Use of Force in Law Enforcement
Use of force in law enforcement refers to the amount of effort that the police and other law enforcement officers apply to compel an unwilling subject to comply. . The amount of force used is termed reasonable if it is the bare minimum amount of force that is require to protect oneself from an aggressor. Since different situations call varying amount of force, we consider force reasonable if a reasonable person would have acted in a like manner if they were faced by a similar circumstance. Excessive force refers to efforts beyond what is reasonable for mitigating a particular situation.
Use of reasonable force is justified in situations where one needs to protect themselves or other parties from perceived assailants. This means that the defendant has determined that the person concerned is capable of inflicting bodily harm on them or killing them. Such is the case where an aggressor is threatening to use a weapon, toxic substance, or bodily force against the defendant.
The law allows the use of excessive force is in some limited situations. These include where the law enforcers are handling prisoners, especially dangerous convicts, in military operations and where they need to stop a high-value assailant from escaping arrest. In these circumstances, the officer involved is permitted to employ whatever means possible to contain the situation.
I find the current trend in cases of use of force by the police quite alarming. Will most of the instances where the police used force were justifiable, there has been some cases where their actions were racially instigated or resulted from incompetence. The case of Laqman versus Van Dyke is one of such cases. In 2014, Van Dyke shoot 16 times at Laqman though Laqman was not posing any threat to the officer. Dyke continued shooting on him though he was lying on the ground.