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With no exact legal definition of police brutality or excessive use of force from law enforcement officers, it is hard to fully lay out the history of these crimes. It can easily be an accurate assumption to say that they has always been some forms of police brutality in the history of not on the United States, but from law enforcement in every country in the world, from every time period of our past. There has been and will always be rogue individuals who, for one or more of a list of many reasons why, go outside of their legal limits and commit crimes while working in a capacity where they should be the ones protecting others from crimes.

Police brutality or excessive use of force from law enforcement officers has always been a sad and dark part of the history of this country. (Law Enforcement Use of Force 2018) Not really taking the spotlight until the race riots and clashes during the 1960’s. This could be due to the advancement of technology where these riots and attacks were seen around the world via television, or newspapers, now having faster methods to deliver the news to the people. It could possibly be that there was no massively large scale police attacks on the civilian population at once, as seen when police officers, mostly of white race, attacked people of color.

There is a long history of basic police corruption in the United States. Not just including the race wars throughout the past, but overall incidents of police officers committing crimes to better themselves, or to protect themselves. There are many different types of police corruption, such as external corruption, protection of illegal activity, theft of opportunity, and internal corruption. When it comes to police brutality or excessive use of force from law enforcement officers, it falls under the category of external corruption. This is the abuse of power for personal gain or protection. (42 Shocking Police Brutality Statistics, 2017)

It all depends on the reasoning the police officer used excessive force against a subject. The main excuse is for their protection of the protection of others. If the police officer is found guilty of these crimes, that means their life or security was not in jeopardy, therefore, the level of force that they used in the situation was not warranted or needed. Moving from that, what was their real excuse for exceeding that level of force? It could be because of lack of training, lack of knowledge, mistakes while in the field, or even deep rooted problems against the specific person, or type of person they abused.

This could be someone they have worked with in the past who has given them and their partners a difficult time. This could be someone that is refusing to comply with orders that is given to them. This could be someone of a race that the police officer has ignorant and racist views and feelings towards. All of these could be possible issues as to why a law enforcement officer uses excessive force and commits the illegal act of police brutality.

With the actions and media output today, it seems that most of the larger cases being presented to the people are those that involved racial issues by law enforcement issues. Race wars and conflicts have been a long standing problem within this country, beginning with the roots of slavery and still continuing in some forms today. (42 Shocking Police Brutality Statistics, 2017) Race hatred, ignorance, racism, have and will continue to be a problem as long as people refuse to accept and respect all people that are not like them. Sometimes, these issues transfer over with a person when they go from a civilian to becoming a law enforcement officer.

Police officers take an oath to their office and position to protect and serve all people within their jurisdictions. That is not always the case and some individuals, not all, will continue to bring their hateful and illegal views to work every day. This, sometimes, leads to inappropriate work ethics and choices. This, leads to police brutality or excessive use of force from law enforcement officers. (Leinfelt, 2006)

The race wars in the United States which involved law enforcement officers and local, state, and federal governments, versus the black communities and those within, as well as any other individual who was an advocate and supporter of equal rights for all. It is well known the amount of racial tension and mass racial violence against the African-American community before, and immediately following the Civil War. As slaves, African-Americans had no rights or say in their lives as they were owned by whites, and kept and told what to do at the owner’s choice and will.

Following the Civil War, during the reconstruction period, blacks were still kept silenced and held against their will and legal rights. It took many years before all slaves were freed, though their equal rights were still not given to them, as their voting rights were withheld, and the uprising of white supremacy kept them sheltered, silent, and in danger of violence at any time.

The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, as well as the riots that followed in 1968 after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, were times of massive racial violence against African-Americans, by regular civilians, as well as law enforcement officers. Due to the long period of racial divide, including within the economic and political worlds, has kept black individuals impoverished and living as lesser-than-average Americans in extreme needs for equality and assistance.

There were multiple accounts, videos, and news casts that showed the law enforcement officers using excessive forces against the black community, whether they were told to by governments or superiors or not, it was against the law and against the oath that they took when becoming police officers. It is difficult to determine if these were police officers following their orders, lawful or not, or were they police officers who were acting on their own, fueled and influenced by their own hatred and racist views?

