I'm sure that you have been hearing about the whole "police brutality" around the country with the shootings of Freddy Gray, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin that soon later turned violent, and then blaming the police for their brutality. In this speech, I'm going to tell you more about the history and what is going on about "police brutality" and how people are taking it.
Police brutality is defined as wanton use of excessive force usually physical but also common informs of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation by a police officer. Police brutality doesn't just exist in our country, but around the world also. Police misconduct includes false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse, and police corruption.
The history of police brutality ages way back to the Civil Rights Movement and the Southern Slave Trade. Brutality has a certain perception that victims of police brutality has often belong to and they are mainly powerless groups such as minorities, the disabled, the young, and the poor. The word "brutality" has several meanings, but towards civilians it's mainly used in savage cruelty.The term "police brutality" started being used in the American press in 1872 when the Chicago Tribune reported a beating on a civilian under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station. In 1991 in Los Angeles, California police officers harshly beat an African American man, Rodney King and his two passengers while a civilian taped the incident leading to extensive media coverage and criminal charges against the several officers that were involved. Shortly leading after this incident caused the Los Angeles riots in 1992. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles riots caused 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damaged 3,100 businesses, and nearly lost 1 billion in financial losses. Two out of the four officers were convicted and received a 32 month sentence for being blamed for this chaos. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2011 stating that between the years of 2003-2009, 4,813 people died in the process of being arrested by local police and 2,876 of the deaths were people of color.
When Hubert Locke experienced and saw the police brutality that they force to relatively powerless groups he said this, "When used in print or as the battle cry in a black power rally, police brutality can by implication cover a number of practices, from calling a citizen by his or her first name to a death by a policeman's bullet. What the average citizen thinks of when he hears the term, however, is something midway between these two occurrences, something more akin to what the police profession knows as the "alley court"- the wanton vicious beating of a person in custody, usually while handcuffed, and usually taking place somewhere between the scene of the arrest and the station house."
The history in the United States goes way back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, Anti-War Demonstrations, and Global War on Terrorism. In 2014 the UN Committee against torture condemned police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement in the United States. The UN states, "frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals."
The causes vary among people, the towns they live in, and the way they were brought up, but police brutality happens anywhere and it doesn't matter about any of those reasons. A police officer are legally permitted to use special force, and everyone expects to use the force that they are permitted. The problem is with police officers is that they gradually develop an attitude or sense of authority over society, which creates violence with citizens. It's also some of their personality traits that make some officers more susceptible to use their force that they are provided towards others. These personality traits relates to previous traumatic job-related experience and then also the category where they are young and inexperienced. Violence can be used by police and be excessive despite being unlawful, which can make the police react and be considered police brutality. Sometimes police brutality is often used to refer to violence used by each individual police officer to achieve politically desirable ends, but the studies show that there are officers who believe the legal system they serve is failing and it is their duty to pick up the slack. It's also known as "vigilantism" which is where the officer involved may think that the suspect deserves more punishment that what they may have to serve under the court system, which creates police brutality.
It is measured based off the account of people who have experienced or seen it as well as the juries who are present for trials involving police brutality cases. Because there is no way to quantify the use of excessive force for any particular situation, it all depends on if the suspected person or persons is or are restricting police force. But police force cannot be quantified but it is the opinion of brutality among various races, genders, and age. Black females, and younger people are more likely to have a negative opinions about police than white, males, middle-aged to elderly individuals.
Police brutality is known as the abuse of power because they are expected to protect the public and confront potentially violent individuals they are able to legally use physical even deadly force under certain circumstances. An officer who uses force when it is not called for or who uses more force than is necessary to perform their job may cross the line into police brutality.
The constitutional implications is the one that effects societies the most. Police officers are agents of the government which means they have the ability to do anything. While a citizen who is subjected to police brutality may be able to sue the police officer or even the department for personal damages under law but as people claim, many cases of police brutality involve civil rights violations. In this situation violations is among the constitutional claims as a victims brutality may raise and these reasons might be denial of the due process rights guaranteed by the 4th and 14th amendment of the constitution, unreasonable searches prohibited by the 4th amendment, and the violation of the civil rights under the civil rights act of 1871. Another factor is constitutional implications where race is a main factor due to police brutality. If a police officer brutalizes a person based on a persons race a victim may also raise a claim of violation of his right to equal protection under the law.
Police brutality conflicts with community damage, both bad and good. It can destroy neighborhoods, but can also bring them closer. Harm inflicted by police officers who engage and engage in brutality is the loss of brutality is the loss of trust by members of the community they have sworn to protect. In able to have police officers succeed in their job they need trust in the community around them. When a officer doesn't have any trust from the communities around them, witnesses and victims are less likely to report a crime or cooroperate in investigations if the cops have betrayed their trust by brutalizing their neighbors, family members, and friends.
One story that I came across was the story of Frank Jude. Frank Jude was a 24-year old man who was viciously beat by several off-duty Milwaukee police officers as he was leaving a party. The police attacked Frank and his friends because one of the officers claimed that Frank's friend stole his wallet which contained a police badge. His friend was cut in the face with a knife but was able to get away unlike Frank who was repeatedly punched and kicked and then later stabbed in both ears with a pen. Later, the three officers were sent to court and charged.
Then there's the most recent one of Freddy Gray in Baltimore, Maryland where a man died from spinal injury due to police brutality. They say that the police hid the main part of the injury so that no video would catch them, which made him soon later die. When it went viral and people started going out for riots, it was the police vs. black men. The main reason why he was arrested is because they thought that he was being suspicious because Freddy made eye contact with one of them, then soon after started running. He was found with a knife on him, but it wasn't used to create the crime.
Police brutality has progressed in the years but the 21st century it has gotten worse. Many police brutality happens all over the countries, but mainly in bigger cities where the blacks outnumber the whites. It sounds bad enough as it is just hearing it on the news, but when someone's loved one is killed, they think that nothing else bad can happen. In my opinion, police brutality can lower the causes of people's death in the United States and it would make the world a better place.
