Police Brutality Debate

The United States has a serious problem with excessive force and police brutality. In the first 24 days of 2015, 59 fatal police shootings took place (Lartey). In fact, recently, on February 29 2016, there was a ruling on a police brutality case that occurred in August, which resulted in the officer in question being fired from the police department. He was charged with, “Aggravated assault, false arrest, false imprisonment, excessive use of force and failure to follow policy and procedures resulting in physical injury” (Billings). This is not the only incident that has occurred recently, and it will not be the last unless there is something being done to stop brutality. This is a controversial issue in today's time due to the relationship

For example, “more unarmed black men (19) have been fatally shot by US police in 2015 than citizens of any race, armed or unarmed, fatally shot in Germany during all of 2010 and 2011” (Lartey). In order to stop things like this from happening, we need to put certain ideas and preventative agencies in place. Currently, “There is no definition of excessive force that automatically renders it a form of brutality” (Geller, Hans 7), and that is a problem. So, the first step that needs to be taken is developing a clear and transparent standard for reporting, investigating, and disciplining officers who commit excessive force or any other type of police brutality. Then after that the police departments need training on how to develop better relationships with their communities. Right, now new recruits spend about 60 hours learning how to handle a gun, but they only spend 8 hours learning how to de-escalate situations and properly handle the mentally ill (Cheney-Rice). That is most definitely not enough training on how to handle civilians. They should also incorporate culture, diversity, youth development, bias, and racism into their training (Cheney-Rice). In the United States, there are zero federally operated police misconduct tracking systems, but that is what is needed to help with this problem. Every state should

Especially in places like Chicago and New Orleans. Doing what’s listed above will terminate the racial inequalities between black and white arrest rates, bail amounts, and jail time. One step anyone can take is to go online and sign a petition against police brutality. For example, this petition, https://www.change.org/p/national-action-against-police-brutality, is against the stop and frisk procedure that most police departments employ when they notice a suspicious character. It takes less than three minutes to create a real difference in a community by signing an online petition. This generation can be the one to eliminate police brutality. Because together as one, the citizens of the United States can do anything, as long as they stand together hand in hand and give it everything they