StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Main Aspects of Police Brutality - Coursework Example

Summary
The author of this coursework "Main Aspects of Police Brutality" describes social problems based on the mentality, the statistics of crimes in the US,  the use of excessive force by the police…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.4% of users find it useful
Main Aspects of Police Brutality
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Main Aspects of Police Brutality"

Cece Chen Nieman Writing 39C Police Brutality Police brutality is the use of excessive force by the police when on duty. The excessive force may be in the form of pepper spray and guns. An example of an incident of excessive force which was most shocking and took place in Los Angeles was when a police in March of this year shot dead a homeless African- American man on the streets in circumstances that were completely unclear. The whole incident was caught on video and posted online by people passed by the scene. This is one of the incidences that have been harming black males who live in or near Los Angeles neighborhoods are living in fear of the police brutality and especially using guns (Bernstein 187). The police did not carry out a risk analysis of the situation to know which people were involved but simply assumed that everyone was a risk and hence sprayed everyone. In this case just like in the other cases of police brutality, some police officers sometimes do not follow the correct method to handle suspects. They use shortcut methods to handle situations. The statistics of the graph above shows that 23.3% of police brutality incidents are caused by excessive force, which is the highest figure. Also, statistics by the Bureau of Justice indicate that over 4,800 people died between 2003 and 2009 in the hands of police brutality. The most shocking thing that research by (Akkoc, 2015) shows is that over 57% of the people were people who were affected the misconduct of the police were people of color meaning non-whites. This is a very shocking number of people dying under the hands of police who are supposed to offer the unconditional protection. The other irony in the issue of police brutality causes harm and this is caused by their move at discriminating the black community. The graph indicates the use of excessive force by police officers in different states all over the US. It is evident from the graph that Los Angeles is one of the most notorious cities in America where police brutality through using excessive force is rampant. Further research by Branson-Potts, (2015) indicates that the brutality is excessive on the blacks more than the white men. There are two primary causes in this city that have resulted to this increased police brutality and there are legislatures and social context such as the high number of white police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department than the black officers and which will be discussed in detail below. The police in majority of these cases where they apply brutality especially the shootings cite self-defense for themselves which is accounted for in the “Stand your ground” legislature under California while the other police officers indicate that the dead individuals were suspects and they had attempted to resist arrest and the officer had no alternative rather than to apply force on them to comply. There are other police officers that were trying to stop the individual from physically harming other people and especially in fight or brawl cases and they end up using force to make them stop harming the other party. All these are legal justifications used by the police in court and they are either let to go free or simply pay damages but no other serious legal action is taken on these officers. What fails to be justified in not only Los Angeles but in most of the cities in the US is why the police mostly target the blacks both females and males in their brutality. There lacks legal justification why there are a larger number of black men. The only legislature against this kind of act is the Legislative employee whistleblower Protection Act which allows the police to use only minimum force but does not specify the race of the person the force should be used against. As mentioned in the statistics above, the number of black men is over half of all the cases of police brutality even if the neighborhoods are full of white people. What the law has done is to provide the legal measures such as the law mentioned above which makes the police officers’ use of deadly force against individuals who seemingly resist arrest or as a way to protect their own individuals from harm as illegal. According to Akkoc, (2015) there are some police officers in turn who use the laws to their own advantage to get rid of black suspects whom they do not want them to live anymore due to racialism. Glenza (2014) explains how the police officers make up excuses of self-defense whereas in the real case, no weapons are found on the suspects shot dead by the police. There are also other cases when the police shoot the suspect on the back and claimed that they were defending themselves from attack of suspect, while the scene shows that suspect were running away when they got shot. According to statistics, by 2011, the ratio of black to white police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department was 12:38, which is more than twice the number. Majority of the police heads and supervisors are white which grant them not only the authority to dismiss cases of racial nature and especially in relation to police brutality but they use their immunity to protect themselves from prosecution in such cases as the one mentioned in the examples above. It is this racism that has contributed to the police using more brutal force on the blacks compared to the whites. The police officers according to claims Ashkenas and Park, (2015) tend to consider all the black as suspicious of one criminal activity or another and hence their quickness in using excessive force against the blacks and then trying to mask the incidence with self-defense Statistics of crimes in the whole of US indicated by research carried out by Branson-Potts, (2015). is high on the blacks’ side compared to that of white. This is the reason that majority of the cases brought in by family members of the people killed or highly injured by excessive use of police force are black community. There are also statistics indicating that blacks compared to the white are most at risk to resist attempt as well as assault police officers. With these statistics in mind, misconceptions as well as stereotypes are likely to be at the mind of people and especially police officers. They therefore tend to apply unnecessary force on the blacks based on these statistics and allegations. With more white police officers and superiors protecting the city of Los Angeles, they tend to be unfair on all the blacks who have minimal protection from the minimal black police officers by favoring more white people and being lenient on them when they are suspects something they do not extend to the blacks. . They tend to apply all the brutal force on any black individual in the street knowing that the incidence will be hid from the public by the superiors as well. This mentality of the police force in the city of Los Angeles as well as in other cities in the US is what is contributing to most brutal cases by the police applying to the black individuals (Bernstein 67). The issue of police brutality is not only a problem in Los Angeles alone but in most of U.S. and other countries in the world as well. The issue is a menace in countries such as China, Russia, Canada, Egypt and other African nations as well among other nations. There are some countries, which have been addressing this issue through coming up with legislature against it, but others are yet to come up with such legislations and implement them as well. This social problem based on mentality that only the blacks commit crimes in most of the cases compared to the whites which is not necessarily true as most of the statistics are based on hard core crimes of homicide and drugs rather than petty crimes and white collar crimes is not bound to end anytime soon. Moreover, the only law that the public can use to win cases against the police brutality and especially in Los Angeles where police deadly weapon is justified by law is through eye witness’s testimonies or video recordings evidence to prove that the murdered or harmed individual was innocent and the police only used brutal force. Work Cited Akkoc, Raziye. “A timeline of police attacks in the USA.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, n.d. March 3rd, 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. Ashkenas, Jeremy, and Haeyoun Park. "The Race Gap in America’s Police Departments." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. Bernstein, Shana. Bridges of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print. Branson-Potts, Hailey. "Police Abuse, Black-on-black Violence Focus of Rally in South L.A." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. Glenza, Jessica. Los Angeles police release autopsy report in shooting of Ezell Ford. The Guardian, December 30th, 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. Read More

