Police officers have made an oath to protect and serve every individual within the states no mater their ethnicity or beliefs, but are they protecting and serving, or profiling and shooting. Although some police abuse their power not all, until the police statistics about misconduct begin to shape up, many people will not know if they can trust them. There are many different ways a police officer can abuse their power; excessive force and abuse are just two major ways. The term excessive force is hard to define; however, it can be defined as the use of force greater than that which a reasonable and prudent law enforcement officer would use under the circumstances is generally considered to be excessive. The frequency of police use-of-force events that may be defined as justified or excessive is difficult to estimate. There is no national database of officer-involved shootings or incidents in which police use excessive force. Most agencies keep such records, but no mechanism exists to produce a national estimate. (Police Use of Force.) This makes it very hard to put into context how often this happens, but it does happen quite a bit. Police do also abuse their power by sexual misconducts. Sexual misconduct is 10.4% of all reported misconducts by an officer. (2010 Q3 National Police Misconduct Statistical
Just how much force is appropriate under various circumstances can be debatable. When an officer uses excessive force, he or she violates the law. Most brutality is directed against minority groups or otherwise powerless populations. Officers who engage in brutality rationalize their use of extralegal force, they claim they are punishing those groups that threaten to disrupt the social order. The importance of understanding racism in the context of police brutality cannot be underestimated. Many police officials automatically regard racial minority group members as potentially dangerous regardless of their particular activities, gestures, or attire. This perception of racial minority citizens as “trouble” sometimes translates into racially discriminatory police behavior. Most police officers expect citizens to always surrender to police authority. When citizens challenge it instead, some officers view such behavior as the unofficial crime of disobeying a police officer and use physical force to gain compliance. So what can be done to help prevent police brutality around our
Police brutality has become one of the hot topics within the media within the past few years. It’s always been around but its being discussed and speculated now more than ever, because of technology like cell phones, people are able to record what is happening, which furthers the attention of the police’s over excessive force within their communities. Still even with cellphone footage of cops killing these innocent people, they get acquitted and get put on leave from their job with pay until all of it blows over and they begin working again. Some cops believe that because they’re hiding behind a badge, they get a pass at murdering people and call it self-defense and refuse to take responsibility for their actions, which is a technique of neutralization. Minorities, especially African-Americans suffer many injustices from law enforcement especially in terms of being killed, brutalized, and longer jail sentences
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
There are several beliefs of how police officers treat different racial groups. Several people say police officers are ethical and that they are just doing their job furthermore, its the doing of the suspects that causes the need of unwarranted force by the police officers. The chance of this is very reasonable, but then issue that comes to birth, is if this was true and police are just doing their jobs and being fair, why these events are mostly happening to minorities. Why are so many minorities constantly being pulled over for stop and frisk situations, frequently being killed? Unfortunately, racism remains in this day of age and it is ubiquitously in our society, and also in the criminal justice system. I think that race has affects that are positive and negative prejudices concerning the police. Numerous people think that, race is a factor that has lost a great deal of beneficial power as the U.S. develops as an increasingly international
The responsibility of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent crime, and to detect crime as well. It is a very stressful job that comes with many pressures and expectations from society. Police officers are often engaged in situations that require them to think critically and fast. They undergo many dangerous obstacles and difficult situations that many of us would fear to handle. In some of these harsh situations police officers tend to use brutal force which can ironically lead to the criminal to becoming the victim. Police brutality is the wanton use of excessive force, usually physical, but also common in forms of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation. There are two main common factors that cause police officers to engage in brutality towards an innocent person or a suspected criminal. An officer can either be taking advantage of their authority or be discriminant against a certain ethnicity/racial profiling. Police brutality is a very controversial topic. Police officers should not
Although police officers sometimes accidentally take lives, more lives are saved than those mistakenly taken. If officers did not apply some force when opposed, people would have no reason to listen and obey the laws they enforce. Police would gain no respect from civilians, and many officers would end up dead. In many cases, such as Tyron Lewis in 1996 and Michael Brown in 2014, minorities believe that police are targeting certain races when they use a gun as a means to protect themselves. While many people without any law enforcement training think that an officer is only supposed to injure the suspect to stop them, officers are actually trained to use lethal force to stop a threat (Mitchell). Numerous cases of police brutality exist, but just because an officer uses lethal force does not mean it qualifies as brutality. Police brutality is when there is proof that an officer or officers meant to bring harm upon a suspect in custody or anyone in general (Champion). Many cops exist that have bad intentions, but for the most part, law enforcement officers join the force to help protect their communities and families. Lately, it seems that cases are always in the news about some sort of police brutality or riots caused by an officer shooting someone. In reality though, police hardly ever use force; the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that officers use force less than one percent of the time or less than four out of every ten-thousand calls they go out on (Champion). Law enforcement should be commended for their efforts of keeping their communities safe from harm, instead of being under constant attack. Most do this duty while still preventing harm of the
The protestors that take part in these movements believe that policemen are actually evil and devoted to taking the lives of their innocent people (“The Truth of Black Lives Matter,” 2015). People who support the “Black Lives Matter” movements state that 1960’s civil rights laws have not made enough progress. These laws made three powerful declarations: black lives matter, black citizens matter, and black families matter. The reality in their eyes is that if this were the case, police violence and brutality should not be specifically aimed towards black people. Senator Elizabeth Warren makes a speech about the unfair discrimination and the situations that are going on every second of the day. “This is America, not a war zone, and policing practices in all cities, not just some, need to reflect that” (Fang, 2015). Sherriff Ron Hickman draws out the perspective of police and what he thinks are the unfair practices within America. “We’ve heard black lives matter, all lives matter. Well, cop’s lives matter too. So how about we drop the qualifier and just say lives matter” (Wing, 2015). Shannon J. Miles allegedly shot and killed a deputy, and police have yet to find a motive. It is logical for them to assume that the Black Lives Matter movement is a major source of the problem. There is an intuition on many police officers
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.
