Excessive Use of Force in Criminal Justice

Excessive Use of Force in Criminal Justice

Introduction:

According to Worden, the issue of excessive use of power in criminal justice, particularly by community policing officers, has developed to toxic levels (149).  There have been numerous cases where different officers have been caught on camera assaulting suspects when conducting an inspection or arrest. Ethically, this issue is unacceptable in criminal justice.  Instead, the officers are expected to ensure that they deeply discretion when conducting their duty or arrest or any probe.   However, ones the officers decide to act against the discretion requirements, their legitimacy among the people they serve is lost, and therefore, collaboration with community members is broken down.

This issue leads to the affection of criminal justice service delivery.   The issue affects the community in that; there is increased insecurity following the rising fear and lack of trust towards the criminal justice officers.   Based on the impacts of the issue on criminal justice delivery, a remedy ought to be implemented to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of various criminal justice strategies in community policing. This paper will elaborate on the issue of excessive force by criminal justice, its evolution in history as well as the perception dynamics over time.

Evolution of the Selected Issue throughout History:

The use of excessive force by criminal justice officers was first witnessed in the year 1872. During this period, the police officers were reported in the Chicago Tribune newspaper to have assaulted a young man the along Harrison Street. This issue was termed as police brutality by the newspaper (Lersch and Mieczkowski, 3).  This issue was not, however, taken to be very serious as the officers were not apprehended regarding the act.   After this incident, issues of excessive use of police force in the United States expounded in the 19^th and 21st century, where officers were spotted using various weapons to disperse civilians who were demonstrating in different strikes lie the Pullman strike that happened in the year 1894.  Notably, the use of force was founded on racial discrimination, where black Americans were affected.

The cases of excessive use of force and lack of police discretion and ethics expounded in the year 1992, where LAPD was involved in a mass tranquilization (Adman 3).  Officers were recorded to have injured and killed people in the riots, which are recorded to be the most popular demonstrations in American history.   Notably, bad management of the criminal justice system in this era resulted in an increased rate of the issue (Cooney 13). Additionally, the police were not fully educated on ethics and discretion. However, this was a turning point in the criminal justice history where various policies were set by the United States government to limit such brutal acts by the officers. Programs to educate the officers were set. However, the issue has up to date been a challenge to criminal justice, as several cases have been reported.

The leading cause of excessive use of force by criminal justice officers is currently boosted by the lack of proper training of officers as well as increased rates of criminal activities like drug trafficking and use among young people.   A few years ago, after the LAPD riots, officers would meet with their leaders as well as the members of the public to address the issue. Currently, this policy has been eradicated

Evolution of the Historical Perception:

Over the evolution of the issue in history, many people depicted instantaneous perceptions regarding the use of excessive force in different cases.   Notably, the issue made the public to develop resistance against the officers in general since they had lost trust in them (Cooney 2).  Officers were viewed as oppressors instead of protectors in the context of the United States.  According to Adman, a good illustration of the public perception was felt in the year 1992 during the Los Angeles mass demonstration (11).

The issue of excessive use of police force, as well as that of the judiciary, triggered more violence instead of cooling the situation.  This factor made the riots to be documented as the most massive mass demonstration in the History of the United States. Currently, technology has impacted the public perception in that, and it has triggered more oversight from the public since the use of platforms like social media have enabled people to record and share such incidences where they highly denounce it.