A police officer is a law enforcement official that protect and serve the people, and they are not supposed to abuse the power and violate the rights of the people. Police brutality and racial profile are not issues of the past that are just reemerging today. The beating of Rodney King happened twenty-four years ago on March 3, 1991. Has the police community progressed or regressed? How do we know if police brutality and racial profiling are occurring? Police brutality is the use of unnecessary or excessive force on an individual. Actions of a police officer based on a person’s race or ethnicity; not the probable cause, or a person’s behavior is considered racial profiling (Chapman, 2010). The answer to the first question, “has the police …show more content…
community progressed or regressed?” is regressed. I will discuss two recent cases, Michael brown and Eric Garner. Both cases display actions of regression within the law enforcement community. Police brutality and racial profiling diminishes and defies the public’s trust, as well as bring dishonor upon the law enforcement community in which a high standard of integrity is expected (Davids & McMahon, 2014). Police brutality and racial profiling can be prevented, but we must first know what causes such behavior and how to correct it. There is little research that supports the theory that behaviors such as Police brutality and racial profiling are linked to neighborhood contexts (poverty, high crime rates, single parent homes, etc.). The research design of this study will be used to examine data collected from interviews of forty young individuals in Jacksonville Florida ages 13 to 19 and four police officers. The youth participants are chosen two alternative schools based on their neighborhoods socioeconomic distress, such as, underdeveloped, high rates of unemployment, frequent criminal activity and single parent homes. The goal of the study is to relate neighborhood contexts to police behavior. Police brutality and racial profile are not issues of the past that are just reemerging today.
Since the year 2014, police brutality and racial profiling grew rapidly. These issues have always been prominent in the world and can be traced back centuries. The Rodney King case occurred twenty-four years ago as of March 3, 2015, it involves acts of police brutality and racial profiling that happened in the twentieth century that shook the nation. On March 3, 1991 in Los Angeles California Rodney king was brutally beaten by more than twenty police officers (Martin, 2005). The beating of king was captured on video by George Holliday (Martin, 2005). Rodney King was kicked, shot with a Taser, and struck with a nightstick excessively (Solomon, 2004). After the police beat King, they tied his hands and feet together behind his back and pulled him face down (Solomon, 2004). As a result, King sustained several injuries including a concussion, damage to his nerves and kidney, and permanent brain damage (Solomon, 2004). The beating of Rodney king became the most well-known police brutality case in history (Martin, …show more content…
2005). In the year 2014, the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both cases involve the killing of an unarmed black male by Caucasian police officers. Eighteen year-old Michael Brown was killed on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson Missouri by Officer Darren Wilson. According to reports, Mr. Brown was walking down the middle of Canfield Drive with a friend, Dorian Johnson, when the officer stopped his Chevy Tahoe to order them to the sidewalk. Within seconds, the encounter turned into a physical struggle, as the officer and Mr. Brown became entangled through the open driver-side window of the police vehicle. How that encounter began is in dispute, though most accounts agree that shots were fired while the officer was in the vehicle. At some point, Mr. Brown broke away. The officer then got out of the vehicle and fired at Mr. Brown, whose actions at the point are also in dispute. Some witnesses later said that Mr. Brown appeared to be surrendering with his hands in the air as he was hit with the fatal gunshots (New York Times, 2014). Neighbors were horrified by the gruesome scene: Mr. Brown, 18, face down in the middle of the street, blood streaming from his head. They ushered their children into rooms that faced away from Canfield Drive. They called friends and local news stations to tell them what had happened. They posted on Twitter and Facebook and recorded shaky cellphone videos that would soon make their way to the national news (Bosman, Goldstein, 2014). Another shaming case involved Eric Garner who on July 17, was approached and questioned by officers. He was believed to be selling untaxed cigarettes, a