There are many large scale riots that were caused due to the racial tensions between the black community and the law enforcement community. The 1967 Newark riots, which were sparked by the beating and death of Jon Smith, a cab driver, by a police officer. There was the nationwide rioting after the 1968 murder of Dr. Martin Luther King by a white supremacist. The murder of Robert Kennedy, a hard fighting civil rights advocate, and nationwide image and leader in the movement, accelerated the riots.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s, riots continued that were sparked and fueled by the long standing tensions between the black community and the law enforcement community. In 1980, riots erupted in Miami after the killing of a black man by a police officer from Miami-Dade, who was later acquitted of the manslaughter and tampering with evidence charges initially brought against him. These charges being dropped was a long standing trust problem that the black community has had with the law enforcement community, as it seems with all cases, even if it is obvious the police officer has gone above and beyond the legal authority with his levels of forces, the police officer is let off of the hook with little to no punishment.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots stemmed from the filmed beating of a man by the name of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department, which ended with the four police officers being acquitted of all of their charges against them. These riots lasted six days. It is believed and monitored that there have been more than one-hundred cases of mass racial violence against the black community since 1935, with close to all of them stemming from a police incident where it was deemed excessive use of force.

In more recent history, it has seemed these racial divides, and incidents of police brutality or excessive use of force from law enforcement officers have become more widespread, more visible, more often reported on the news media, shared more often on social media websites, and become more heated and more prevalent in politics and in communities. Recently, we have seen the Cincinnati riots in 2001, when a nineteen year old black teenager was killed by a white police officer, who was then acquitted of his charges. In 2014, Michael Brown from Ferguson, Missouri was killed by a white police officer who was also acquitted of his charges, which then lead to long lasting riots and political fights over the handling of police investigations into officer involved shootings.

It is a complicated fact and issue to look into. Were these officers that were acquitted of all of the charges actually innocent, doing the right thing when they were on the scene and used the appropriate level of force when they shot the black individual? Would these riots have taken place even if the police officers were right in their actions? Does the black community care if they were actually innocent or guilty, would they have rioted at just the fact that a black person was killed by a white law enforcement officer?

In the year 2017, there were 1,129 people killed by law enforcement officers in the United States. That is on average about three people a day. These include all cases where it was lawful for them to use deadly force, their highest level of force, and unlawful cases where they used excessive use of force against their suspects and subjects. Of these 1,129 people that were killed, it was accounted that these killings were done by 534 police officers. Of that amount, only twelve of the officers were charged for their actions.

Breaking down the 534 that were involved in these police officer involved shootings and deaths, forty-three of them had killed someone before this incident in 2017. Furthermore, of the 534, twelve of them had been identified as killing multiple people in their careers before this new 2017 incident. 87% of these incidents had an armed subject, carrying a weapon, which makes the officer involved shooting have a higher chance at being declared legal and ethical when it comes to the level of force that was used.

When broken down by race, of the 1,129 individuals killed by police officers, twenty-seven percent of them were black. Of the unarmed individuals, thirty-seven percent of them were black individuals, a highly disproportionate number compared to their percentage makeup of the United States population. This one big invalid argument that is often used by the side of the aisle that stands behind the law enforcement officers, when they say that white people are killed more often than black people, or people from other races. Looking at the raw numbers, yes, you can see and agree that there are more white people killed than black people. Comparing that number to the percentage of the United States that is white versus black, black people are killed disproportionately and at higher rates than white people.

Looking into the statistics of law enforcement officers in the United States, 25.2% of all employed police officers are black, and 17.3% are Hispanic. 83.5% of all police officers of male, with females only making up about 16.5% of the career field. With these percentages and breakdowns, the complaints made against law enforcement officers do not fit these proportions. Female police officers receives far less complaints than male officers do, with only a reported 8-10% of all of the complaints, depending on what city, state, or metropolitan they are located in. (Eterno, 2014) In Cincinnati from 2012-2016, 75% of all negative complaints were made against white law enforcement officers, even though they only made up about 48% of the police force. These same statistics are similar nationwide in other larger cities.

