Research and Persuasive Essay correction ASAP

Outline

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………. 2

Definition……………………………………………………………………………………… 2-3

History……………………………………………………………………………………….... 3-4

Thesis Statement……………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Overview of the problem from a global Perspective…………………………………………. 4-5

Types of Police Brutality……………………………………………………………………… 5-6

Causes…………………………………………………………………………………………. 6-7

Actions taken against Police Brutality………………………………………………………… 7-8

Measures to improve the prevailing practice of Police Brutality………..………………….. 9-10

Bibliography & Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 11-12

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….. 13

Police Brutality

Police is meant to safeguard the public. They are the protectors of the citizens of the country. Police is the body that is designated to maintain law and order in the country. They are chosen by the government to help secure the rights of justice and security to the public. They are given relevant authorities and are considered to possess rights to take actions against any disturbing elements that is causing any trouble to the people of the country. The government of any country is very particular about their law and order and the police helps is restoring and maintaining the faith of the public in the government by safeguarding the people of the country. Police has the authority to use power and force on the people to make them mend their ways if they are going out of the orders of the social laws. Police gets a lot of leverage above other citizens and authorities since they have the right to use force to establish peace in the place of their duty. However, several police officers use their power for their own benefits and they go beyond their limits while punishing the guilty. Police gets the power and lately, they are seen using their power to terrorize the innocent citizens. They are considered powerful and authoritative and they are given rights to ensure that the society is functioning well. This authority makes them proud and reckless and they forget their limits. They are taking undue advantage of their rights and are using force on the people to establish their own reasons. In this paper we will be studying about the police Brutality and how it is affecting the law and order of the United States of America.

Police Brutality generally refers o the practice of using undue power over citizens or the people who are accused for any crime by the police. This use of power and force is not normal. Police brutality is either physical or mental and verbal abuse also falls under this. Police is trained to torture the criminals and they different ways to traumatize aspect. They implement such ways on public to terrorize them and this goes beyond the legal limits of enforcing the law. There are several countries in the world that are suffering with this problem. It goes beyond the limits of tolerance and can be seen as torture. Police Brutality is becoming constantly regular in the United States of America as the police is given a lot of authority there and they are not leaving any chance to misuse it. The police officers are being reported to threaten the public and make them speak what they want to hear just to accomplish their motives. The phenomenon of police brutality is not new. It goes back to a long time ago. Since the very beginning of the police services, the policemen were given rights to set things in order in the society so that things can function smoothly. People used to respect the policemen and their words were considered as judgment itself. The police was also quite honest towards their duties and they too considered that establishing law and order among the people of the country was the only thing they had to do. They shouldered these responsibilities quite well and concentrated on performing their job only. This developed a very responsible image of the police for the people of the country and they genuinely followed what these policemen instructed. The policemen were respectable citizens and their guidance and acceptance was sought out to form an opinion. The locals of any state or town tried to form an alliance with the local police so that they can get better advice on the legal issues and they may get extra attention in terms of safety. The policemen also were very honest and they tried and did everything to remain fair with the public and considered everyone as equal. They were given respect in the society and were popular on the world level because of their honest practices and dedicated hold on their work. The law and order of the United States of America was also quite well functioning back then. The policemen were assigned certain duties and certain authorities above the citizens so that they could control the miscreants and any malicious activities if there were any. They had the right to use enforce the law on people and make them abide by it by using force. However, the rights of the policemen were well defined and they had to protect the rights of the citizens as well. This kept them tight about their own conduct and they took responsibility for their actions. The police of America was one of the most justified and respected police departments in the world. Americans were in safe hands and they were comfortable and secure in their country.

The thesis of the paper states the current prevalence of the issue. Things started changing with time. The police kept getting massive power and their authorities were being increased by the department with time. They were given weapons and they possessed the right to use them in case it is required. This made them even more powerful and they got access to lethal weapons. Some of the police officers started using their powers to establish their terror in the society. They started using power on people to make them realize that they were given the utmost authority and that no one had the ability to cross them. Power disturbs people’s thought process. Slowly, the influence started passing to the lower levels of police department and every single policeman started considering himself the king of his zone. They started using their power on the people to get personal favors from them. This caused bigger problems of police brutality. The paper will discuss these problems and their possible solutions.

Like demonic force, the phenomenon of Police Brutality started spreading across all the departments of police in the world and they too started the malpractice. Police brutality made the people scared of the police and they started hesitating in reporting crimes to them. They were so terrorized that some of the people chose to ignore even those crimes which happened in front of their eyes as they were sure that if they report this crime to the police, not only the criminal will come after them, but the police will also exploit them to the maximum and use them as a bait to catch the criminal. Public is no longer safe in the hands of their police. They have lost the faith in their police departments. Police brutality makes the police seem like a demon (Johnson Marilyn S, 365). In the past few decades, police brutality has spread like an infection and almost every country is infected with this. The effects are more serious in the United States of America as the police here are much more powerful than any other part of the world. Their range of authority is vast and they can use multiple means to avail what they want out of their public.

