Influence of social groups
The power/influence of the social groups is defined as the way a person or a group of individuals change their social behavior to meet the needs of a social environment. The influence takes forms such as conformity, peer pressure, obedience, persuasion, socialization, and leadership, among others. The power of social groups is a result of several factors such as specific action, request, or command from people in leadership or a position of power and influence.
Throughout my life, I have been a member of several social groups both at school and in the neighborhood at home. These social groups have had different influences on me as they grew up. Some of the social groups have had a positive impact on my life, while others have had negative influence and often made me feel uncomfortable. The neighborhood and school social groups have influenced how to interact with different people. They influenced me to choose the kind of friends to have and those to do away with. The people who seemed to against the group’s interests or behavior would no longer be my friends. I would always find myself obeying the request of the group leader or other peers when they said action had to be done. As from the article “if Hitler asked you,” I was obedient to the group’s requests sometimes even without questioning the outcomes of the action.
One of the situations that I felt uncomfortable that the group had much influence over me was on a weekend when my peers suggested we should go camping. At first, the idea was brilliant, but it turned out that some of my peers had other ideas and suggested that we should try alcohol and anything that would get us high. The thought made me very uncomfortable and nervous since I did want to try out drugs, and at the same time, friends would see me as a coward and naïve. I did not react or resist well to the influence since I did not want to disappoint my friends. I even though I resisted the temptations of having alcohol, a better reaction would have been not attending the party altogether
- Victims of police violence.
The time I witnessed police violence was on the streets when a suspect was chased and eventually arrested by the police. The male suspect in the early 20s was suspected together with his two accomplices of snatching a bag from a victim on the street and running away. Police on patrol had the commotion and immediately responded to the distress call of the woman who had been robbed. The event turned into a street chase where police followed one the victims, cornered him, and to the astonishment of the people on the street police beat him thoroughly. One of the policemen even drew a gun and threatened to execute the suspect if he did not name the other suspects and produce the stolen bag.
From the article “Police Accounts of Normal Force,” the police normalized their use force by two accounts, namely; excuses and justifications. From the account of excuses that denies full responsibility for the use of violence and but acknowledges it was necessary, the police used the excuse that the suspect was dangerous since he was running away after stealing from his victim. They could have also used the excuse of the suspect refusing to cooperate with the police and failure to reveal the identity of other suspects. The police use excuses to relieve themselves from responsibility when their use of force or violence on the suspect is questionable.
Police may also have used justifications that require them to accept the responsibility for the use of violence and excessive force on the suspect but deny it was wrong and necessary. In this case, the police can try to justify their action by claiming the suspect was running and, therefore, the use of force to arrest him. In this case, there was no need to use force when arresting the suspect since he was not dangerous or armed but only tried to run away from the police. The fact they had cornered him shows that there was no need to beat him up but rather take him to custody a conduct investigation and interrogation to arrest his peers.