Police Brutality In America Essay

Police officers are supposed to bring an aura of safety wherever they go, as they are supposed to protect everyone. There is a problem when there are people who see a police officer and immediately fear for their life. Police brutality in America has always been an issue, but it has been getting worse and worse. It also is becoming more well known. In order to put an end to police brutality, America must first recognize the problem and work toward a solution.

Police officers in America are held to a higher standard since they are supposed to protect the people, but that doesn’t mean that they should get any special treatment. When it comes to killings, police officers are indicted less that 1% of the time, whereas citizens are indicted at a rate of 90% (CopCrisis, 2015). There is such a large gap in indictment rates, and it isn’t fair, as the police officers who aren’t being indicted committed the same crime: murder. Police officers should be held accountable for their actions just as everyone else is. People could argue that the cops were doing the right thing and don’t deserve to be indicted, but that simply isn’t true. If a murder is committed, the murderer should in the very least have a trial.

In America, police officers kill thousands of people each year.

In 2015 alone, police officers killed 1,204 people. In 2014, they killed 1110, and 3136 since May of 2013 (Killed By Police, 2015). Police officers must be using excessive force to kill so many people each year. There is no good reason for these numbers to be so high. An example of police using excessive force is the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio. Rice was at a park pointing a pellet gun at people, and someone called the police. Within two seconds of police driving right next to him, Rice was shot by an officer (CNN, 2014). There is no excuse for a gun to be pulled so soon after police

arriving.
Police brutality in America has always been an issue, and it only grows worse every day. So many people are abused and killed by police officers, they very people Americans are meant to trust. In order to begin to change for the better, there must be a change within the system. The American people need to recognize that there is a problem before a solution can be reached. Whether it’s through personal research or actual classes taught on the subject, the American people need to be educated on this issue so that a solution can be reached.