There are different types of police brutality. They may be considered as police misconduct, false arrest, intimidating public, fake encounters, sexual abuse, political repression, racial profiling, and surveillance abuse and police corruption. Police misconduct is the most common form of brutality. Police generally considers every person who is convicted as guilty (Powers, Mary D. 56-60). They mistreat these people and use force on them. They generally beat them and abuse them verbally. Personal comments and other traumatic exploitation is a regular misconduct done by the police. Most of the people who are arrested have complaints that they were not treated well by the police and wrong treatment led to physical or mental trauma to them. Another form of police brutality is false arrest. In order to prove their credibility to the higher officials, police arrests innocent people and shows that they have arrested the criminal. This gets them appreciation and credits of being a dedicated police officer. However, the violation of rights is completely overlooked in such scenarios. False arrest is also wrong in the context that the life of the victim gets affected and his family has to suffer for the crime they have not even committed. Other than this intimidating public is another offence that is being done at large by the police. They terrorize the people and ask for favors like supply of alcohol etc. These favors are taken in exchange of the assurance of keeping people safe from the other legal troubles they may come across. The dealers of drugs and other illegal substances try to make the police their ally and they supply dosage of illegal substances to policemen so that they can do their business properly in the area without any hindrance. Fake encounter is a mode of police brutality that is being seen at large. In order to prove the law and order is fine in the area, police men sometimes shoot an innocent person and then prove him to be a wanted criminal so that they can get accolades from the departments for their bravery. Fake encounters have increased in the US after the 9/11 attacks.

Another heinous crime that takes place as the police brutality is sexual abuse of the victims or public. Since police has the authority to interrogate the suspects anytime, they take undue advantage of this and exploit the victims or convicts sexually (Stetser, Merle, 448). There has been significant increase in the cases of rape under police custody in the US. This shows the black faces of the policemen and their malicious intentions. Due to political repression police sometimes changes sides and they accuse the innocent of being guilty. This type of political repression changes the course of police actions and the justice is denied. Racism is another evil that is prevailing since very long in the list of police brutality. Police often profiles people based upon their color and other racial details. This is complete injustice. In fact colored people are denied fair treatment in trials also due to the misconduct of police. This is a big problem of judiciary of America. White policemen are known to be brutal to black people as they profile the convicts based upon their color. The police owes some favors to their inside or upper connections. They always have some secret contacts to back upon. They owe those favors in lieu of the favors the take from them. This sometimes results in serious circumstances like altering the evidences. Police is known to have access to all the evidences including surveillance reports and they alter it to save the guilty party in turn of some favors (Locke, Hubert G. 625). This is quite common a practice in the police department and the evidence is not secured anywhere. The overall concept of police brutality corrupts the whole police system. Every citizen of the country has to pay for what their police do. The alliance of the police with the political parties and criminals makes them criminals as well and they too fall prey to the system where nothing is fair.

Some notable incidents should be mentioned here in this course. On 5th of November 2011, a police officer in Arizona shot a 28 year old Danny Rodriguez fatally just because of a small disturbance at home. The police officer was charged for second-degree murder. In another incident, Juan Herrera was shot to death by a police officer in a car chase in California. Police claimed that Herrera was reaching for the gun. Policeman was not charged but Herrera’s family got $5 million as compensation. In Louisiana, on 5th of September, 2005, Henry Glover was shot by the police and his body was dumped in his car and set on fire as a cover up by the police officer. The police officer received a 25 year sentence for manslaughter but he requested a new trial which is yet t begin. In August 1997, an NYPD officer sodomized Abner Louima with a broken broomstick handle and he was left to bleed from his rectum for days. The officer was then arrested and he got imprisonment for 30 years for violation of the citizens’ rights. These incidents are very few. But they are enough to present a brutal image of the police of the country. Police is a body that should help the people.

In the above mentioned picture, the police is showing brutality in a way which is unacceptable. The brutality is another thing but they also try to cover up their crimes by doing more heinous things to the body of the victims. These incidents are enough to terrorize any individual and they would never prefer to go to the police for protection.