charge on which he had been arrested several times previously. Videos of the incident show that Garner repeatedly said he had done nothing wrong and asked the officers to leave him alone. As police tried to make an arrest, one of the officers placed his arm across Garner’s throat and wrestled him to the ground. Garner can be heard repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe,” while another officer presses his head against the sidewalk (Queally, Semuels, 2014). The officers involved in each case did not have to face any punishment for either death which led to protest all over the world. “The grand jury declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo or other New York police officers involved in wrestling Mr. Garner to the ground during an arrest in July 2014” (Goodman, 2015). In Ferguson, “A grand jury in St Louis County declined to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown on 9 August, following an altercation after the officer stopped him and a friend for jaywalking” (Swaine, Lewis, Roberts, 2014). After the decision, Ferguson civilians were clearly unhappy about the decision and began rioting. Protesting had begun to evolve which had created the saying of “Black Lives Matter”. Now the protesting in New York seemed to come off more peaceful than the one in fergurson as protestors held signs and shirts stating “I can’t breathe”. The protest for peace, justice and equality is not being infiltrated by only the communities affected but by a nation. Civilians are feeling bullied by police officers. Our nation were promised to be safe behind the guards of police. Courts are putting the impression that the deaths of these unarmed citizens caused by the hands of these officers, is okay. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians (Danilina). Actions of a police officer based on a person’s race or ethnicity and not probable cause, reasonable doubt, or a person’s behavior is considered racial profiling (Chapman, 2010). The practice of racial profiling, which involves singling out a person or persons for special (usually law-enforcement related) attention based solely on their race or ethnicity (Sage, 2012). The officers that have been accused of unequal treatment of others find it offensive that they have been portrayed as a racist (Semple, 2013). The Court of Appeal for Ontario has formally recognized the practice of racial profiling by police officers, and has explicitly connected such actions with unconscious racial stereotyping (Semple, 2013). To elaborate, racial profiling may be done subconsciously or unconsciously because police officers can become conditioned to associate certain places and people with criminal activity and a threat through knowledge acquired from personal experiences or from other officer experience. Police brutality seems to be happening daily in America, at times it is subtle abuse, such as an extra roughness during apprehend. Those who are arrested and assaulted at an actual police station are more likely to sustain physical and psychological agony that creates misery (Kirschner, 1997). Police brutality and racial profiling fall under the category of police misconduct. Excessive force and racial profiling are two destructive modes of police misconduct that require concerted, vigilant action to reduce and eliminate (Natarajan, 2014). The embarrassment caused by misconduct can damage the public trust, undermine officer morale, and expose agencies to unnecessary—and, in many cases, costly—litigation (Fitch, 2011). Risk factors such as youth, inexperience, gender and race increase the likelihood of police misconduct. Communities with high crime rates also pose as a factor that may cause officers’ misconduct. People who live in communities that experience frequent criminal activity are perceived to be unworthy of protection from the police, because officers believe crime is bound to happen in that particular area and is a normal recurrence (Eitle et al, 2014). The community accountability hypothesis sustains the bureaucratic components of police departments advocate the use of excessive force toward minorities (Smith & Holmes, 2010). Criminality is strongly thought to be a result of ethnicity and race, which is a popular stereotypical idea (Smith & Holmes, 2010). This stereotypical idea is also popular amongst police officers. Since police officers may think that crime is a result of a certain ethnicity or race, the use of extreme force on those individuals may be a feasible mechanism to end their criminal behavior (Smith & Holmes, 2010). Minority citizens are also the prime victims of police brutality and corruption (CivilRights.org). Police brutality and racial profiling can be prevented but we must first know what the cause of such behavior is.
