The case that connects to this theory is the case of the NYPD officer killing a baby following a breastfeeding argument. The mother of the baby Suzanne Smith, was sitting on a bench in Queens when her baby started to incessantly cry. She knew the baby was hungry so she began to start breastfeeding the child. Witnesses report according to the article of the New York Times, that she was approached by a cop named Michael Fitzsimmons who requested that she stop breastfeeding because it counts as public indecency. The mother refused to stop because she felt as if she was doing nothing wrong. The officer then gave a second warning and threatened the mother with arrest. Knowing her rights, the mother refused once again. The officer became irate and
Cop in the hood is a book about Peter Moskos experience as a police officer in the eastern district of Baltimore. First, as a sociologist at Harvard, he was very curious about the job of Policing. There is a lot of misconception and myth about the job so what a better way to learn than become one? His coworkers were at first wary of the Harvard liberal, expecting him to do a poor job due to being primarily concerned with his research. Police culture is naturally untrustworthy of outsiders as most citizens have no idea what the job is actually like.
In October of 1993, R.D.S., a Nova Scotian Black youth, was arrested by a white police officer and charged with assault on a police officer in the execution of duty, assault with intent to prevent the lawful arrest of another, and resisting his own arrest. In a Nova Scotia Youth Court, R.D.S. testified that he did not touch the police officer or assault him in any way. He stated that he spoke only to his cousin, who was being arrested by Constable Steinburg, to ask the nature of his arrest and whether or not to contact his mother. R.D.S. testified that Constable Steinburg told him to either "shut up" or face arrest. The youth argued that the police officer proceeded to place both himself and his cousin in a choke hold. Constable Steinburg maintained that R.D.S. assaulted him and obstructed his cousin's arrest. He made no reference to telling the youth to shut up or to placing either youth in a choke hold. (1)
Seals, E. (2007). Police use of tasers: The truth is “shocking”. Golden Gate University Law Review, 38(1), 38-109
One of the most disturbing trends in American policing in recent years has been the militarization of police weaponry and tactics. In his new book, “The Rise of the Warrior Cop”, author Radley Balko traces the roots of American law enforcement from the constables of colonial times to present day SWAT teams and special response units. With the high controversy surrounding the “war on drugs” and the “war on terrorism,” policymakers have signed off on a dangerously aggressive style of policing that too often leads to unnecessary deaths and injuries. Some people say that modern law enforcement is on a collision course with our Bill of Rights and is unconstitutional. In the book “ Rise of the Warrior Cop” the author talks about how modern day policing are adapting mostly all military tactic. These wars are more than just metaphors designed to rally public support and secure all the money they can to support these programs. They change the way we think about what the police do. Wars mean shooting first and asking questions later. Wars require military tactics and weaponry. Wars mean civilian casualties. Are we at war with our own people?
In today’s society, police officers are very cautious on how much force they can use on a suspect due to the police brutality going on right now. Police brutality is defined as the use of force exceeding what is necessary, many people argue that there should be new policies to determine how much force a police officer can use and also have laws that will convict officers who have killed people by using too much force, so that there is less incidents in the future.
After the viral trend of police brutality, state and defense attorney gathered to determine if a Phoenix Police officer is the victim or villain during oral arguments on Friday, Sept. 25, at the Maricopa County Superior Court.
