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Approaches to crime prevention
Approaches to crime prevention
Approaches to crime prevention
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Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or …show more content…
This particular shooting involved Officer Darren Wilson (which happened to be white) shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager (Michael Brown). As soon as this news broke out, angry citizens took to the streets of Ferguson within hours. They destroyed businesses, burned cars and assaulted officers. All of which these events took place before an investigation had even began. The rioters carried on for days without actual facts of what happened that Saturday when Officer Wilson pulled the trigger and let out six rounds into Michael Brown leaving him dead on the …show more content…
I believe officers in law enforcement are here to serve and protect the citizens of this country. Although as I stated before I also believe that there are still a few that are bad. The majority of them are good. For any kind of change to begin a number of factors need to be involved. The citizens need to use fairness. Fairness when seeing an officer on the street. Not be quick to judge. Just because they see an officer on the street in uniform does not mean that he is bad and out to hurt them. They need to use clarity. Yes, Wilson shot and killed Brown but they need to know all the facts before making a decision on the situation. Why did he shot? Did he feel threatened? Why did he feel threatened? Accuracy, as they need to dig deeper into why the shooting occurred. Ask does this all make sense? Logically would a police officer have shot to kill simply to commit murder in broad daylight with witnesses? Without all of these questions being answered with facts and being quick to judge is not only ridiculous, but it leads to more issues such as rioting and looting. It will also lead to more shootings. More innocent people will continue to be hurt. Either physically or by the loss of their business and cars, etc. due to the damage. This ignorant behavior not only causes more problems but
According to the newspaper the Chicago Tribune there has been 876 homicides since the beginning of January 2014. Making shootings like the one of Laquan McDonald seem irrelevant. The only reason I was able to become aware of this shooting was because the procedures and policies that were being implemented by the police department and city of Chicago were not right. This led a reporter named Brandon Smith who wanted to know the reason why a teen with a knife was gunned down with 16 shots by a police officer who was not alone in this fight. The reporter sued the police department demanding them to release the video of the police cruiser that caught the whole incident on tape. In the video, it shows Laquan walking in the middle of the road, when several police cruisers pull in front of him. As soon as Laquan notices the police officers getting off, he starts moving away from the police cruisers. This is when police officer Van Dyke unloads his weapon and hitting Laquan with 16 shots leaving him for dead on the road. According to the Rules of Conduct by the Chicago PD, found online at the website chiacagopolice.org, it states under Rule 11 “Incompetency or inefficiency in the performance of duty”. This is a rule that should well known to every officer not only in Chicago and it was not followed by officer Van Dyke because the video clearly shows him
There were no charges made against officer Wilson even with the suspects that claimed Michael Brown didn't do anything wrong . Police brutality has made black people take a stand and they formed the Black Lives Matter Movement.The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2012 after George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community, shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Following Martin’s death protests, rallies, and marches were held all across the nation. The Black Lives Matter movement includes all the ways in which black lives are less powerful at the hands of the state, it is a call for action against brutality by police and vigilantes, people who take the law into their own hands by trying to catch or punish someone in their own way. Politicians are also trying to straighten gun laws to prevent homicides like Bernie Sanders. Sanders wants stricter background checks so guns won’t be in the wrong hands. He also wants to ban assault weapons to citizens that were made to kill people. I personally think this can help improve our nation because it will give people with a criminal history less chances of owning guns but it also gives a right to people without a criminal background to be able to own guns for their own
Casebolt’s actions were unpardonable due to him coming to the scene emotionally distressed, after answering two suicide calls. Casebolt since then has apologized many times for his conduct and representation of his team and training in a negative light (Holley and Izadi). I agree that the calls may have taken a toll on his day, but I do not agree with the way he treated the children. His emotions should have been handled before he gotten there or he should have left work until his mind was free from what he had experienced earlier that day. Instead, Casebolt “blew his credibility” when he manhandled the African American teenagers. To support this argument the police chief over then officer Casebolt stated, “I had 12 officers on the scene, and 11 of them performed according to their training” (Fantz, Yan, and Shoichet). This statement that the chief of the police department made, lets us know that Casebolt, was not trained to act in that way because the other officers that were called to the scene demonstrated authority
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri became a controversial media sensation. The shooting created uproar and mistrust towards police officers. Many believed the shooting was unjustified and even an act of racism on the behalf of the police Officer Darren Wilson. The Department of Justice issued an investigation in order to understand the basis of the shooting and to decide whether or not to charge Darren Wilson in the shooting. Despite the evidence and the investigation which portrayed the shooting as an act of self- defense, the shooting still remains controversial.
