Police Brutality

Police Brutality

Deadly force is excessive and unnecessary force applied by the police while handling the civilians. Excessive force is the use of more than the required force to handle a situation. Deadly force by police officers has been reported in many ways. The main form of applying this deadly force is physical. The police constables often use guns, pepper spray, and nerve gas to threaten or at the time, even hurt the civilians physically. Another form of the deadly police force can be through false arrest, psychological fear, corruption, racial outlining, improper and inappropriate use of tasers, sexual abuse, and even verbal abuse. Globally, cases are reported daily, regardless of the laws set to guide the police work and the civilians from police brutality. Most of these cases remain unsolved, with the victims walking away free.

The United States of America is one of the leading countries in the world, where police reform has failed to take action. Forms of police brutality have ranged from beatings, assaults, murder, torture, and assault. Police brutality may also encompass harassment, intimidation, verbal abuse, and another different form of violence and several forms of mistreatment. Americans of all ages, races, gender, and ethnicities have been victims of police brutality. In the 20th poor and low-class whites expressed frustration in the northern cities due to discriminatory policing. Jewish members filed complain about police brutality that was directed to their communities. In the year 1920, urban police departments engaged in extralegal means to a member of the Italian immigrant to crackdown organized crimes. In 2000, the Los Angeles police department attacked Mexican Americans by the servicemen in the United States of America. In 2001, the country experienced regular harassment of a member of the LGBT members by the police culminated. The action triggered the raid in a bar that was occupied by gay people, and it marked the beginning of militancy. Transgender and homosexuals in the country were forced to call for international gay organization and movement to protect them from police harassment. In September 2004, Muslim member filed cases complaining of police brutality, which comprised racial profiling and police brutality (Worden, 2015).

According to the current statistics on groups subjected to police brutality, the majority of the victims are African Americans. Based on the information that has been given by experts, there are key factors that explain the predominance of African Americans. The victims of police brutality and excessive force are anti-black racism that exists among members of the white police department. The same prejudice is believed to have contributed to police brutality that happened against historically mistreated and marginalized members. Information that has been collected by various organizations has indicated that racism is the primary cause of police brutality and excessive force that has been directed to black Americans. The other factor that has promoted police brutality is an institutional culture that is found in the urban police department. The culture is in support of loyalty, solidarity, power, and show of force against civilians. Members of the police department believe that they have the power to handle any form of challenge directed to police authority. In some police departments, loyalty and promotion of police officers depend on group practices, values, and attitudes infused historically with anti-black racism. Black Americans have been the primary target of police brutality in the United States of America.

There is a significant gap that exists between white and black communities in the United States of America in matters that are related to education, unemployment, and poverty. It right to terminate all the laws that were made in the country as color blind. There has been a frequent disregard of attacks that have been directed to the black community. The issues have been a nightmare to black Americans, and it should be viewed to be more than the right civil aspect. Information that has been collected in various police departments is a clear indication that police brutality is an aspect of race. The system has failed to apply necessary consequences to police officers that are involved with cases like excessive force and police brutality. The court system should develop ways in which the police departments can be charged financially in situations where they allow their officers to act without reprimand. It is worth to note that the constitution legally permits the extinguishing of black races in America. The categorical gaps that have been realized in the black community have led to the development of BLM movements (Carter, 2016)

Another example of police brutality is a case where the police beat a middle-aged woman and reserved into their custody for declining a breathalyzer test when she was walking home late at night. The lady suffered a fractured coccyx, and she has bruises all over her body. She filed the case, but there was no response until she managed to find the CCTV footage is when the prosecutor revisited the case. The lady was walking, not driving. According to Kargin, 2016), the breathalyzer is used to measure the amount of alcohol in the breath of a person driving suspected to be drunk. For the lady’s situation, there was no need to use a breathalyzer on her. The lady was walking from a New Year’s Eve in New York back home. The incident happened near a gas station where a group of policemen became violent with the lady upon refusing to take the breathalyzer test. According to the CCTV video retrieved, these group of police was all around her physically abusing her. The lady spent the night in the police cell after being arrested for civil disorder. The following day, the lady went to the hospital, where the doctor confirmed a structure and several bruises in her knees and head. The lady explained how the police stood on her legs and hit her knowingly at the back as they call her abusive names.