Police officers are constantly interacting with the general public so it is inevitable that they will acquire firm emotions and assumptions of a person based on their race and ethnicity (Semple, 2013). Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and beliefs, but those same opinions and beliefs lead to discriminatory treatment of certain individuals (Semple, 2013). Many law enforcement agencies exhaust funds and assets to teach their employees and future employees to be blind to race and religion and protect and serve the people equally (Semple, 2013). Police misconduct such as brutality and racial profiling can be reduced by strict survallince and sensitivity training (Osterndorf, 2015). Police have to stop letting their emotions get involved when handling the law with a citizen. Officers are often annoyed when they have to go through sustainment training or new training because of the assumption that their on the job experience and knowledge is enough to do their job (Semple, 2013). The situation with that type of comportment is that at some point their cognizance becomes pass because they were reluctant to go through training and take in incipient erudition. Officers who are paid a competitive salary are less liable to be corrupt because they do not have the desideratum to glom to compensate for a low income. Finally, another proposal to limit the brutality
and racial profiling done by police officers is to establish a police department that is equally represented racially and ethnically (Smith & Holmes, 2010). A police department that is equipollently represented racially and ethnically has the potential to minimize the strife with minorities, because a minority denizen may feel impartial to a minority police officer. Such feelings could reinforce the ascendancy of the police department which can lead to a decline in police brutality. Ethics training within law enforcement seems to be the main way to obviate police brutality and racial profiling but it’s not enough. Law enforcement officers should have to wear cameras on their uniforms that can record sound and daily interactions of the police officer, so that there can be no question as to whether or not a person has been a victim of exorbitant force or racial profiling. The cameras worn on the uniform should be subtle but salient, should not conflict with the kineticism of the officer, and the cameras’ audio and video capabilities should be pellucid and precise. Another way to avert police brutality and racial profiling is during the prescreening of potential officers. The prescreening interview of a potential officer should be exhaustive enough to wean out those who may abuse their potency to utilize force, have racist tendencies, and those who will follow the crowd and overlook malfeasance comportment. Lastly, along with ethics training police officers should be edified peacemaking criminology. Peacemaking criminology is a perspective on crime that suggests that alternative methods can be used to create peaceful solutions to crime. Peacemaking criminology can be implemented in society to reduce the amount of violence in the criminal justice field. The underlying goal of peacemaking criminology is to use a non-violent approach to solving crime. The uniqueness of peacemaking criminology and its lack of use within the administration of justice leave many within the criminal justice field skeptical of its efficacy (Moloney, 2009). Also, in the late 1980s, “Indiana University professor Hal Pepinsky” began exploring the idea of using peacemaking techniques as ways to bridge the gap of understanding between criminals and society. In 1995, he published a paper called Peacemaking Primer, which is considered one of the pivotal documents of the peacemaking criminology movement. In his paper, Pepinsky argued that there are only two approaches possible in handling the phenomenon of crime: peacemaking, and war-making. He describes war-making as our current approach to crime (Glencoe). In conclusion, police brutality and racial profiling are becoming more prominent in today’s culture. If decent officers turn a blind eye to corruption, they are corrupt as well and corruption will prosper (Davids & McMahon, 2014). It’s going to take the officers with good ethical judgment to stand up for what’s right and report those who are doing wrong in order to see a decline in police misconduct. Ironically, police officers need to turn a blind eye to race, ethnicity, and place to ensure that all people are treated fairly. It seems as though the division of race, gender and religion which many have fought hard to defeat has become greater. There are tons of people protesting for justice and equality. The ethics training that officers receive in hopes to treat people equally is not enough to prevent police brutality and racial profiling. In these trying times, we as a nation are in need of peace, justice and equality. There needs to be assurance that race, ethnicity, and or the locality will not pose as a threat to police officers and will not entice an excessive force reaction. Our citizens need to feel safe from the guys who swore to protect this country. Emotions need to be set aside when doing this type of job. During my “Police Patrol” class, my professor by the last name of Armstrong, stated that one the procedure an officer has to follow prior to coming to work is to never bring personal issues to a profession. Davids, C., & McMahon, M. (2014). Police misconduct as a breach of public trust: The offence of misconduct in public office. Deakin L. Rev., 19, 89. Critical Criminology, 2005, Volume 13, Number 3, Page 307 Brian Martin Solomon, W. L., & Solomon, W. S.. (2004). Images of Rebellion: News Coverage of Rodney King. Race, Gender & Class, 11(1), 23–38. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org
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 and other injuries.