On the program The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, a developing story talks about the event in Virginia where a 46 year old man, Linwood Lambert, is tased multiple times by police officers. This report starts off with mentioning that the man was picked up early one morning after multiple 911 calls about noise complaints. After the police officers picked him up the officers realized that he seemed to be acting strange so they decided to take him to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. The officers stated that he made comments about “murdering two people and putting their bodies in the ceiling”. Once at
The family of Michael Brown wanted justice for their son in which they felt was an unjust shooting. His mother was quoted expressing mistrust towards the police, "You 're not God. You don 't decide when you 're going to take somebody from here.” (McLaughlin, E. C. (2014, August 15) The family was obviously hurt by the shooting and wanted justice and support. The community began protesting the shooting and Officer Darren Wilson. Chaos broke out in Ferguson and a State of Emergency was issued. The community felt that the shooting was unjust and did not trust police officers. The community response to the shooting often attracted attention and made many political statements. Darren Wilson’s family were interested in maintaining his innocence. They hoped that the investigation would prove to the world that Wilson acted out of self-defense and did not violate Brown’s rights. The Criminal Justice system’s interests all hoped to create reforms and eliminate racism in police departments. On the local level many had to maintain safety in the community and assure proper police procedures. The state had to step into issue curfews and State of Emergencies to keep the state safe despite protests and riots as well as make sure Darren Wilson did not violate any laws of the state of Missouri. The state also hoped to create reforms to better race relations. On the federal level was the investigation which hoped to find out if the
Criminology is the scientific study of the causes and prevention of crimes. Criminology also uses a vast amount of theories to explain peoples’ actions, mental state, and their drive for committing crimes. Some crimes have monetary benefits, while other crime are committed in revenge or in spite of another, which would be called crimes of passion. Because it can be sometime difficult to understand why certain crime are committed, the only thing we can do is use theories to better decipher thoughts, morals, and reasons behind committing crimes.
Police officers have a significant level of discretion when ethical decision making is incorporated in deciding how to respond to a domestic violence call. For example, officers exercise discretion by deciding how to respond to domestic violence when a situation involves a fellow officer. America is a country in which many believe in privacy within the household and often choose not to be involved in a domestic dispute because families should resolve their own problems. However, discretionary powers abused by an officer are used to dissuade the victim from filing charges against the officer’s colleague. Officers often do not choose to arrest in a domestic dispute because they believe the family, not the justice system, should resolve the problem. If the police officer abuses his discretionary power by persuading the victim to not file charges, then he is going against community policing. This is because, he is not serving the interests of the community, but rather the code of silence within a police department. This discretion is exercised even more when the domestic violence situation involves an off duty police officer. When police officers commit domestic violence against their spouse it is usually explained by the fact that police officers deal with difficult citizens on a daily basis on the streets and as a result of the high levels of stress on the job bring their frustrations home and spouse becomes the scapegoat for his feelings (Wetendorf, 1998:3).
Skolnick, J., Fyfe, J. (1993) Above the law: Police and the Excessive use of force. United States: The Free Press
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.
A video from a dash cam showed what seemed to prove the officer had liable reason to shoot the man but when audio was released with the video the perspective really came into view. In the video the man is seen stepping out of his car as the officer told him to do, but when the officer tells the man to get his license and he reaches in the car to grab it he is shot. The officer is heard telling the man to “put his hands up and get out of the car.” When the man was shot he had his hands in the air, with his wallet in hand. While the officer had the right to defend himself against a potential threat it was extremely unnecessary to shoot at the man. Thankfully the man was not killed in the shooting but the man’s lawyer stated that his client was not unhandcuffed until an officer remembered that he did not have his handcuffs and went to the hospital to retrieve them.
Whether the reasons are legitimate or unwarranted, it indicates the influence that the Graham v. Connor case has had, and continues to have, on proceedings and deliberations that take place pertaining to the use of reasonable force. In the first case, the officers acted in a forceful way as it was six police officers arresting one suspect with a knife. The police officers went a step further to deem the suspect dangerous and wrestled the suspect to the ground so as to immobilize him. This may have gone to court only as far as a wrongful arrest were it not for the death of the suspect while in custody that caused their indictment. Without examining the intent of the officers in the case and looking at only the events of the arrest, it would be simple enough to state that the officers feared the suspect would attack them. The officers were, however, charged with false imprisonment as the effort they put into the arrest did not warrant such a reaction.
Officers are trained and taught different polices that require them not to be biased towards any gender or race. Such officers include Sunil Dutta, if you don’t want to get shot, tasted pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you.” (Dutta) uses policies to their advantage. Lack of African-American officers, mainly in communities with citizens of color, can lead to an inquiry that there is a bias in law enforcement agencies and their policies. With recent events in the news displaying the misconduct of officers in an African-American communities like, in July of 2014, where the death of Eric Garner because of “chokehold” by a police officer hit home for many African-Americans and made them question the legislative decisions on policies causing a distrust and lack of confidence within the police departments, shying away citizens from