This case was only reexamined because of the evidence that was presented, the CCTV footage. From this CCTV footage, every statement of the lady matched what happened in the footage. As for the police officer’s written report, it contained a fifteen-page with every single statement contradicting what was showing in the CCTV footage. An orgy of violence is demonstrated through the video footage, as the police officers brutally assaulted this young lady who, according to the law, was innocent. Not at any point did the lady relevant to taking the breathalyzer test. The rule does not drink and drive, and that is why breathalyzer tests were adopted to help police officers to keep evidence that the victim was drunk at the time they were driving. As a part of the patrol, the lady would be charged with any case or faults like failing to show her identity documents like ID, etc. to show that she was a peaceful person who just attended some party and was going back home (Gross, 2015).

Among the many accusations of police use of deadly force on civilians in many years, this turned to be another one in 2015 that was nearly going uninvestigated. The lady was lucky to have found the CCTV footage, which she could show the prosecutor as evidence of her claims. Surprisingly, the number of people being accused and arrested for the civil disorder is surpassing that of the police officers using deadly force, most of which are have not been examined and the victims charge being innocent. Are the laws put in place to guide civilians any active? Regardless of whether the lady was wrong or not, the arrest was not supposed to be violent in any way. Arresting her upon refusing to take the breathalyzer was as enough as applying hand coughs and taking her to the police station without hurting her. She is just a lady against nine police officers; no form of resistance would prevent all of them from making sure the arrest was made in the right way without hurting the civilian (White, 2016).

The system has demonized members of the black community, where officers consider using excessive force as a form of preserving the community. Police officers have a belief that they have been entitled to handle all kinds of power to keep the community safe. White police officers have a notion that black communities are made op of hyper-aggressive individuals who will only be handled and controlled by the use of excess power. The assumption taken by a white police officer has given them the ability to do anything they want with the life of black people. In other words, the system has given them the green light to act in a manner suggesting black lives have no meaning. It is time for the police department to be notified that black communities bleed and die after they have been shot. The black community is not able to report many cases due to fear of retaliation (Jones, 2017).

Additionally, black police officers have been victims of police brutality in the hand of their fellow white police officers. Based on various reported crimes, it is worth to note that white police officers solidify racial components related to violence in the police department. Several cases have been reported where black police officers are killed in the hands of their fellow white officers. For example, in 1960, John Halt was shot dead in his apartment by a fellow police officer. White police officers mistook Halt to be a burglar. In 2018, a law enforcement agent was shot by a fellow white police officer in Maryland. All the officers that were witnesses to the incident claimed that action was a mistaken identity. The incidences provide clear evidence that police brutality is based on race. Besides, discrimination is the driving force that makes police officers to act violently when handling members of the black society (Miller, 2015).

In conclusion, the use of deadly force by police officers is still an active matter, most of which go unresolved because the victims do not have enough evidence to defend themselves. It puts civilians at a delicate position where they cannot get help or defense from the brutal police officer because the police officers are so good at recording false statements against the victims. With each day police officer use of deadly force increasing, the lives of civilian remains threatened regardless of having their rights. They are just writings on the paper that not initiated in most cases when they should.

References

Carter, C. A. (2016). Police Brutality, the Law & Today’s Social Justice Movement: How the Lack of Police Accountability Has Fueled# Hashtag Activism. CUNY L. Rev., 20, 521.

Gross, J. P. (2015). Judge, jury, and executioner: The excessive use of deadly force by police officers. Tex. J. on CL & CR, 21, 155.

Jones, J. M. (2017). Killing fields: Explaining police violence against persons of color. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 872-883.

Kargin, V. (2016). Police Use Of Excessive Force: A Case Study Of Lethal (Deadly) Force. European Scientific Journal, 12(1).

Miller, L. (2015). Why cops kill: The psychology of police deadly force encounters. Aggression and violent behavior, 22, 97-111.

White, M. D. (2016). Transactional encounters, crisis‐driven reform, and the potential for a national police deadly force database. Criminology & Public Policy, 15(1), 223-235.

Worden, R. E. (2015). The ’causes’ of police brutality: theory and evidence on police use of force. ER Maguire, & DE Duffee, Criminal Justice Theory: Explaining The Nature and Behavior of Criminal Justice, 2, 149-204.