America as a people gloat when it comes to our freedoms we think we have it better than every other country out there but the protectors of our freedom are becoming fear and hated because of the injustices committed by certain officers. Some say life of an officer is hard because they do not know if they will ever see their family again after they drive out of their house in the morning, others might say every officer knows what they were signing up for so they should not be pitied. Police officers face dangers everyday but profiling and racially motivated brutality is not justifiable and officers should be severely punished for committing these crimes.
On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.
Police brutality has been a significant issue for many years.. The people affected by this most of all, are people of color. They are subject to racial inequality by the police and the justice system every day. They are being killed everyday simply for existing. The excessive force used by the police specifically towards African Americans is continuous; with the justice system doing close to nothing to change that. This is one of the reasons they continue to kill and harass African Americans. According to Propublica, young black males are about twenty times more likely to be shot and killed by the police than their white peers are. Murderers are walking free, and innocent lives are being taken. Over the past couple of years, thousands of people have been killed on the hands of the police, both black and white.
Police brutality is hypocrisy; as the police are meant to protect society from harm, not cause further damage and stress. Police should be trained properly so they do not resort to violence and abuse of power. Many cases of police brutality and not sanctioned and are undertaken by a group of police as a form of "mob mentality". Police are placed on a pedestal of authority and respect by the rest of society. To maintain this image, rules and codes of ethics within the police force should be maintained at all possible times. If police are using brutality to resolve issues, it doesn't set much of an example of dispute resolution between individuals. Over the past decade police abuse remains one of the most serious human rights violation in the United States. Police officers are trusted and expected to respect society as a whole and enforce the law. There is a time a place for aggressive force if needed, apprehending a suspect, however the environment and situation might influence the moment thus resulting in the brutal and barbaric behavior from the cop. The important thing to do is to understand the circumstances when excessive force can be used and times where the use of force has to be abstained. Police officers follow a strict guideline in how to handle encounters from escalating into something much more serious. The use of excessive force, in this case police brutality brings liabilities that cannot be taken lightly with the department and the community. Usually the high crime rates tend to revolve around low-income minority areas and officers tend to assume that minorities living in the areas are guilty. Police brutality that does exist is most likely result of emotional exhaustion.
The negative views of everyday people often make work hard for officers, adding more stress to their careers. The general public regularly criticizes officers for using excessive force and brutality, especially when a police officer ends up killing a suspect or criminal. Oftentimes, especially when a white police officer shoots a citizen of a minority race, the general public is quick to find faults in the officer, blaming the officer for being racist. However, cold, hard statistics show that the majority of police officers are, in fact, white, and the neighborhoods in which these officers are placed in tend to be high-crime areas with many minority citizens living there (Miller “When Cops Kill”). In addition, people might say that a citizen who was shot was not armed; however, almost anything close to the shot individual could have been turned into a deadly weapon that he or she could have used to wound or kill the officer involved. Whenever officers are in this position, the natural reaction is to defend themselves. Everyday, police officers confront the most aggressive, immoral, and sick-minded individuals of society. Officers jeopardize their own lives every time they report for work. Officers witness things that no person should ever have to encounter. They see the most horrific and gruesome scenes that the general public turns away from and
For many years in the past, police action particularly police abuse, has come to be unclear. Citizens are worried about protecting them from criminals. In fact they need to me aware of the corrupt police officers that are in the streets today as well as the criminals. There are many examples that make police brutality the worst as it is today. This one is one of them. Police Officer Daniel is in the choke hold death of Eric Garner, come in the wake if November 15th by the channel 24 news in Ferguson Missouri, police officer would walk free after killing 10 year old Michael Brown. (www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32740523) In the present police brutality does exist in the mist of us in the time and age we live in everyday. We just haven’t seen it yet. There are people that think if a police
