Do Police Should Use Excessive Force - Research Paper Example

Are Police Consistently Using Excessive Force ? The past few months have seen nationwide police departments coming under fire due to various reports of excessive force when dealing with suspects. Oftentimes, what could have been peaceful encounters are believed by many to have been blown out of proportion by the police because of their desire to become “trigger happy”. Due to the unreasonable use of excessive force, which often results in the death of an unarmed person, regardless of race or gender, the police force has come under scrutiny for their actions when faced with potentially violent situations. The New York Times, in an effort to bring a balance to this debate, allowed an exchange of ideas regarding the topic “Do Police Use Deadly Force Too Often”. I have chosen to use the same topic as the thesis statement for this essay since this is a timely and quite controversial topic that does not seem to have an accurate response in sight. It is my personal opinion that the police have not been using excessive force when dealing with dangerous situations. I will be presenting my supporting opinion in the latter part of this essay. In the meantime, I will be presenting both sides of the issue and hopefully, end up offering some knowledge and considerations to the reader that have not been a part of their consideration of the topic before. Seth Stoughton,a professor from the University of South Carolina School of Law has had the privilege of being both a police officer and a state investigator. He shared his opinion with the New York Times regarding the debate about use of excessive force. It was his opinion that the wrong question is being asked in the debate. Rather than having a public that asks if the shooting was justified, the public should instead be asking if the shooting could have been avoided (Stoughton, Seth “Police Shouldnt Ask If a Shooting is Justified, But if its Avoidable”). Stoughton spoke from a unique perspective. Having had the experience of a police officer and state investigator, he has found himself in the same situation as the officers accused of using excessive force. The opinion he raised was based upon his personal experience and first hand knowledge of the common scenarios that the police are called upon to respond to. He knew that police officers face extreme circumstances everyday. It was his opinion that the use of extreme force cannot be avoided, but it can be limited. Stoughton explains: The tragic shooting of Tamir Rice last November puts the difference between “justified” and “avoidable” in stark contrast. Officers responding to call that there was a “man with a gun” in a park drove to within about ten feet of their suspect. One officer jumped out of the car and, within two seconds, fatally shot the 12- year-old. Was it justified? Probably, if one narrowly considers the officers proximity to an apparently armed man. Was it avoidable? Almost certainly, when one acknowledges that the officers could have—and should have—parked at a safe distance and approached cautiously by using cover, concealment, and communication (Stoughton, Seth “Police Shouldnt Ask If a Shooting is Justified, But if its Avoidable”). Here is the thing about Stoughtons opinion, he asks us to consider that we turn to police officers for our personal protection and crime prevention. We ask them to become our “warriors”. Demanding that they appear magically at the scene of a crime or altercation, ready and willing to give their lives so that we may live in safety. However, we as a community, seem to be hellbent on making it extremely difficult for them to do the job we created an ideal for. The America that we live in today is a far cry from the America that our parents and grandparents grew up in. These days, the police officers need to be more than just friendly beat cops patrolling our streets. They need to be streetwise, vigilant, and be able to read the meaning of various movements and actions of the people they come across in the streets. In a split second, Stoughton recalls that the police are trained to be warriors, ready to vanquish the enemies of the community at all cost. He believes that officers need to be retrained to develop a less “warrior” mindset and instead, become the “guardians” of the community even when faced with a potentially violent situation which, due to a change in mindset, they can hopefully avoid. Jim Glennon , a 3rd generation police officer and owner of the Calibre Press and Street Survival Seminar for Police Training has an opposing viewpoint from Stoughton. It is his opinion that use of excessive force has not increased with the police, it is just that the public scrutiny of police actions have risen (Glennon, Jim “Police Use of Deadly Force Is Rare, Scrutiny Has Risen”). The problem he sees is that the rise of what I opt to call “Citizen Journalists” has made it extremely difficult for the public to see the police actions as anything but violent. People who are constantly videotaping for YouTube will most likely come across a police officer in the middle of performing his job and misconstrue a situation based upon what he was able to videotape. Damn the establishing plot and circumstances, all that matters to them is the final outcome of the video, which, in extreme cases, shows a police officer discharging his weapon. It is important for people to understand, according to Glennon that police officers are the target of criminal activities and in situations where a police officer comes in without his piece drawn, there is a greater chance that he will not come out of the situation alive. Due to the dangers of the job, the law seems to give them more leeway, after all, a police officers life is on the line for complete strangers asking for their help. Perhaps it is because of the fact that police officers have been given more leeway by the law to practice extreme force that police officers have taken to exercising the privilege. The use of deadly force is allowed within the law provided the officer deems himself to be faced imminent danger that would affect those around him (Leonnig, Carol “Current Law Gives Police Wide Latitude to Use Deadly Force”). According to a statement by Anthony Rothert, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri Foundation: The reality is that the police often use excessive force, including sometimes deadly, and are rarely held criminally or civilly liable — and most police departments have no meaningful internal or external accountability mechanisms... As a result, individual officers and departments are unaffected by the use of excessive