Police Brutality - Research Paper Example

Police Brutality Introduction The past few months have given the media an opportunity to inform American citizens on the level of police brutality and killings in parts of the country. Through print media, the judiciary, activists, police and the citizens are able to voice their opinion surrounding the incidences of police brutality and killings. The victims of these police unethical behavior are targeted minority groups from African American, Hispanic and minor racial groups. Featured mostly in the New York Times and MSNBC, journalists have been able to uncover the underpinning reasons and surrounding circumstances behind the harassment of police among citizens. These brutalities and killings are influenced from issues such as racial chasm, mental instability, superiority complex and societal conceptions of the minority groups by the police. This research seeks to investigate the factors fuelling police brutalities and killings to African American citizens as reported by New York Times and MSNBC. Few weeks ago, a Caucasian police officer shot a twelve year boy in Cleveland, under the presumption that he was carried a real pistol. This was after someone’s 911 alarm to the police. However, following the procedural clause of police action towards a suspect, the police officer took the law into his hands by pinning down the boy. Neighbors have until now kept protesting against the professional conduct of the police, based on the new revelations that the police had earlier on been suspending after the positive results of his mental state. However, following the handling of the case by the judiciary in Cleveland and responses from other police superintendents, police brutality, harassment and killings are a passive phenomenon, giving police the autonomy of action, based on their status and role of maintaining law and order. As reported by Oppel 2014, new revelation surfaced the investigation of the 2-second time frame which the police officer used to kill Tamir Rice (Oppel, 1). The officer had been termed emotionally unfit for the professional line of duty as a police due to the untold stress linked to police work. In addition, the failure of the city’s police spokesperson to comment on the situation gives the police the notion that they have the right to undermine citizens. Areas targeted by police for brutality and killings feature a large populous of African Americans linked with organized crimes, poor economic status and paralyzed social foundations. Police use these phenomena to use excessive force above their jurisdiction to deal with suspects before they are confirmed guilty or not. The police fraternity refutes to contribute to the unethical behavior of their colleagues to hide the levels of bureaucracy in police departments. Other incidences reported by New York Times reveal the lack of judicial democracy when families of the victims seek to exercise and champion for their rights to protection and due process upon people charged with crime. Police brutality inspired by racial differences has grown to be common in the media. New York Times publication on the title, ‘National Questions Over Police Hit Home in Cleveland’ explains and incident where black woman was harassed by white policemen and her son shot dead in the process (Oppel, 1). Majority of the cities affected by police brutalities comprise of a majority African American population. This aspect depicts that the African Americans have been made target victims of police brutality in various states in the US. The ironical notion is that most of this incidences are left unsolved as the judicial authority tends to lean on one side thus letting the perpetrators who are white policemen go free even when the evidence points out to a clear violation of police powers and citizen rights. Police in Cleveland have a habit of making unnecessary arrests and when the victims question their arrests, they tend to pin something on them to plant a guilty picture. Mr. McFarland, a resident in Cleveland described the police treatment saying that they do not like people who know their rights. Many Cleveland police officers act as bullies in the streets in the notion of maintaining peace and order with their patrols. Timothy J. McGinty, a county prosecutor said in a public interview with the New York Times magazine that the police have terrorized Cleveland by victimizing residents, intimidating people in the area as well as participating in multiple assaults and killings. The ironical notion is that the police in Cleveland have been assign the role of public protection which they highly violet. The police in Cleveland are accused of engaging in the violation of human rights while neglecting their core business which involves maintaining peace and order in the area. “They take long to swift into action in a crime scene but harass black people when meeting them in the streets at night,” Mr. Tawasha perpetuated in a press interview on crime in Cleveland. As a result, African Americans in the area tend to fear police cruisers especially while walking at night. Jesse McKinley and J. David Goodman Dec. 8, 2014 New York Attorney General Seeks Powers to Investigate Killings by the Police (New York Times). US government intervention in police brutality The tension between the police and public has risen as the trust between communities and the public. This has raised a political attention as the US government was forced to intervene the situation through the public announcement of the Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. In his speech Schneiderman asked the state legislature to pass laws that may repair public safety assurance with the criminal justice system (McKinley and Goodman, 2014). The New York Times reviled the government’s involvement in the rescue of the public from police brutality. Police brutality has destroyed the relationship between the police and the public. The government’s approach towards police brutal killings was vested on the judicial system as it strived to ensure justice in the criminal justice system. The paper suggests that various cases concerning police brutality were reopened after the Attorney General’s press briefing. For instance the grand jury decided to reopen the case of Eric Garner who was perceived dead being chokehold by the police during an arrest (McKinley and Goodman, 2014 ). The jury also gave the prosecution side a strong prosecutor to dig deep in to the incident. The Assembly recently passed that allowed the office of the Attorney general to investigate police brutality. Police brutality is inspired by the unfair criminal justice system. This aspect portrays a disregard of the constitution as it advocates for the right to life and equality to all citizen. The police tend to defy the constitution through their brutal practices. Police brutality has also shifted from being racial based to political as many cases reflect on police beating individuals during political riots. In 3rd March 1991, a footage displaying Rodney being beaten to death by police officers in