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Main Aspects of Police Brutality

Corruption and Methods to Reduce Corruption

The paper "Corruption and Methods to Reduce Corruption" describes that when police are complicit with or engaged in illegal activity, they disregard their job of working for the welfare of the society and take up the role of instilling insecurity, rather than safety, in the minds of the people.... Corruption in police challenges the trust of the public and its cooperation in the prevention of crime, investigation, and discovery.... In many cases, it happens that police themselves are corrupted....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

The Brutal Truth about Police Brutality

s unfortunate as the outcome was, the incident could be said to be a good learning tool in that it invites us to revisit the issue of police brutality and the question of whether or not such brutality by law enforcement officers made while in the line of duty actually result in effective law enforcement.... The paper "The Brutal Truth about police brutality" highlights that generally, it has been argued that one key angle to look into is the profile of the average policeman....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Police Brutality in New York and New Jersey

In as much as the law allows the use of reasonable force by the police in apprehending suspects, the governments of New York and New Jersey should install the relevant surveillance systems to reduce the many incidences of police brutality Despite the fact that the law on procedures of apprehension is very clear, some police officers still prefer to use excessive and more often unreasonable force in dealing with suspects or innocent citizens (Holmes and Smith 87).... Perhaps this is the worst form of police brutality, considering that all citizens and non-citizens in America are protected from any physical harm by the constitution....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper

Police Brutality in the United States: Is It Justifiable or No

A wide range of allegations of police brutality in the United States tends to give rise to broad discussions in public.... From the paper "police brutality in the United States: Is It Justifiable or No" it is clear that police brutality is a violation of the law, which is prohibited by the 8th amendment of the United States Constitution.... police brutality and excessive force are often synonyms.... Is police brutality justifiable in the United States?...
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Unethical police operations

One of the most current cases of police brutality in the United States is the case of Michael Brown.... The fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri showed the seriousness of police brutality in the US.... onclusion police brutality and corruption are issues which can be detrimental to the reputation and efforts of the police departments in the US.... However, there are cases of police corruption and brutality in the United States....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Police Brutality in America

Another measure that can possibly be used in the elimination of police brutality is advocating for a return to the former military-style policing system.... This system was equipped with a number of stringent safeguards and bureaucracies that helped in preventing cases of police brutality from occurring.... According to Barkan & Bryjak, (2011), the main issue with this and other similar definitions of police brutality is that they all tend to leave a key question hanging in the air: What exactly is reasonable force?...
5 Pages (1250 words) Report

Complaints against the Police

Unfortunately, to the growing concern of police officer complaints, there is a number of crucial factors that lead or enable them to commit unethical or illegal practices.... Acts of corruption, brutality, and bribery by the people with legislative power have long been witnessed to radically weaken the public faith on the governments.... The essay explores the issue of increasing complaints against police officers across different locations of the world....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Black Lives Matter Protests

Although the current protests focus on police brutality, their impacts are widely influential in policing processing, and this includes incarceration.... Generations after generations with such mentality that 'all lives matter' might have continued treating black people differently because they are less aware of psychological torture subjected to them through police brutality (Gay 1).... Thus, as protests end the racially targeted brutality, they are also fixing the broken and overlooked systems....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us