Looking more into the amount of white subjects that are targeted compared to black subject, you see a much large difference and disproportionate number happening. In the same time frame as before in the city of Cincinnati, for every one white person that was targeted for whatever reason, 3.92 black people were targeted by police officers. These stats are coming from being targeted by a white police officer. When looking at the same situations but coming from a black police officer, the numbers are actually more disproportionate, and it’s a fact that experts find confusing and are not sure why the numbers show that black police officers target black individuals more than their white partners do. The number of black’s targets by black officers is up to 4 blacks per every white individual.

There have been numerous high-profile cases of police brutality and excessive use of force towards the black community. These are all cases where either the police officer was charged and investigated, with either them being charged or acquitted, or other cases where the law enforcement officer wasn’t charged at all and there was only a small internal investigation into the incident.

One major case that received national attention was the shooting of a black male names Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was suspected of what is called a strong-arm robbery at a local convenience store. A white police officer by the name of Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown after an altercation between the two after Officer Wilson confronted Brown about committing the possible robberies. Officer Wilson had initially received a radio message giving a description of the suspect in the robberies, and that description matched that of Michael Brown.

Officer Wilson said the altercation started after he confronted Michael Brown, with Brown then confronting him and attacking him inside of his police car and attempting to take away his service weapon. During the scuffle, the weapon discharged, with Michael Brown and his friend fleeing the scene with Officer Wilson in pursuit. Officer Wilson then stopped Michael Brown by shooting at him a total of twelve times, striking him multiple times and killing him

The shooting of Michael Brown ignited the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” movement, as it was said those were the final words that Brown had said be fore he was fatally shot by Officer Wilson. Riots broke out in Ferguson that lasted weeks, with multiple incidents of continued fighting, harm to people, looting, and other shootings in a rocky and unstable neighborhood with no trust or positive communications between the politicians, the law enforcement entities, and the civilians of Ferguson, Missouri.

In the investigations that followed, a grand jury for St. Louis County decided that they would not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown. Following that, the Department of Justice determined that after their own investigation, they cleared Officer Wilson of any civil rights violations from the incident. Both entities stated that forensic evidence corroborated the story that Officer Wilson gave, saying that he shot Michael Brown in in his own self-defense after he was attached in his police vehicle, and to protect himself from Brown stealing his service weapon from him.

One case where a police officer was charged and penalized for their shooting murders of someone was a case out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, Officer Mohamed Noor fatally shot an Australian woman by the name of Justine Damond. In July of 2017, Damond called the police for assistance after she thought a woman was being sexually assaulted in an alley that was located behind her residence. When Officer Noor and other officers arrived on the scene, they found no persons in said alley.

While the officers continued to drive down the alley and in the general area of the reported incident with their lights off, they heard a loud noise. Moments later, Justine Damond came to the driver’s side window of the police car that was occupied by Officer Noor, and Officer Harrity. When Damond came to the window, Officer Noor, from the passenger seat inside of the vehicle, shot Damond through the opening of the driver’s side window. Damand fell to the ground, where Officers Noor and Harrity attempted CPR to no avail, as she had died approximately twenty minutes later.

Both officers did not have their body cameras on during this incident, as Minneapolis Police Department does not require them for every incident. They did say however that in any incident that involves the interactions with the general public, their cameras must be turned on for their own legal protection and safety, but also the safety of all involved in each and every situation. In the investigation that followed the incident, Officer Noor was found to have acted illegally and carelessly.

A grand jury issued a warrant for the arrest of Officer Noor, with the charges for the incident being third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Officer Noor tuned himself into law enforcement. Officer Noor was said to not have followed his training when he shot his service weapon from inside of the patrol car, as a reaction to someone just presenting themselves at the driver’s side window. Officer Noor did not have a positive identification on the person as them being a threat to their safety or lives and should not have shot Damond.

In Baltimore, Maryland on April 12, 2015, a man by the name of Freddie Gray was stopped, and eventually arrested by law enforcement officers for the possession of an illegal knife, which was against the laws in the city of Baltimore. When Freddie Gray was arrested, he was placed into the back of a law enforcement transportation van improperly. In this transportation vehicle, the subject should be strapped in with the use of built-in and basic safety straps, or seat belts. In this incident, Freddie Gray was put into the back-holding area of the van and not strapped him, allowing his body to move around when the van was in motion, with no way to protect himself as he was in handcuffs. (Eterno, 2014)

While Freddie Gray was being taken from the scene of the arrest to the local law enforcement office, his body was unsecured, and he sustained severe injuries to his spinal cord, putting him into a coma before he arrived at the police station. Freddie Gray was rushed to a trauma center where he stayed for seven days until he was pronounced dead due to his injuries he received to his spinal cord.

