Use of Excessive Force by Police
Introduction:
Police officers are given a significant amount of discretion simply due to the nature of the job. Officers are faced with many threatening situations forcing them to react quickly yet appropriately. They have the power to infringe upon any citizen's rights to freedom and therefore they must use this power effectively. One major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is their power to decide when to use force or when to use lethal force. Manning (1997:295) argues that it is generally accepted that police should be allowed to use force. He also explains that there is an uncertainty among people as to what constitutes excessive force. The line between what is necessary and what is extreme is very thin. Use of force is no doubt one important aspect in policing; however, force should also be used with great discretion. If officers do not use force on every suspect they encounter they may be creating a negative environment for the community.
The community policing style is defined by David M. Allender as (2004:18-19),
?Community policing is a philosophy of full-service, personalized policing where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis, from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems.?
The most important factors to community policing include personalization, partnership and problem-solving (Allender, 2004:19). The idea is to create a relationship with citizens that is trustworthy and honest. When officers begin to use force to control the community, citizens began to view officers as authority figures instead of service officers that are there to protect and serve. This results in a break down of the relationship between officers and the community. In community policing force should only be used if other efforts are deemed ineffective.
The use of force can pertain many different actions a police officer participates in. Force can range from simply verbal commands to the dangerous use of lethal force. Police no doubt need to have discretion to use force to protect themselves as well as community. Guidelines need to be set so that officers continue to incorporate and maintain the concept of community policing. The purpose of this article is to inform readers that police discretion not only encompasses use of police profiling, responses to domestic violence, or choices in acceptance of gratuities but discretionary decision to use force.
Frida Kahlo nació el 6 de Julio 1907 en la ciudad de México. Ella les dijo a muchas personas que nació el 7 de Julio 1910 porque quiso parecer más joven a los otros. Aunque sus padres fueron judíos, Frida nació en México. Frida fue una artista surrealista y sus obras vió de sus emociones de la tristexa y la cólera de su vida. Ella le encantó decir los chistes, reír, y sonreír. Frida Kahlo llevó las ropas de la cultura tradicional de México porque pensó que las ropas fueran una forma del arte. Todo el mundo admiró mucho a Frida, a causa de sus obras y su actitud.
The article was effective because of the use of examples to help readers relate to research that many would otherwise find boring.
In 1922 she entered the Preparatoria, the most prestigious educational institution in Mexico, which had only just begun to admit girls. She was one of the only thirty-five girls out of the two thousand students. It was there that she met Diego Rivera, the man that she would eventually marry. In 1925, Frida was involved in a horrific bus accident that would alter the way she would live her life from that point on. She seriously injured her spine, abdomen, pelvis, and right foot. Frida was forced to stay flat on her back, encased in a plaster cast and enclosed in a box like structure for months. Though she survived the accident, the wounds that she suffered led to a lifelong physical battle with pain. Frida eventually regained her ability to walk, but she had many relapses, which caused her to be hospitalized for long periods of time, and also caused her to undergo numerous operations (32 throughout her life). It was her accident that led her to the path of becoming an artist. Frida initially started painting out of boredom. She would go on to paint many of her masterpieces while being confined to...
Frida Kahlo was an amazing woman whose many tragedies influenced her to put her stories into her paintings. She was born in July 6th 1907 to a Mexican Roman Catholic mother who was of Indian and Spanish decent and a German photographer father. Frida had three sisters, Mitilde and Adriana, who were older and Christina who was younger. She learned about Mexican history, art and architecture by looking at her father’s photography. When Frida was six she got polio and it was a long time before she would heal completely. After surviving polio, Frida’s right leg became weak and thin, so her father encouraged her to play sports to help her.
Frida Kahlo is known for the most influential Latin American female artist. She is also known as a rebellious feminist. Kahlo was inspired to paint after her near-death bus incident when she was 17. After this horrendous incident that scarred her for life, she went under 35 different operations. These operations caused her extreme pain and she was no longer able to have kids. Kahlo’s art includes self portraits of her emotions, pain, and representations of her life. Frida Kahlo was an original individual, not only in her artwork but also in her
Discretion is often one of the most critical aspects of a police officer’s daily duties. In the past, police discretion was considered taboo until 1956 when a study conducted by the American Bar Foundation discovered that there is nothing illegal or improper about discretion, and that it is in fact of practice (“The Role of Discretion in Police Work,” 2012). Before discretion was officially accepted as practice, police officers would not admit to be involved in police discretion. The basic definition of discretion is the use of personal choices when carrying out typical police job duties. For example, a police officer may decide to arrest one suspect for police interference, but will let another suspect go home, for the exact offense. When using discretion, however...
