Police Brutality Essay Research Paper

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 a……battery, 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 Police14), 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

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