For many years in the past, police action particularly police abuse, has come to be unclear. Citizens are worried about protecting them from criminals. In fact they need to me aware of the corrupt police officers that are in the streets today as well as the criminals. There are many examples that make police brutality the worst as it is today. This one is one of them. Police Officer Daniel is in the choke hold death of Eric Garner, come in the wake if November 15th by the channel 24 news in Ferguson Missouri, police officer would walk free after killing 10 year old Michael Brown. (www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32740523) In the present police brutality does exist in the mist of us in the time and age we live in everyday. We just haven’t seen it yet. There are people that think if a police
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. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without
The negative views of everyday people often make work hard for officers, adding more stress to their careers. The general public regularly criticizes officers for using excessive force and brutality, especially when a police officer ends up killing a suspect or criminal. Oftentimes, especially when a white police officer shoots a citizen of a minority race, the general public is quick to find faults in the officer, blaming the officer for being racist. However, cold, hard statistics show that the majority of police officers are, in fact, white, and the neighborhoods in which these officers are placed in tend to be high-crime areas with many minority citizens living there (Miller “When Cops Kill”). In addition, people might say that a citizen who was shot was not armed; however, almost anything close to the shot individual could have been turned into a deadly weapon that he or she could have used to wound or kill the officer involved. Whenever officers are in this position, the natural reaction is to defend themselves. Everyday, police officers confront the most aggressive, immoral, and sick-minded individuals of society. Officers jeopardize their own lives every time they report for work. Officers witness things that no person should ever have to encounter. They see the most horrific and gruesome scenes that the general public turns away from and
In the Ferguson article (2015), there was an example given about an African American man claimed that he was standing outside of of Wal-Mart, an officer called him a “stupid motherf****r” and a “bastard.” According to the man, a lieutenant was on the scene and did nothing to reproach the officer, instead threatening to arrest the man (p. 80). This demonstrates that the police in Ferguson had no respect for the civilian and even though the lieutenant was present, they did nothing. The officer was not suspended nor held responsible for this incident. By failing to hold officers accountable, it sends a message that officers can behave as they like, “regardless of law or policy, and even if caught, that punishment will be light.” (Ferguson, 86). This message serves to excuse officer wrongdoing and heighten community distrust. This is also to say that police can possibly get away with murder because they are higher officials and work for the
We rely on the Police force to keep the community safe, but what price do we pay for that security? The job of a police officer is one of constant danger and threat. When an officer must engage with a belligerent and confrontational individual, there is a decision that must be made at the individual level. An officer must detain this person, while staying safe and keeping those around the scene safe. The officer has been trained in the appropriate use of force. The officer may have felt that use of force was warranted and used with discretion. The bystanders often don’t understand the complex situation that is unfolding before them and are quick to assume the officer has crossed the line. If you peruse through the internet you will see a myriad of reports covering police brutality that range from racial profiling to murder. Every time an officer uses force during an incident involving a minority group there is public outcry for justice and reform. When an officer chooses to use force, when does it become excessive? Who is the responsible unbiased entity to make that
History has shown that certain racial groups, especially Black and Latino have had a long, and poor relationship with the police largely due to socio-economic and racist discrimination in one way another. Race is a tremendous part when it comes to the fact of police brutality, but you only see something have a tremendous outbreak when it is the white officers assaulting someone of the opposite race. Maybe it isn’t always the race that comes to the problem but the fact that the citizen was doing something wrong. Then just because he or she is of a different race then all fingers are then pointed at the officer who was just trying serving justice. This is saying that it could go both ways, it isn’t always the cops at fault but that is what media has perceived it to be and has but a stereotype toward officers of the law. Maybe it was the civilian that has egged them on or threatened them. They do have a right to protect themselves, and sometimes that is exploited by the media and even the community at