NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
&# 65279; Police Brutality Police brutality is on the rise across the nation, however it is particularly interesting to me that such violence and viciousness by police officials had managed to go unnoticed within the justice system, or shall I say over looked for so long within that system. Police officers have too much control and power and abuse their authority. Police abuse continues to be one of the most serious and harsh human rights violations in communities throughout the world. The excessive use of force used by police officers persevere, because of impossible barriers of immunity which make it possible for officers who committed such brutal acts, to escape appropriate punishment and often to repeat their offenses. These unethical sub groups that exist within our justice system are the people we look to for our protection.
In my research, I will attempt to show that police brutality is a serious problem and if this barbarity by police officers is allowed to flourish out of control the citizens in these communities will not only need protection from criminals, but the police that are recruited to protect and serve our communities. In my research I have accounts of brutal attacks by the police, and these cases are just few of the thousands of police brutality cases that exist within our communities. I am centralizing my report on the New York and Los Angeles police department considering these police organizations have been the center of attention in the news media, which seems to be an on going plague in the recent months. In recent months it is accurate to say that in spite of citizen worrying about protecting themselves from criminals, it has currently confirmed that they must also keep an attentive focus on those who are there to protect and serve. Police brutality affects not only the officer involved, the victim of the beating and those who witness the incident, but civilization as a whole.
It changes the way communities and the individual citizens view police officers and the authority they uphold. Therefore, leaving people unsure of the rights they have against such cruel acts of violence, they are forced to endure all in the name of excessive force and the thin line that police officers cross on a regular basis. In Policing the Police (8 - 9) it is stated that officers never feared being reprimanded for such violent acts of brutality due to the blue wall of silence which allows officers not to snitch on other fellow officers. This code of silence should not be used to shield the misconduct that goes on in these organizations. New York s and Los Angeles police force are well-known hiding behind this blue wall of silence while their acts of brutality go unnoticed. Whereas, the brutality accounts and cases become more visual by way of patrol car audio cameras (which were installed to view the officers interaction with the civilians) and citizens complaints against the police and their misconduct.
Yet, in the past when brutality issue are presents before a judge and jury (audio accounts of violence) the police officers come out unscathed by such an accurate account of misconduct. For instance, the video taped beating of Rodney King in Los Angles on March 3, 1991. A bystander videotaped the beating and the videotape showed King hit over fifty times in the head and body with the police batons, zapped twice with a stun gun while handcuffed (Policing the Police 13). An arrogant attitude was described after the beating. On the radio transmission, from the LAPD dispatcher to the fire department for an ambulance, a police dispatcher said, . he pissed us off, so I guess he needs and ambulance now should know better than running, they are going to pay the price when they do that.
It s abutters, he got beat up Policing the Police 14). One of the officers on the scene stated on the car radio, oops, and I haven t beaten anyone this bad in a long time (Policing the Police 14), yet the officers once again were unscathed by what was visually unethical and once again the officers stepped over the lines of excessive force. Additional accounts of the LAPD s repeated attacks of brutality once again accounted for, but hopefully will not go unpunished. The LAPD s anti-gang unit know as Crash is being investigated for unethical acts committed against citizens. A numbers of charges are pending; shooting people without justification, award ceremonies for killing people different colors for the amount of damage done to the person, use people as battering rams, shooting handcuffed victims to death, beating family members of gangs for filing complaints against the police and using people for target practice and so on (Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States 1). There are more than 80 officers involved, and their actions were unseen for so long that many case (over 300) are being reopened, thrown out and over turned.
These attacks, wether against criminals or law abiding citizens is a violation of ones human rights and was unforseen, because police officials are shielded by the code of silence which is misused by many of these organizations. New York and Los Angeles are not alone, the larger cities around the world face similar problems with police stepping of the lines of excessive force to enforce the law by any means necessary. More recently, in New York Diallo an unarmed immigrant unable to speak English was shot to death, because he happen to be in the area where the NYPD was searching for a rape suspect. Diallo was shot over some forty-two times, but some people would not consider this excessive force. Should police brutality be considered a misrepresentation of police self defense? Is the mission of police officers clearly defined and understood?