Rodney King a black man who lived in Las Vegas was severely beating by four white police officers. The officers were brought into court and tried on charges of assault. The officers were acquitted of the assault charges. Immediately protestors took to the streets, to express their angry over the judge’s decision. Protestors found the ruling to be unfair and was fed up with the ill-treatment. The violent protest turned into a riot. A lot of damage occurred; over 50 people were killed, over 2,300 people injured, 8,000 arrest and estimated over $1 billion in property damage. The riots exposed the police abuse, poverty, and lack of economic opportunity. If it was not for the violent protestors no light would have been shed on the the way black were being
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
A police officer is a law enforcement official whose job is to protect and serve all people, not to ignore racial equality. Because the U.S consists of many different races and ethnic groups, the ongoing conflict between police officers and citizens of color is constantly rising. Although police officers today are no longer allowed to have racial bias, which can be described as, attitudes or stereotype used against individuals of color to define their actions and decisions, officers sometimes abuse their authority going around racial impact tools and policies. This results in citizens viewing it as discrimination and mass criminalization. By changing the way laws and regulations unfairly impact Black and Brown communities can improve the justice
Police brutality is one of the most serious human rights violations in the United States and it occurs everywhere. The reason why I chose this topic is because police brutality happens all the time in the United States and still remains unrecognized by many. Additionally, the public should be knowledgeable about this topic because of how serious this crime can be and the serious outcomes that police brutality can have on other police officers and the public. The job of police officers is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crimes. They are involved in very dangerous and stressful occupations that can involve violent situations that must be stopped and controlled by any means. In many confrontations with people, police may find it necessary to use excessive force to take control of a certain situation. Sometimes this makes an officer fight with a suspect who resists being arrested. Not all cops in communities are great cops. At least once a year, the news covers a story about a person being beat by an officer. The article “Minority Threat and Police Brutality: Determinants of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints in U.S. Municipalities” by Malcolm D. Holmes from the University of Wyoming, uses the conflict theory to explain why officers go after minorities sometimes causing police brutality. It explains the police’s tension with African American and Latino males. Those minorities are the ones that retaliate more against police officers which causes the officer to use violent force to defend themselves.
Police officers primary responsibility is to protect and serve citizens and communities, not to abuse the laws by hurting innocent people. In most states Stand-Your-Ground laws allows innocent citizens the right to use deadly force to defend and protect themselves. But what if they were protecting themselves from police brutality. Police brutality has been going on for many years; they can cause riots, injuries, and even mistrust for the police.
Police brutality is an act that often goes unnoticed by the vast majority of white Americans. This is the intentional use of “excessive force by an authority figure, which oftentimes ends with bruises, broken bones, bloodshed, and sometimes even death” (Harmon). While law-abiding citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been revealed that they must also keep an eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve. According to the National Police Academy, in the past year, there have been over 7,000 reports of police misconduct; fatalities have been linked to more than 400 of these cases (Gul). Police brutality is often triggered by disrespect towards the police officer.
In May 2015, the U.S. was cited by the United Nations for police brutality and racial discrimination. At this major UN event—the Universal Periodic Review—over 100 countries critiqued American legislation and police training methods and recommended ways to end racial bias and use of excessive force in the police (UN Condemns US Gun Violence). Police brutality and institutional racism have been “cite-worthy” issues in the U.S. long before 2015, but what prompted the world to notice?
In 1991 the beating of Rodney King was videotaped and publicized throughout America (Son) . For many people this was their first time witnessing police abuse. The four policemen that were involved were subjected to a trial but were acquitted of their charges which included; use of excess force and assault. This event took place 27 years ago, today instances such as this take place almost every day. Police misconduct has been a recurring problem throughout the twentieth century and well into the twenty first century (Son, pg 179). When it comes to interactions with civilians, “...police officers are prohibited from (1) using unnecessary Force, (2) Abusing their authority, (3) speaking Discourteously, or (4) using Offensive language, all captured