Frida’s life began in Coyoacan Mexico on July 6,1907. During her lifetime Kahlo embarked on many hardships caused by illness, heartache, and love. She became known for her haunting self- portraits, radical politics, and that infamous unibrow (Stephen 2008). At the age of 6 Frida contracted polio that affected mainly her right leg. When she was 18 she was involved in a nearly fatal bus accident that crushed her back, right leg and pierced her pelvis. Due to this accident Frida had to endure nearly 30 operations and was left in constant pain. As a young woman, becoming a painter was not Frida’s goal, she wanted to become a doctor. However the tragic bus accident changed the course of her life forever. It was during her months of convalescence that Frida began to take painting seriously…"to combat the boredom and pain" she said. "I felt I still had enough energy to do something other than studying to become a doctor. Without giving it any particular thought, I started painting" (Wilson 145). It was the beginning of a life-long career for Frida.
The degree of force that officers use is heavily influenced by police discretion in real-world situations rather than espoused by a certain agenda. Discretion can be classified into four different categories where administrators, the community, and the individual police officer exercise differing degrees of influence in decision-making. What is needed to help officer discretion is a central ethos that will guide discretion when all other rules fail to help.
Discretion is defined as the authority to make a decision between two or more choices (Pollock, 2010). More specifically, it is defined as “the capacity to identify and to document criminal and noncriminal events” (Boivin & Cordeau, 2011). Every police officer has a great deal of discretion concerning when to use their authority, power, persuasion, or force. Depending on how an officer sees their duty to society will determine an officer’s discretion. Discretion leads to selective enforcement practices and may result in discrimination against certain groups of people or select individuals (Young, 2011). Most police officer discretion is exercised in situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).
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.
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
Police discretionary practices vary from officer to officer and every officer is differently trained by departments. Without the proper use of discretion out on the field, police officers are left open for legal suit actions however, if the officers are trained and exercising the use of discretion in a good manner, each individual officer can be held accountable. The second disadvantage of use of police discretion is that it allows the police officers to have too much power on making decisions which can affect the life, safety or liberty of an individual (Bargen, 2005). Police discretion presents a clear danger to society because the average officer can make a poor decision and affect the life of a person or persons. If discretion in law enforcement is used in a wrongful manner, it has great potential for being abused out of the field. Discretion allows police officers to “perform a duty or refrain from taking action” (Gaines & Kappeler, 2003, p. 251). Police officers are supposed to enforce equality under the law, people in society all should have equal rights and should be treated the same. However, discretion allows police officers to misuse it by treating offenders of different genders, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age and more inappropriately (Pepinsky, 1984). Law enforcement officers are
As a result of the recent rise of the use of excessive force cases against police and law enforcement, I have chosen to research the definition of that excessive force. When is it considered justifiable? What training do officers receive? What liability issues are there? In an ABC news article, Sascha Segan states there is no specific definition of excessive force. A part of everyday police work is to subdue criminal and suspects. Another everyday task of police officers is personal discretion - making the right decision based on the specific situation. It has been documented in multiple viral videos that law enforcement officer’s discretion is not always favorable in the public eye and is quick to be judged. Yet shouldn’t we be asking if the officer’s actions were justifiable within the court system and if
“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my reality,” said Frida Kahlo describing her art work (Frida Kahlo n.d.). Kahlo was a Mexican artist from the mid-20th century. She was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, and the daughter of German and Mexican descendants (Lucie-Smith 1999). During her lifetime Kahlo embarked on many hardships caused by illness, heartache, and love. She became known for her haunting self portraits, radical politics, and that infamous unibrow (Stephen 2008).
The key characteristics of community policing are as follows: Police officers are usually called upon to be particularly thoughtful, creative problem solvers. They are asked to listen to the concerns of community members, to logically reason out the roots of problems, to identify and research potential answers, to implement solutions, and to assess results. Police officers work in partnership with concerned citizens. The second characteristic is that police officers are visible and accessible component of the community and work with youths and other community members top address delinquency problems. On the third characteristic, police officers patrol a limited number of jurisdictions on foot. The so-called foot patrol officers are believed to be more approachable and offer a comforting presence to citizens. The fourth and last characteristic that will be mentioned on this paper is that the community policing have decentralized operations, which allows officers to develop greater familiarity with the needs of various constituencies in the community and to adapt procedures to accommodate those needs.