Does stress contribute to Police brutality? Is police brutality a serious? These were questions asked in my interview with two Toledo police officers. The first officer I interviewed was very irritated by my questions, whereas the second officer was very receptive in answering my question. Both officers answered each question with the same answer, yet their attitude and response to me and the interview were quite different. Both officers felt police brutality was a form of self defense and misrepresented, but the agitated officer was very firm in stating that police brutality was over rated.
Their response to police brutality being a serious problem was absolutely not and of course the first officer was up in arms about this particular question. The agitated officer then went on to explain to me that my questions for the interview were a type of entrapment and that I was forcing the answer I wanted. Well I must say I disagree, because I did not receive the answer I d hope for and the second officer was very careful at the selection of words used to answer the question, but he was very nice about the situation. Both officers were clear in stating that an police officers mission is well defined and understood, both agreed that stress may (neither would give a yes / no answer) contribute police brutality.
Bye the end of the interview I was left with the feeling that in the public eye, wether it s student interview or anyone else officers try to uphold the law to the letter, but behind that blue wall of silence there is much to be learned. The fact that the one officer was so irritated, but yet, he still allowed me to do the interview, leaves me with a question mark (? ) Or some unforseen truths. Not all police officers are brutal, but these sub groups that exist within many police organizations are unacceptable and it s demoralization of the citizens within these communities. Larger cities are unable to account for these police sub groups considering their employment of police officials range in the thousand therefore making it almost impossible to keep track of every single officer. This allows cops to act on their own discretion, more so to their own law than to the letter of the law.
This misuse of authority must be monitored so police don t forget who they are serving, the public. This means that even criminals, have certain rights to inhumane acts of aggression and brutality against them, whereas, law abiding citizens have those same rights. Campaigns to control police brutality should be affirmed, so their superiors are able to identify those officers in trouble of crossing that line of brutality. Incidents of inappropriate misuse of physical force, should be investigated when brought to an superiors attention, whether citizen complaint or an officers complaint.
There are actually officers that turn informant on other officers, but their confronted with anger, threats and the risk of being a outcast. Which, of course deters an officer to step forward when they know about accounts of brutality and misuse of police authority by their peers. Police departments themselves cover up such unethical acts through the code of silence and anyone who snitches is reprimanded, however, it should be the police officers who commit such vicious crimes against others that should be reprimanded. Without these accounts of police misconduct police brutality will be allowed to flourish, but without the justice system unable to prosecute and control their own police brutality will continue to rise and plague our communities. There has always been methods to controlling police brutality, but obviously these methods need to be enhanced and recreated to successfully ensure that when police officers step over those lines of excessive force that their held accountable for their actions. There is a difference between excessive force and using too much force, however, when you kill a person and beat them to death while in handcuffs officers and their superiors should know that they ve stepped over line of brutality.
Police officers have too much control and power and abuse their authority. Is police brutality a serious problem? The answer is yes, it s a serious problem and if we as citizens allow this problem to flourish anymore than it already has over the years, the police will be unable to protect us from the criminals, because we as the people will be to busy trying to protect ourselves from the officials recruited to protect and serve us. Justice needs more structure with the unstructured wall of justice system or the plague of police brutality will continue to affect us all Work Cited Books Roleff, Tamara L. , ed. Greenhaven Press: Police Brutality, San Diego, CA, 1999. Winters, Paul A. , ed.
Greenhaven Press: Policing the Police, San Diego, CA, 1995. Interview Personal interview. 24 July 2000 Personal interview. 24 July 2000 World Wide Web Anderson, David. Policing the Police of American Prospect Sirs database, 1999. 49 - 54 Shielded from Justice Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States Shielded from Justice: Code of silence &# 65279; Police Brutality Police brutality is on the rise across the nation, however it is particularly interesting to me that such violence and viciousness by police officials had managed to go unnoticed within the justice system, or shall I say over looked for so long within that system. Police officers have too much control and power and abuse their authority. Police abuse continues to be one of the most serious and harsh human rights violations in communities throughout the world.
