officer thinks their life is endangered. That was the case with the police officer that shot Gardner. Society thinks that police officers just shoot suspects for anything they do. Police officer’s shoot suspects because they feel like there is no other option and have to reduce the threat in the immediate area. Police officers, often do not make the right decisions, when their suspect acts out of the norm of the officers (Wolf, 2009). Law enforcement officers have difficultly, when going to a crime scene because of what they do not expect. In the Graham vs Conner case, law enforcement officers did not know Graham was a diabetic. The officers