a Los Angeles riot (New York Times, March, 1991). This portrays the notion of police brutality in the political basis. FRANK BRUNI, Published: February 21, 1999 Ideas & Trends: Crimes of the War on Crime; Behind Police Brutality: Public Assent (New York Time) Factors influencing Police Brutality and Killings The police, in killing innocent youth are usually under the adherence of the modus operandi. This term is derived from Latin asserting to the habitual method of operation of targeting unarmed victims from marginalized groups that pose minimal threats to the public and police. An article by the New York Times on 21st Feb, 1999 by Frank Bruni indicates the over-reliance of the modus operandi to restate the function of police in the war against crime and drugs. State governors, mayors, block association presidents and police administrators neither seem to reaffirm the wrongful conduct of police officers. According to the police, there is always an enemy out there ready to impede their efforts; hence they have to implore paramilitary terms in the execution of their role. With his notions in the mind of a police officer on duty, excessive brutality and killings are prone to occur. The article quotes one Mr. James Alan Fox, College of Criminal Justice, Northern University Dean, “When you have this sort of mentality, excessive brutality and improper actions are more likely to occur” (Bruni, 1999). Modus Operandi has proved difficult for Americans to fight. The general public angst ousted in riots and protests against police brutality and the relentlessness of the stakeholders shows to a certain degree the American population tolerates and encourages police brutality and kills. In the incidence of brutality towards Rodney Kind by police officers in Los Angeles, however with other influencers such as race, Americans especially the majority whites find untroubledness of police brutalities. However, the victims and their families assert they the use of modus operandi is an extreme of outgrowth of policing. Law enforcement is taking place under binary perspectives; one that is apt in the use of force and the other that is unduly abusive. Police administrators assert that law enforcement perceptions are to be sometimes overlooked from the eyes of the beholder, a statement once said by the former Police Commissioner of New York City. Police sometimes fail to identify the appropriate law enforcement mechanisms to employ while dealing with suspicious cases. The imperative ideals of the modus operandi, according to the police ought not to be confined to them. Politicians and civilians themselves contribute to the underlying dilemma between human rights, rights of a criminal and public safety. In the incident of Tamir Rice, a neighbor influenced the outcome of the situation. By dialing 911 and asserting that a citizen has a gun intending to use it, the police had no option but to respond to the ‘violent’ criminal by pinning him down. In this case, the police officer was responding to public safety and the human rights of protection of very citizen. Tamir, to the notion of the neighbor had proved to use the weapon, leaving no opportunity to have his rights exercised before shooting him. This ought to contribute to the fact that the police officer was not indicted, following the understanding of certain factors that led to police brutality and killings. Recommendations According to Harring et al 2012, police brutalities and killings are responsible for the amounting extrajudicial killings across the United States. As a result there should be ways to reduce the extent and factors influencing police brutality. The Justice model is the major conceptual framework geared towards inclining this phenomenon among the police. The Justice Model The Justice Model examines the comparative analysis through which the government and related agencies and print media assess police brutality and killings among civilians. Arthur Kobler 1975 relates to the increased numbers of African American civilians killed by police as compared to the white civilians. The New York Times among other newspapers have helped in producing more quantitative data on civilian killings as compared to police and population departments. The government on the other hand uses reports based on the following aspects of the victims: time and date of incidence, location, age and race of the victim, weapon used in the assault. According to Kobler, the justice model ought to provide a simplistic and utopian analysis of police killings and brutalities (Bruni, 1999). The police are guided by constitutional laws that explain their code of conduct, but this has since proved futile amongst extrajudicial killings of minority groups. The laws also identify arsenal usage upon civilians. With respect to the unresponsive nature and bias reactions of police administrators as in the case of Eric Garner of 2014, the Justice models acts as a platform to compel the administrators to stringently enforce the statutory code of conducts and usage of firearms. Police found guilty of killing marginalized citizens reprehensively ought to be prosecuted. Legal sanctions should be applied to such police officers to prevent minority groups’ suspicions and retreating hostilities towards the police. In addition, Kobler asserts that the justice model will address the political system’s methodology of influencing judicial outcomes regarding the cases affecting the victims. The rule of law ought to prevail to ensure the legitimacy of the state in dealing with extrajudicial cases. It is important to note that the model with its avocation of justice does not idealize the notion of making fundamental changes in structural and organizational relation in the judiciary or police departments. Conclusion I find it unpleasing that law enforcers have turned out to be perpetrators of the same policies they are assigned to protect. Racial discrimination in the system has become common in various parts of the United States. Police brutality cases have become rampant in the America. This is due to the racial tension that result from the political and social inequality between the white, Hispanic and black societies in the United States. The criminal justice system also places a role in police brutality due to the corrupt judgments leading to unfair and unresolved cases. The US government ought to place more concern in police brutality cases in order to enhance safety and human right implementation practices. Work Cited Oppel, R. A. National Questions Over Police Hit Home in Cleveland. New York Times. Retrieved from URL http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/us/family-of-boy-killed-by-cleveland-officer-to-pursue-criminal-case.html?_r=0, Accessed on 9th Dec, 2014 10.30 a.m. 2014. Print McKinley Jesse and Goodman J. David. New York Times: New York Attorney General Seeks Powers to Investigate Killings by the Police. Dec. 8, 2014. Print Bruni Frank. New York Time: Ideas & Trends: Crimes of the War on Crime; Behind Police Brutality: Public Assent. Published: February 21, 1999. Print Read More