Police Brutality: The Rise Of Police Force
The Rise of Police Brutality
Police in society have the role of maintaining order and safety by enforcing policies and laws. These roles provide a special authoritative power over the general population that can sometimes be misused. Unjustified loss of civilian life and other forms of assault by police officers can be explained by the following reasons: a fear of harm that causes knee-jerk negative fight or flight reactions, an invalid fear based on racism, and a lack of proper de-escalation training. All three of these causes have led to past and present cases of police officers overusing their power despite the lack of harm to the officers or public. Political cartoons, statistics, news articles, and real live footage of police officers …show more content…
Leading politicians along with the average citizen to wonder about the cause and possible solutions.
Fear is a very big cause of excessive force because cops have a dangerous and stressful job that often times puts them or others at risk of harm. In some cases, fear may cause police officers to falsely assume an assailant is armed, which causes them to use unnecessary force. As was the case when Diallo, an African immigrant was shot while walking in New York City. “The officers had stopped Diallo, who reach for his wallet to show them his identification; Believing the wallet was a gun, the officers fired 41 shots at him” (Police Brutality). There was a clear use of excessive force in the Diallo case, given that 41 shots were fired at a man who was just reaching for his wallet. Fear can also arise when police officers misjudge body language and behaviors of regular civilians and suspects as was the case in the Michael Brown death. Officer Darren Wilson felt threatened by Michael Brown walking and “several witnesses stated that Brown appeared to pose a physical threat to Wilson as he moved toward Wilson.” (Department of Justice). Even though Brown was not actually …show more content…
However, not addressing the dysfunction of excess force, would mean many more innocent people are going to lose their lives. As a society, we have an obligation to better ourselves and strive to always meet the ideals of this nation. One of those ideas being that the justice system is blind to race, gender, and class. Often times, racial and a falsely, perceived fear of harm has led to death or other forms of police brutality. Proper training can help prevent these simple and complex mistakes. It should be a societal goal to help ensure that the police force is protecting the general population via proper training, support, and education on racial
Police in society have the role of maintaining order and safety by enforcing policies and laws. These roles provide a special authoritative power over the general population that can sometimes be misused. Unjustified loss of civilian life and other forms of assault by police officers can be explained by the following reasons: a fear of harm that causes knee-jerk negative fight or flight reactions, an invalid fear based on racism, and a lack of proper de-escalation training. All three of these causes have led to past and present cases of police officers overusing their power despite the lack of harm to the officers or public. Political cartoons, statistics, news articles, and real live footage of police officers …show more content…
Leading politicians along with the average citizen to wonder about the cause and possible solutions.
Fear is a very big cause of excessive force because cops have a dangerous and stressful job that often times puts them or others at risk of harm. In some cases, fear may cause police officers to falsely assume an assailant is armed, which causes them to use unnecessary force. As was the case when Diallo, an African immigrant was shot while walking in New York City. “The officers had stopped Diallo, who reach for his wallet to show them his identification; Believing the wallet was a gun, the officers fired 41 shots at him” (Police Brutality). There was a clear use of excessive force in the Diallo case, given that 41 shots were fired at a man who was just reaching for his wallet. Fear can also arise when police officers misjudge body language and behaviors of regular civilians and suspects as was the case in the Michael Brown death. Officer Darren Wilson felt threatened by Michael Brown walking and “several witnesses stated that Brown appeared to pose a physical threat to Wilson as he moved toward Wilson.” (Department of Justice). Even though Brown was not actually …show more content…
However, not addressing the dysfunction of excess force, would mean many more innocent people are going to lose their lives. As a society, we have an obligation to better ourselves and strive to always meet the ideals of this nation. One of those ideas being that the justice system is blind to race, gender, and class. Often times, racial and a falsely, perceived fear of harm has led to death or other forms of police brutality. Proper training can help prevent these simple and complex mistakes. It should be a societal goal to help ensure that the police force is protecting the general population via proper training, support, and education on racial