A father purchased a toy gun as a birthday gift for his young son. His son went outside to play and and encountered a police officer who shot him seven times. This incident occurred in Sonoma County in October 2013. A similar incident occurred in November 2014 when Cleveland police killed a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun. Use of excessive force by police is common in impoverished "black" or "brown" communities. The website, uslegal.com, defines police brutality as: Police brutality is a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary. Excessive force by law enforcement officers is a violation of a person's rights. Excessive force is not subject to a precise definition, but it is generally beyond the force a reasonable and prudent law enforcement officer would use under the circumstances (“Police Brutality Law & Legal Definition”,2013). Cases of brutality from people, who are supposed to protect against it, have existed even when the United States was a fairly new country. The oppression by people in power, even the U.S. Constitution excludes “Illegal persons” as three fifths of a person, which includes slaves, immigrants, and Native Americans. Another example of oppression by individuals in power would be during the Indian Removal Act of 1830, millions of native peoples were removed from lands that they had been living on and cultivating for generations. Although many tribes had tried to fight this removal, the Cherokee tribe had fought this act through the court system, which had granted them to stay on their land. The United States President, Andrew Jackson, disregarded the court's decision to gra... ... middle of paper ... ...vidge, A. (2013). Hundreds rally statewide against police brutality in wake of Lopez death. Available at: http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/hundreds-rally-statewide-against-police-brutality-/nbnmT/ “Police Brutality Law and Legal Definition” (2013). Uslegal.com. Available at: http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/police-brutality/ Rodney King Beating and Riots. CNN documentary (Full length). (2011, March 6). YouTube. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhYmb1sANM Police Brutality Statistics. (2011, April 13).| Cop Block. Retrieved December 18, 2013, Available at: http://www.copblock.org/2841/police-brutality-statistics/ Goodman, B. & Dewan, S. (2007, April 27). Prosecutors Say Corruption in Atlanta Police Dept. Is Widespread. The New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27atlanta.html
The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year. In the year 1991, California Highway Patrol officers detected Rodney King speeding as he drove in Los Angeles. King then led the officers on a high speed chase for the fear that the court would revoke his probation for a robbery offense he had committed (Gray, 2014). He was caught and ordered out of his car surrounded by several L.A.P.D cars and this led to a struggle between him and the police officers with some of them thinking that he was resisting arrest. One sergeant, Stacey Koon, used a Taser gun to fire at him before they beat him with their buttons mercilessly. He was struck with police batons more than fifty times and suffered eleven fractures besides other injuries. George Holiday, who was a nearby resident, videotaped the ordeal and delivered it to a local television station the following day (CNN Library, 2014). The tape sparked tension between the black Americans and the whites. The blacks saw the beating as racial discrimination against their community. However, no violence was recorded from the blacks du...
MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. Rissman, Rebecca. Rodney King and the L.A. Riots.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
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.
Police brutality has been an apparent mark on the struggles, trials, and tribulations of people of minorities for years, primarily Black people. From the times of slavery to the present unlawful targeting and murders of black citizens with no justification, police brutality has been an enema in Black American culture for hundreds of years. Seen both in James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man” and in the current happenings of the United States. The hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” has been a focal point in the current struggle for equality of the races. The current outpouring of support for black lives and
Police brutality is when a police officer causes serious bodily harm to a civilian. Police brutality is shown by the increasing amounts of Taser deaths each year. A chart created by the Seattle Post Intelligencer shows how during the year two-thousand only one Taser death occurred, but in two-thousand-four that number climbed to a staggering thirty-nine. In Baltimore, Maryland Freddie Grey was found dead while under police supervision. The night of Freddie Grey’s funeral Baltimore erupted in protests and riots. The chaos went on for days, the National Guard eventually came in to restore order and peace to the city. Media in recent months has increased focus on racial police brutality. Incidents of young teens dying have created uproars everywhere, media abuses this continues to fuel the fire and spark more
Villa, Judi. "Incidents Put Police Brutality in Spotlight." Rocky Mountain News. N.p., 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Staff, CNN Wire. "A Timeline of Events in Rodney King's Life." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan.
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
Police corruption, misconduct, and brutality in the United States have been issues since the creation of watch system in the United States (Grant& Terry, 2012). New policy and training is now in place and the corruption, misconduct, and brutality has gone down since the beginning of policing. This is a huge issue that impacts all police organizations in the United States. The extent of police corruption, misconduct, and brutality is hard to track in the United States. A lot of these crimes go unreported, tossed aside, or the officer responsible gets little or no punishment. This is huge issue in the United States criminal justice system.
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.
Chaney and Robertson, (2013) stated that “The Department of Justice office of Civil Rights has investigated more than a dozen police departments in major cities across the country on allegations of racial discrimination or police brutality”. Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive physical force or verbal assault and psychological intimidation. White police officers who grew up in the south and were raised to see African Americans in a negative way have a lower opinion of them. However, not all white police officers are from the south, some say that police officers are just abusing their power. When we look at what is going on around the country, it appears racism plays a part in police brutality. Even during this new digital age, there are video cameras in police cars facing the front of the vehicle, but that still does not hinder police using excessive
Bibliography Why Good Cops Go Bad. Newsweek, p.18. Carter, David L. (1986). Deviance & Police. Ohio: Anderson Publishing Co. Castaneda, Ruben (1993, Jan. 18). Bearing the Badge of Mistrust. The Washington Post, p.11. Dantzer, Mark L. (1995). Understanding Today's Police. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. James, George (1993, Mar. 29). Confessions of Corruption. The New York Times, P.8, James, George (1993, Nov. 17). Officials Say Police Corruption is Hard To Stop. The New York times, p.3. Sherman, Lawrence W(1978). Commission Findings. New York Post, P. 28 Walker, J.T. (1992). The police in America, p.243-263, chp. 10, Walker, Samuel (1999).
Police brutality is when an officer beats a person or criminal even though they are not resisting arrest or fighting back. One of the most common forms of police brutality is racial profiling. In the United States, beat...
Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray Robertson. "Racism and Police Brutality In America." Journal of African American Studies 17.4 (2013): 480-505. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.