force, which leave civilians — particularly unarmed men of color — at risk of physical injury, with little the law can do to deter excessive or even egregious force (Leonnig, Carol “Current Law Gives Police Wide Latitude to Use Deadly Force”). During these investigations relating to excessive force, other factors are considered when trying to determine whether the officer went overboard with his reaction or not. Roger Dunham and Goeffrey Alpert indicated that some of these factors include: “... how police spend their uncommitted time, how quickly they respond to calls for assistance, and what police do when handling a call for service... “ (122) Therefore, it is incorrect to say that the police officers are not held liable for their actions just because there is a law that allows them to pull a weapon on the suspect. This is why the term “excessive has, according to Jyoti Belur, become problematic. The definition of the word actually involves other values than just what the naked eye can see. While the police administrators tend to apply professional standards to their investigation, the public bases their judgment on pure common sense (3). The reason that cops are given a wide berth when it comes to the dispensation of their duties lies in their training and mindset, John Firman, who is the director of research, programs, and professional services at the International Association of Chiefs of Police explains that; “Officers are trained to assess the risk before firing, Firman said, but often a situation escalates quickly” with the use of extreme force being the bottom-line reaction when the officer finds himself in a situation where an officer needs to: ... protect the officer or others from what is reasonably believed to be a threat of death or serious bodily harm; and to prevent the escape of a fleeing violent felon who the officer has probable cause to believe will pose a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others (Siddiqui, Sabrina “Why Do Cops So Often Shoot to Kill?”) It is surprising to see that the mindset of some people regarding the excessive of force by police officers in extreme situations changes once they find themselves in the shoes of the police officer. Apparently, it becomes easier for some people to understand why some police officers find themselves using extreme force in particular instances. People such as Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, who at first thought the job of a police officer was simple and that they quite possibly did use excessive force in their line of duty, changed their opinion about the use of excessive force once they were placed in a virtual, not actual, situation that a police officer faces on a daily basis. At the end of the exercise, he found himself saying: When each scenario was done, including one in which I shot a robbery suspect but was killed by his partner, I couldnt remember exactly what the suspects said or did. I was too focused on survival and public protection to process every detail. I made my decision, hoped for the best, and then immediately second-guessed everything Id just done. I still dont know whether the Westlake officer acted appropriately or not. But I do know that Id hate to have to handle that sort of pressure every day (Lopez. Steve “Seeing Through a Cops Eyes”). In all of the opinions portrayed in my research of this topic, it became quite clear that while the public protest regarding the excessive use of force permeates mainstream media and influences public opinion, there are those who actually look way deeper than the superficial reasons given by the public for believing that police officers consistently use excessive force with or without reason. They are the people who actually understand what it means to be a police officer and protector of the community. That is exactly the sentiment that I too carry regarding the debate. As a bystander, video clip creator, and perhaps even a couch opinion maker, I know how easy it is to watch a video of a police officer doing his job with unfortunate results. It is easy to be member of the jury when we do not know the full situation and how it played out from the very beginning. Prejudice against the police officers because of the prevalance of Black youth related violence in their arrests have clouded the scenario. Perspectives change because of the technology that allows us to see snippets of a story, instead of the whole picture. Which is what we used to get before everyone began to wield video cameras and began to think that they have the right to invade privacies and report only portions of a story rather than allowing the proper authorities to investigate and present a more accurate report. In the end, the obvious answer to the debate lies in the mindset and understanding that a person has regarding the topic. Do they truly understand the meaning of “excesive force”? Is the video snippet that they took accurate from beginning to end? Did the video include the arrival of the police officer, allow for dialogue to be heard in order to learn about how the conversation went between the suspect and the officer before he pulled his gun? Being a responsible person means knowing when to take responsibility for others as well as yourself. That is what police officers have to do on a regular basis. So it is not right for us to base the “excessive use of force” debate solely upon the little that we know about what actually transpired at the scene of the crime. Works Cited Belur, Jyoti. Permission to Shoot?: Police Use Deadly Force in Democracies. New York: Springer Science and Business Media, 2010. Print. Dunham, Roger G. and Alpert Geoffrey P. Critical Issues in Policing: Contemporary Readings. 7th Ed. Illinois:Waveland Press, 2015. Print. “Do Police Use Deadly Force Often?” nytimes.com. nytimes.com. 9 Apr. 2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. Glennon, Jim. “Police Use of Deadly Force Is Rare, Scrutiny Has Risen”. nytimes.com. nytimes.com. 9Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. Leonnig, Carol D. “Current Law Gives Police Wide Latitude to Use Deadly Force”. washigntonpost.com. washingtonpost.com. 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. Lopez Steve. “Seeing Through a Cops Eyes”. latimes.com. latimes.com. 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. Siddiqui, Sabrina. “Why Do Cops Often Shoot to Kill?”. huffington post.com huffingtonpost.com. 19 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. Stoughton, Seth. “Police Shouldnt Ask If a Shooting Is Justified, But If Its Avoidable”. nytimes.com. nytimes.com. 9 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. Read More