Police and Use of Excessive Force - Essay Example

Police and Use of Excessive Force Police and Use of Excessive Force Police officers are people that the citizens of any country depend on for protection. Their work is mainly to bring order in the country of their residences. This is done through apprehending criminals through arrest and taking them to the court to be judged. From this explanation then it could very valid to label police as good guys, however, sometimes questions have been raised on how the police do their work to finally get the desired end result. There has been a great debate across the globe as to whether the police are using excessive force while arresting the people that are suspected to have committed crime. In this paper, I am going to analyze various data that support the argument that police consistently use excessive force as well the material to the contrary of this statement and make my own justified conclusion pertaining the matter. Before going far it is paramount to clearly explain the work of the police and the people they are normally dealing with as well define what exactly excessive force entails. Police officers, as a result of the nature of their work may be called to use some force when arresting a suspect, dispersing a crowd, when solving a noisy quarrel, or any other duty that pertains to their work. The force that is called for in these cases may have a wide range and include; pushing somebody to get his/her attention to the extreme force such as using a fire arm. However, between these two extremes are a variety of other forces that can be used which include; a firm grip on the hand, use of some chemicals that could be irritating like teargas, use of blows with a baton. As much as there are many types of forces the police officers are only supposed to apply them when necessary to solve a given conflict or problem. When police go beyond the use of the reasonable force and uses a force that can be seen as while arresting somebody or while responding to the precipitous situations such as civil demonstrations then the citizens become the victims of police actions and this lead to tainted public confidence on the police. Those who argue that the police are warranted and therefore, the force used is not excess site that most of the time the police are dealing with criminals who seek to hurt the police or the general public. Here, it is important to notice that in real sense the criminals that the police are targeting to arrest are on their part targeting to kill the police officers so as to get a chance to escape. In this case therefore, the police are said to be defending themselves and any kind of force used including shooting to kill the criminal would still qualify to be reasonable this is because there is no fixed definition of what force is reasonable and what is excessive. It is only determine through the analyzing of the situation to determine the danger that is facing the officer. It also goes without saying that many police officers have lost their lives in the hands of armed criminals meaning that the work of the police is a hard job which involves risking one’s life to protect the public. The officers while trying to follow the law and stay away from using force that could appear a little excessive lead to them being the victims of the criminals who apparently are armed. The leads to them being stressed in the job which now could lead to the use of unreasonable force on those who actually do not pose any risk on the police and general public. Therefore, when analyzing whether a police is using an excessive force or not it is important to look at all the precipitating factors that lead to the use of the force that has been used, his will help understand the situation of the police officers and judge the force used correctly. Together with this it is also important to know that the decision made by the officers take only few seconds and therefore it could be very hard to run through all the possible options at the time presented with. It is therefore always easy to take a decision that would protect the citizens as well as other police officers which in most cases have been shown to be a little bit excessive force. When analyzed from the other angle, it is seen that police officers have used what can be termed as excessive force on several occasions. A report to the human rights watch reported that more than 12000 cases of police brutality are reported to the United States department of justice yearly. The report further says that out of this only less than 50 cases are prosecuted. There are other many incidences of police brutality that are reported in the media houses. For most of the cases that have been reported, the police are shown to be attacking or beating suspects that are not armed on the streets. This qualifies to be excessive force since the subjects are not armed and therefore is not a threat to the police and the general public. Other cases of police using force which may sometime lead to death of subjects have also been reported. This could be following a demonstration and police attack the demonstrators. It is the work of the police to only catch the suspected wrong doers and then take to the court where they will be tried and judged. Killing suspects s not right even if they are criminals since they have not been charged and proven to be guilty of the crimes they are suspected to have committee. It is in this respect that Stoughton, Seth says that the police officers should as guardians to the citizens and not act as worriers. Worriers fight and kill suspected criminals while guardians try to protect the citizens in all ways possible. In this case the police are supposed to be guardians of all people including the same criminals that they are suppose to arrest. They are therefore not allowed as guardians to injure even the criminals. From the above discussions it could be conclude that it is true that police officers consistently use excessive force when dealing with the citizens. The excuses used by the police and those that support them do not justify their actions. The excuse that sometimes they are stressed due to previous encounter with criminals is not an excuse. When an officer is stressed by the work, the it is the right call to take a break since that would imply that he/ she is not fit for duty and should be exempted. It is however, accepted that sometimes the officers should use some force but this is only when the citizens including the police face impending danger if an excessive action is not taken. In this case the action would not be excessive use of force since it was warranted. The citizens have a duty to reduce the instances of the times the excessive force is used by giving he police the right information when they have the information. This will help the police to know exactly the situation and therefore take the best decision which will avoid the use of excessive force and also help ease the hard work of the police officers. The information could be made very easy by the use of social media; in this case everybody with good information could post on a social media page where they will be utilized by the police. Training should also be given to the police officers on how to make right decisions when making an arrest so as to prevent the incidences of police brutality. Together with this, they should also be trained on stress management; this will also reduce these cases efficiently. Work cited “Fourth Amendment - Excessive Force - Ninth Circuit Holds Female Plaintiffs Brought Valid Excessive Force Claims Against Police Officers Who Tased Them”. Harvard  Law  Review. 125.7 ( 2012):1844-1851 Glennon, Jim. Police Use of Deadly Force Is Rare, Scrutiny Has Risen. nytimes.com. nytimes.com. (2015). Phillips, Scott W. "Police officers opinions of the use of unnecessary force by other officers. ." Police Practice & Research 11.3 (2010): 197-210. Sanburn, Josh. Justice Department Finds Cleveland Police Guilty of Excessive Use of Force. Time.com. ( 2014)  Sheng, Philip.  An "Objectively Reasonable" Criticism of the Doctrine of Qualified Immunity in ExcessiveForce Cases Brought Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.BYU Journal of Public Law.  26.1 (2011): 99-110. 12p Skolnick, Jerome H., and James J. Fyfe. Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force. New York: The Free Press, (1993). Stoughton, Seth. “Police Shouldnt Ask If a Shooting Is Justified, But If Its Avoidable”. nytimes.com. nytimes.com. (2015) Worden, Robert E. “The ‘Causes’ of Police Brutality:Theory and Evidence on Police Use of Force.” In And Justice for All: Understanding and Controlling Police Abuse of Force, (1995) Read More