Two days after his death, the six officers that were involved with the arrest, transportation, and eventual death of Freddie Gray were suspected from their officer duties, with pay. Medical doctors who conducted the autopsy could not declare the death of Freddie Gray to be an accident, as the police of the Baltimore Police Department says that all individuals must be secured in the transportation vehicle before the vehicle can move. (Danilina, 2018) Therefore, they ruled his death as a homicide. Following this declaration, Baltimore City State’s Attorney, a woman named Marilyn Mosby, filed charges against the six officers that were involved in this incident.

All six officers had their own trials for the charges that were brought against them. One case ended in a mistrial, three cases ended with the officers being found not guilty of the charges, and the other two officers had all the charges against them dropped before the trail could be concluded. Following this, the Department of Justice said that they would not be charging these six officers with any federal charges. A localized three-person panel was convened to conduct a non-criminal internal disciplinary review of the officers and their actions in the death of Freddie Gray. (Ariel, Sutherland, Henstock, Young, Drover, Sykes)

With the history of police brutality and excessive use of force from law enforcement officers within the United States, there are always multiple attempts or ideas that are set forth and implemented to either prevent these situations from happening, or to rectify the issues to stop them from happening or growing in the future. You see this in multiple ways such as in the Freddie Gray case where they changed the transportation policies just six days before his death to state that all individuals must be securely fastened into the vehicle, and not just placed in side like Gray was. (Suresh, 2017) You also see this happening in many other cities and jurisdictions around the United States with the implementation and use of body cameras on police officers.

One thing that is already at high levels of scrutiny and security, is the overall hiring process. When one applies to any form of law enforcement, at any level, there are background checks, evaluations, multiple interviews, et cetera, before one can even start the training process to begin their work in the law enforcement field. If n organization does effective and thorough bac ground checks before they are even hired and sent to training, you can root out many underlying issues to prevent further illegal or unethical issues.

If you can find any illegal actives from their past, any arrests or interactions with law enforcement officers, that would root out someone who is potentially not a good hire for their organization. Throughout the process of looking into and looking at someone social media, you could quickly and easily find if they have any bias or internal dislike or hatred for a certain group of people, likes someone’s race, creed, gender, religion, sexual orientation. When they become law enforcement officers, they are to protect and serve every individual to the best of their abilities. One person should not be treated any different or any worse than the next person on the street. If someone is racist, sexist, or anti-muslimism, they will bring those biases and hatred onto the scene of every incident and not do a legal, ethical, or correct job.

The next thing that can be investigated and adapted, and it is probably one of the most important parts of a law enforcement officers careers, is their training before they become certified, given a badge and a service weapon, and sent onto the streets to protect the populous. If you have a department that has a flawless, by the book training model, with the best of the best instructors, you will create police officers that adhere to their training and do the right thing in every situation. Mistakes will be made, as is the case with every occupation, but you can mitigate the risks and stop negligent actions from happening and create a safer and smarter officer and jurisdiction.

Training plans and models should be created by individuals who know the tactics and techniques, as well as the laws of their areas. Experience is an invaluable tool that should be utilized when creating these plans, as well as during the training of the future law enforcement officers itself. If the training plans and methods are elite and done so in a way that individuals can retain the skills and knowledge throughout their careers, it’ll continue with fewer issues and illegal activity. (Segan, 2018)

The next portion to both prevent and rectify this issue, is the training that is created and implemented for those law enforcement officers to go through during their careers. First, there needs to be an adequate training model established for police officers to remain knowledgeable and intelligent on all possible scenarios that they could run into. If a police force can train throughout the year, it will have the officers at best of the best levels, with minimal forgetting of the standards procedures and techniques they would need in situations out in the field.