The excessive use of force used by police officers persevere, because of impossible barriers of immunity which make it possible for officers who committed such brutal acts, to escape appropriate punishment and often to repeat their offenses. These unethical sub groups that exist within our justice system are the people we look to for our protection. In my research, I will attempt to show that police brutality is a serious problem and if this barbarity by police officers is allowed to flourish out of control the citizens in these communities will not only need protection from criminals, but the police that are recruited to protect and serve our communities. In my research I have accounts of brutal attacks by the police, and these cases are just few of the thousands of police brutality cases that exist within our communities. I am centralizing my report on the New York and Los Angeles police department considering these police organizations have been the center of attention in the news media, which seems to be an on going plague in the recent months. In recent months it is accurate to say that in spite of citizen worrying about protecting themselves from criminals, it has currently confirmed that they must also keep an attentive focus on those who are there to protect and serve.
Police brutality affects not only the officer involved, the victim of the beating and those who witness the incident, but civilization as a whole. It changes the way communities and the individual citizens view police officers and the authority they uphold. Therefore, leaving people unsure of the rights they have against such cruel acts of violence, they are forced to endure all in the name of excessive force and the thin line that police officers cross on a regular basis. In Policing the Police (8 - 9) it is stated that officers never feared being reprimanded for such violent acts of brutality due to the blue wall of silence which allows officers not to snitch on other fellow officers.
This code of silence should not be used to shield the misconduct that goes on in these organizations. New York s and Los Angeles police force are well-known hiding behind this blue wall of silence while their acts of brutality go unnoticed. Whereas, the brutality accounts and cases become more visual by way of patrol car audio cameras (which were installed to view the officers interaction with the civilians) and citizens complaints against the police and their misconduct. Yet, in the past when brutality issue are presents before a judge and jury (audio accounts of violence) the police officers come out unscathed by such an accurate account of misconduct.
For instance, the video taped beating of Rodney King in Los Angles on March 3, 1991. A bystander videotaped the beating and the videotape showed King hit over fifty times in the head and body with the police batons, zapped twice with a stun gun while handcuffed (Policing the Police 13). An arrogant attitude was described after the beating. On the radio transmission, from the LAPD dispatcher to the fire department for an ambulance, a police dispatcher said, . he pissed us off, so I guess he needs and ambulance now should know better than running, they are going to pay the price when they do that. It s abutters, he got beat up Policing the Police 14).
One of the officers on the scene stated on the car radio, oops, and I haven t beaten anyone this bad in a long time (Policing the Police 14), yet the officers once again were unscathed by what was visually unethical and once again the officers stepped over the lines of excessive force. Additional accounts of the LAPD s repeated attacks of brutality once again accounted for, but hopefully will not go unpunished. The LAPD s anti-gang unit know as Crash is being investigated for unethical acts committed against citizens. A numbers of charges are pending; shooting people without justification, award ceremonies for killing people different colors for the amount of damage done to the person, use people as battering rams, shooting handcuffed victims to death, beating family members of gangs for filing complaints against the police and using people for target practice and so on (Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States 1). There are more than 80 officers involved, and their actions were unseen for so long that many case (over 300) are being reopened, thrown out and over turned. These attacks, wether against criminals or law abiding citizens is a violation of ones human rights and was unforseen, because police officials are shielded by the code of silence which is misused by many of these organizations.
New York and Los Angeles are not alone, the larger cities around the world face similar problems with police stepping of the lines of excessive force to enforce the law by any means necessary. More recently, in New York Diallo an unarmed immigrant unable to speak English was shot to death, because he happen to be in the area where the NYPD was searching for a rape suspect. Diallo was shot over some forty-two times, but some people would not consider this excessive force. Should police brutality be considered a misrepresentation of police self defense?
