Coercive Use Of Force
Wedny Francois
CJE 1000 – Introduction To Law Enforcement
Dr. Anthony Berrios
The use of coercive authority by members of law enforcement is a widely debated issue both here in the United States and in countries around the world. Growing up in Haiti, I witnessed many instances of coercive, or excessive, tactics by authority figures. When a child would commit a crime, many times all of the kids in the neighborhood were punished, even if they had no part in or knowledge of the wrongdoing. Police officers and other government agents sometime exceed the appropriate level of authority they are authorized to use. As a future member of law enforcement, I believe that in order for civilians to be able
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Police departments are better armed, are being trained in advanced tactics, and have more authority. While this is obviously a necessity in order to prevent further attacks, it is often misunderstood by the public and used by the police to their advantage, sometimes unfairly. Recent events such as the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, illustrate this. Without any video evidence of the incident, it is difficult to comprehend what actually happened. Many members of the Ferguson community are convinced the officer used excessive force and may have committed first-degree murder, while the police department firmly believes it was a just and legal …show more content…
When the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written and enacted, laws were created to ensure citizens certain rights, from freedom of religion to having a speedy trial and due process. The Fifth Amendment also enables suspected criminals the right to not incriminate themselves, which became the basis of Miranda rights. The founding fathers made sure that as America grew and generations passed, these basic human rights were almost eternal. They understood that the world today would be much different than the world they lived in, and laid down our laws with that in mind. America 's law enforcement is much more complex than anyone could have imagined, but the Constitution will always be the 'supreme law of the land '. Government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were introduced when a need for them arose. These agencies, along with many others, are tasked with upholding the law, investigating crimes, and ensuring the freedom of our
When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to
The New York Police Department has a mission to "preserve peace, reduce fear, maintain order," and protect its civilians in their communities (NYPD, 2016). On the contrary, civilians do not see the police officers as individuals who are there to protect them because they do not trust the police officers or the justice system. In the past few decades, police officers have not been held accountable for their actions in a few incidents where a few unarmed young black males were killed by the police. Communities responded to this issue with the Black Lives Matter movement with protests nationwide to show support for the unarmed young black men who were killed by police. In response to the aggressive policing, methods of using body cameras and detailed incident reporting ...
Police brutality is a very real problem that many Americans face today. The police carry an enormous burden each day. Police work is very stressful and involves many violent and dangerous situations. In many confrontations the police are put in a position in which they may have to use force to control the situation. There are different levels of force and the situation dictates the level use most of the time. The police have very strict rules about police use force and the manner in which they use it. In this paper I will try to explain the many different reason the police cross the line, and the many different people that this type of behavior effects. There are thousands of reports each year of assaults and ill treatment against officers who use excessive force and violate the human rights of their victims. In some cases the police have injured and even killed people through the use of excessive force and brutal treatment. The use of excessive force is a criminal act and I will try and explore the many different factors involved in these situations.
One of the main powers law enforcement officers carry is the authority to make citizens involuntarily give up their rights. Most people when confronted by police get mild to moderate panic reaction, can become nervous or anxious, and do as much as possible to limit the time spent with the officer. Due to the difference in power between a citizen and a police officer, citizens often unknowingly, give up their constitutional rights when an officer acts tough or bullies them (Guidelines?1).
Coercion can be defined as forcing someone to do something they do not want to do. In order to determine if coercion will be successful or not one has to look at four key principles: communication, capability, credibility and compliance or “target will.” While the peace settlements after World War I could have been considered coercive, they probably had very little chance of success based on these four stated principles. France communicated that it wanted unreasonable demands including unlimited reparations for the war. Without Great Britain and the United States, France had little capability in enforcing the settlements. In addition, it had little to no past reputation of being able to support its decision in upholding the settlements. Finally,
Everyday law enforcement personal have the possibility to face dangerous events in their daily duties. In performing such duties a police officer could come by a seemingly ordinary task, and in a blink of an eye the event can turn threatening and possible deadly. When or if this happens to an officer they won’t have
Skolnick, J., Fyfe, J. (1993) Above the law: Police and the Excessive use of force. United States: The Free Press
Furthermore, many individuals believe that the police officers are misusing their power by taking extreme measures when situations arise. In shootings for example, we see that many police officers claim that their lives were in danger and the individual displayed threatening behavior that required them to fire. Many people contend this as they think that the police officers did not have sufficient discretion in firing their weapon and used their deep rooted, or even subtle, racism in handling the situation. In other words, had the individual been White the situation would have ended differently, and not with a dead African American person. The fact that in each of these cases of police brutality the individual ends up dead and unable to tell their side of the story is extremely alarming to
Attention Getter: Are all the officers who are intended to "Protect and Serve" really following through with that?
When hearing the phrase “police brutality,” many people imagine batons cracking skulls, tasers electrocuting bodies and bullets penetrating innocent teens. While police officers have been known to use violence, police brutality does not occur as often as many believe. In many situations, officers have to act on impulse and curiosity, despite the backlash the media may create.
According to The Global Research News, in the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police has reached 5,000. This humanitarian crisis in the United States has become an alarming reality. Police officers have the capability to arrest, confiscate property, and use deadly force. Yet, many have abused their powers. Police brutality is on the rise whether society believes it or not because of the advancement in technology, low education and experience, racial profiling, and people’s refusal to obey.
Common sense is an ability to receive, interpret, and judge a situation reasonably. Common sense has a direct correlation to the discretion a law enforcement officer will utilize throughout their career. This paper will discuss a few aspects of the law enforcement profession that relates to mechanisms emplaced to deal with discretion: internal control mechanisms, external control mechanisms, citizen control m...
The Use of Force, written by William Carlos Williams is a story about a conflicted unnamed doctor using physical force to determine a diagnosis. The question that is brought up is whether or not the doctor’s use of force was one of ethical duty or infuriating violence. The doctor makes it his duty to save the patient, Mathilda as she does not cooperate he makes a choice to go on and use force to open her mouth to determine her diagnosis. The choice of using force isn’t necessarily the questionable part, the motive on using physical force is debatable. The ultimate question that the short story, the Use of Force asks is whether or not the doctor’s motives become one of dutiful compassion or desirable violence.
Gul, Zakir, Hakan Hekim, and Ramazan Terkesil. “Controlling Police (Excessive) Force: The American Case.” International Journal of Human Sciences 10.2 (2013): 285-303. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
The media depicts officers in many different ways, most of which are not always positive. Officers face discrimination as a result and may not be able to perform their duties properly. The media is constantly talking about how all law enforcement officials are racist, violent, and ultimately criminals themselves. It can be very hard for a police officer to be taken seriously. People may even fear police officers, which makes it difficult to conduct an investigation of any sort. Officers are also in danger of violence, because people assume the worst about them, they may take extraordinary measures to prevent the police from doing their jobs. Of course, there are some bad police out there, but there are also a lot of police who are keeping us all safe. The media is definitely the biggest danger law enforcement officials currently