The last portion was to maintain a training model for all officers, whether they have committed a mistake or not. Now, training needs to happen for any police officer that has committed a mistake, whether large or small. When someone makes a mistake, it shows that they either do not have the appropriate knowledge, or the tactics or techniques while on the scene of any incident to choose the correct path to protect all there with no damage to the innocent or those who do not need to be harmed. (Swaine, McCarthy, 2017) Training needs to be handled and done so that any officer involved in illegal, unethical, or incorrect procedures can fix the wrong they have done, with a potential to return to the job in full force, with the confidence of the superiors that they will do the job well.

The next task that needs to be accomplished is the internal reviews, or investigations into law enforcement officers after an incident has occurred. An unbiased and senior leadership person or group needs to investigate what happened, what steps were done wrong, whey they were done wrong, is there any way to prevent what went wrong next time, and if there is there a way to rectify what happened so it does not happen again. These investigations or reviews after the fact will determine if the law enforcement officer committed a mistake while on the job, or if their error was done so on an illegal and unethical level where they will need to be retrained or even fired from the job. (Phillips, 2015)

These reviews need to be done by people that not directly involved with the situation, or the person involved, to allow for an unbiased and correct decision to be made. A law enforcement officer that committed an illegal act is no good to come back to the job if they are not going to be fully trusted by the office, or by the civilian population themselves.

Law enforcement officers also need to be ethical and mature enough to report any wrong doing when they see it, no matter who the person is that is guilty of the act. If it is their boss, their friend, or anyone, a law enforcement officer needs to have the abilities to report the incident, even anonymously if need be, to root out any wrong doings or wrong people for the job. (Segan, 2018)

Body cameras is another hot topic issue recently in the media when it comes to incidents with law enforcement officers, and the implementation and se of body cameras on the scene of crimes. First, there are some negatives to some who wear the body cameras. Some police officers say that they do not want the full scene caught on camera and released to the public. For example, when two officers are headed to the scene of a crime, they are discussing tactics and techniques that they do not want released to the public. These are tools that law enforcement officers must always maintain the upper hand in situations to maintain good order and discipline while dealing with potentially unruly and dangerous subjects. (Ariel, Sutherland, Henstock, Young, Drover, Sykes)

With that, there are many reasons to wear the body cameras, good reasons that far outweigh the negatives, for any law enforcement officer that is following their training and conducting themselves in a legal and ethical manner. Having the whole scene of a crime or issue be recorded and watched later can clear up and confusion or “he said, she said” arguments. The recordings will not lie and will show what exactly happened and what was said. Body cameras, and the rules for each city, should state that body cameras will be turned on and used any time they are called to a scene where they are engaged with a subject, witness, or victim, to record and show what is happening the entire time. (Danilina, 2018)

With law enforcement officers, they are hired to uphold the laws and regulations of any jurisdiction. If they are going to punish civilians for breaking these laws and rules put into place, they are going to have to follow the laws themselves. Law enforcement officers need to, if not be held to the same levels as a civilian, possible be held to a higher standard, and be held accountable for their actions.

Police officers should not be let go because their friends and coworkers are the ones in charge of investigating and looking into the incidents that involve other police officers. The “blue protecting blue” mentality, where police officers are looking out for other police officers, needs to stop with basic support and protection, and separate itself to not protect these police officers from committing illegal activities. (Phillips, 2015)

In conclusion, police brutality and excessive use of force from law enforcement officers is a concern and an issue in the United States, and one that is only going to become more visible to all with the advancement of technology and the media who has found a hot button issue to broadcast more than they ever have before. The media reporting these cases is not an excuse, as the issue itself needs to stop from happening.

You will never fully rectify this issue, but there are steps and tools that can be put into place to curb the numbers lower, to allow for less and less toxic and corrupt police to enter or to stay in the force to commit these crimes. Mistakes will be made, but being a mistake is not a valid excuse and mistakes still need to be punished for failing to maintain the training standards that were taught to them in their training days. The race war and issues of people of color being targeted at a disproportionate rate needs to be fixed as well.

A black man, someone who for whatever reason is stopped and encountered at a higher rate than white people, should not have to worry about being stopped even if they are not committing any crime. They should not be questioned or hassled just because they are black. Therefore, background checks can keep out racially biased people. Also, stereotypes are a touchy subject, but law enforcement uses too often to categorize and look at possible criminals to crimes. There is a mentality that most crimes happen in neighborhoods with people of color. This mentality needs to be stopped. (Swaine, McCarthy, 2017)

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