Guns and crime are two words that people tend to relate, some people say more guns means more crime, and others say less guns is more crime. One thing is for sure, the current gun control measures are not working. Two articles, one by John C Moorhouse and Brent Wanner, another one by William J vizzard, take this topic and convey their own opinion about it. In their article, “Does Gun Control, Reduce Crime Or Does Crime Increase Gun Control”, Moorhouse and Wanner, come to the conclusion that Gun Control doesn’t reduce crime. Moorhouse and Wanner, believe that the current gun control measure fail to make any difference, on the contrary, more crime is increasing gun control. Likewise, “The Current And Future State of Gun Policy In The United
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 when to use force or when to use lethal force.
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 ...
In 2007, thirty-three students and faculty were shot and killed by a former classmate at Virginia Tech University. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, was a senior at Virginia Tech and was majoring in English. Two years earlier before the attack, Cho was ordered by a judge to seek help after making suicidal remarks to his roommate.
Today in this day and age the world is filled with hate and violence and other terrible things. People use weapons and other objects to cause terror on others for many reasons such as power and wealth. Firearms are one of the weapons someone may use to harm or rule over others because of the danger the weapon can cause. Over the years with gun violence and killings, some people want to get rid of the citizens right to purchase and own firearms. Although gun violence bad, by taking a person’s right to bear arms will not solve the problem with gun violence in todays society.
The job title implies something simple; stop the bad guys. However, when given this much ‘power’ over citizens it becomes almost humanly impossible for officers themselves to follow the law they must enforce. Everyone in this world, even officers have rough days and biased opinions. The officer who arrested Bland had absolutely no reason for the arrest, his disrespectful comments, and mistreatment of Bland. On the other hand, can this be justified as a bad day? We all have bad days, we invite them by surpassing our breaking point. Was Bland’s minor attitude and refuse of a ‘lawful’ order the breaking point for this officer? Everything the officer did to Bland is consider legal, just not good policing. Which is okay,
The authors also explain that there are no real statistics to help explain how many times an officer has used a firearm. The text explains that there is no significant data to help explain police shootings and how many occur each year (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Most of the data that can be found does not clearly state the numbers of times a firearm was used. Majority of data is found through data bases such as Vital Statistics (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Even data bases such as Vital Statistics do not provide clear information on police
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
In the Ferguson article (2015), there was an example given about an African American man claimed that he was standing outside of of Wal-Mart, an officer called him a “stupid motherf****r” and a “bastard.” According to the man, a lieutenant was on the scene and did nothing to reproach the officer, instead threatening to arrest the man (p. 80). This demonstrates that the police in Ferguson had no respect for the civilian and even though the lieutenant was present, they did nothing. The officer was not suspended nor held responsible for this incident. By failing to hold officers accountable, it sends a message that officers can behave as they like, “regardless of law or policy, and even if caught, that punishment will be light.” (Ferguson, 86). This message serves to excuse officer wrongdoing and heighten community distrust. This is also to say that police can possibly get away with murder because they are higher officials and work for the
I have respect for the police, and the job they do. Policemen are a selected few who do a dangerous job. Police have done many great things to help improve communities, help people during their off duty hours and stand strong in face of many fears. The police trying to enforce the law are on the streets in all types of weather. Instead of being at home with their families on holidays they are working to keep peace. Everyday, they step out in a world where violence is considered appropriate.
Cops need to consider a few things before they conduct a lineup. The police should discuss the lineup with the prosecutor, for legal sense, before conducting a lineup. A lineup should be directly after an arrest. This will help eliminate innocent people. A lineup makes sure the witness has a good and clear memory, and ensures that the criminal doesn’t get released before he/she gets identified. “A person in custody may be compelled to participate in a lineup without violating Fourth or Fifth Amendment right” Ferdico, Fradella, & Totten, 2013). When a person is in jail their liberty is not being infringed upon under the Fourth Amendment, just because they are in a lineup, so that a witness can look at them to see if they were the ones who