Is the mission of police officers clearly defined and understood? Does stress contribute to Police brutality? Is police brutality a serious? These were questions asked in my interview with two Toledo police officers. The first officer I interviewed was very irritated by my questions, whereas the second officer was very receptive in answering my question. Both officers answered each question with the same answer, yet their attitude and response to me and the interview were quite different.
Both officers felt police brutality was a form of self defense and misrepresented, but the agitated officer was very firm in stating that police brutality was over rated. Their response to police brutality being a serious problem was absolutely not and of course the first officer was up in arms about this particular question. The agitated officer then went on to explain to me that my questions for the interview were a type of entrapment and that I was forcing the answer I wanted. Well I must say I disagree, because I did not receive the answer I d hope for and the second officer was very careful at the selection of words used to answer the question, but he was very nice about the situation. Both officers were clear in stating that an police officers mission is well defined and understood, both agreed that stress may (neither would give a yes / no answer) contribute police brutality.
Bye the end of the interview I was left with the feeling that in the public eye, wether it s student interview or anyone else officers try to uphold the law to the letter, but behind that blue wall of silence there is much to be learned. The fact that the one officer was so irritated, but yet, he still allowed me to do the interview, leaves me with a question mark (? ) Or some unforseen truths. Not all police officers are brutal, but these sub groups that exist within many police organizations are unacceptable and it s demoralization of the citizens within these communities. Larger cities are unable to account for these police sub groups considering their employment of police officials range in the thousand therefore making it almost impossible to keep track of every single officer.
This allows cops to act on their own discretion, more so to their own law than to the letter of the law. This misuse of authority must be monitored so police don t forget who they are serving, the public. This means that even criminals, have certain rights to inhumane acts of aggression and brutality against them, whereas, law abiding citizens have those same rights. Campaigns to control police brutality should be affirmed, so their superiors are able to identify those officers in trouble of crossing that line of brutality.
Incidents of inappropriate misuse of physical force, should be investigated when brought to an superiors attention, whether citizen complaint or an officers complaint. There are actually officers that turn informant on other officers, but their confronted with anger, threats and the risk of being a outcast. Which, of course deters an officer to step forward when they know about accounts of brutality and misuse of police authority by their peers. Police departments themselves cover up such unethical acts through the code of silence and anyone who snitches is reprimanded, however, it should be the police officers who commit such vicious crimes against others that should be reprimanded. Without these accounts of police misconduct police brutality will be allowed to flourish, but without the justice system unable to prosecute and control their own police brutality will continue to rise and plague our communities. There has always been methods to controlling police brutality, but obviously these methods need to be enhanced and recreated to successfully ensure that when police officers step over those lines of excessive force that their held accountable for their actions.
There is a difference between excessive force and using too much force, however, when you kill a person and beat them to death while in handcuffs officers and their superiors should know that they ve stepped over line of brutality. Police officers have too much control and power and abuse their authority. Is police brutality a serious problem? The answer is yes, it s a serious problem and if we as citizens allow this problem to flourish anymore than it already has over the years, the police will be unable to protect us from the criminals, because we as the people will be to busy trying to protect ourselves from the officials recruited to protect and serve us. Justice needs more structure with the unstructured wall of justice system or the plague of police brutality will continue to affect us all Work Cited Books Roleff, Tamara L. , ed. Greenhaven Press: Police Brutality, San Diego, CA, 1999.
Winters, Paul A. , ed. Greenhaven Press: Policing the Police, San Diego, CA, 1995. Interview Personal interview. 24 July 2000 Personal interview. 24 July 2000 World Wide Web Anderson, David. Policing the Police of American Prospect Sirs database, 1999. 49 - 54 Shielded from Justice Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States Shielded from Justice: Code of silence 328
Free research essays on topics related to: excessive force, abiding citizens, police officers, police brutality, police officials
Research essay sample on Police Brutality Police Officers