However, we should not ignore that police also has many reasons to be brutal. They are allowed to use force by the government. The public expects them to use force to establish law and order in the society. They are more likely to develop a sense of power over the normal people and they start thinking that it is their right to use power on the people. There can be multiple reasons for the police officers to act like this. Some of the policemen have psychological traits. Their personalities are aggressive and they believe in setting things right with the use of force only. Some young officers use force to establish the impression of their machismo over the public and other people from the departments. Other policemen take out their job-related frustration on the victims by forcing them and using violent ways to traumatize them. These are the personal reasons that affect the police behavior. All these are personal traits and they can be controlled with psychological help. But being in a job like this, they will be considered unfit for the police profile and this may result in loss of their job and authorities. That is why policemen generally avoid any type of medical tests, be it physical and psychological. The risk of getting caught with a disorder is always hovering on them and they do not want to risk their job at any cost. Apart from that, imposing personal impression on people also is among some of the big reasons that affect police behavior. Police wants the public to remain scared of them and that is also a reason why they do such things. According to most of the psychologists young police officers are more likely to use force on the public as they believe in using power to solve the crime and petty issues because according to them force is the only way to keep things right. In fact, with time, police officers develop an attitude that they have to see everyone as a suspect and they have the right o use power on people to get the truth out of them. They develop this thinking that the suspects will speak the truth only when they are treated with power. Other than that, there is a ‘we-they’ attitude that plays an important role in the assessment of police behavior. They have a mentality of pride and consider themselves above others. They see everyone with a suspicious eye. The strict rules for police officers also make it difficult for the policemen to do things peacefully. They have strict instruction from their department to catch the suspect at any cost and take out information about them that is why they have to eventually use power over others to prove the truth and bring out the facts from their mouths. Public also thinks that policemen are supposed to use power on criminals thus police uses power on the suspects to keep the people’s faith maintained on them. However, most of the time police use excessive power on the people and they end up behaving too harsh on people. This then terrorizes the public and they get scared. He incidents of police brutality have significantly increased in the United States of America after the 9/11 attacks because after these attacks, the police system was hugely criticized for their careless attitude and they had to bear the brunt of public and their higher officials. This hatred has made them even more suspicious and violent than ever and now they have an attitude of setting things right even before they go wrong. A slight intuition of crime alerts them and they do everything possible to eliminate the threat. In order to do this, they lose their patience and prolonged visions and they go too far while implementing force on the convicts and suspects. Police constantly tries to prove this to public that if they do not behave properly and follow the societal rules, they will have to pay for it.

There is no particular method to measure the amount of police brutality. It is generally decided upon the experience of people who have either witnessed it or have gone through it. Other than that the opinion of the jury who is present in the trial of cases involving police brutality is also considered crucial in the measurement of the scene. This is the way that is used because there is no other way to quantify the amount of force that is being used by the police on the people in any situation. One more factor that is crucial in measuring police brutality is how much the suspected is resistant of the force. The more resistant he is the more chances of getting hurt. However, there are different actors that can help in the measurement of brutality based upon the gender, race and age of the suspect. Females, African-Americans and younger people were found to be more prone to go through police brutality than males, Caucasians and old age people (Chapman, C. 20).

There are different organizations that look after the cases of police brutality. In Scotland, there is a body that takes such cases to consideration and provides justice to the people suffering from it. This body is named as Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland. They take these cases and then scrutinize every aspect of such cases and get them to the court. The justice is usually served and the victims get their share of compensations. Such bodies play an important role in controlling police brutality because they are not partial and they treat police officials equally like normal citizens of the country (Skolnick, Jerome H, 44). These bodies keep all individuals at equal platform and help restoration of justice in the country. These bodies maintain the law and order among the police officials because they are not biased towards people from their department. There is a respect for justice in people and these bodies make them respect the judiciary system even more. The police are a body that should be taught how to respect the rights of public and these bodies keep them on track. There are other rules and regulations in the police system that should be followed but the policemen choose to ignore it and they do not respect the rights of the people. The saviors become predators and this scares the public. They lose their faith on the justice system of the country and this affects the whole nation in some or the other way. The police department is also facing a lot of problems because of this attitude because they are no longer being respected like they used to be since people from their own department have created a wrong image of police in the people’s eyes (Barrett, J, 99). It is now quite difficult for the public to gain the faith back and they do not trust the police anymore. The police have lost its impression and it is no longer that respectable a job. Young generation is hesitant now-a-days to go into police services as they are afraid that they too will have to do all this to the public and the public will have the same opinion about them as they have about the police officials. The job has its own risks and it comes with a lot of hard work. But ultimately this brutality takes away all the impression they have created and they also fall prey t the circumstances.

There is so much that can be done to solve this problem. The police should be given a set of rules to instruct them about how to protect the rights of public. Every policeman must be aware of the civil rights and they should be taught that they have to protect the public and this is their first and foremost job (Martinelli TJ, 63). There should be no loopholes in doing so. Apart from this, the police should be given some chance to relieve them from the stress. There should be some events that can help the policemen mingle with the public and they will develop a sense of camaraderie with them. This friendship will help the public and police to unite and they will be able to skew the criminals from the public. The police should be trained in such a way that they learn to respect the security of public and they must respect it. Behaving properly with the public will make the policemen respectable. The policemen will be respected by the public and this will enhance their sense of duty to protect the people.

Thus, we can see that the problem of police brutality is so much big in the United States of America. The police have lost its respect and position among the public and crime is spreading at large. Innocent people are getting caught and being blamed for what they have not even done. Imposing force on people is not the way to set things right. The police should use their analytical powers to ensure that the person they are charging is really guilty. Law suggests that even after being arrested, the convict has some rights and they should not be treated brutally. Police should learn to control the usage of force on people and there should be regulatory bodies to control such activities. Then only police brutality will be controlled and the public will be able to trust their police department once again.

Annotated Bibliography

Barrett, J. “Police: Brutal or Vital”, New York Press. p 99. 2013. Print.

The article presents a critical analysis of police behavior. The article talks about how police is an integral part of the society but how they are losing their position in the society because of their harsh behavior for the citizens. Some real life incidents are also depicted in the article to show the evidence of brutal behavior by police officials at different places in the country. The article presents a worrying image of the current security system of the society and it takes our attention towards those points that have been lying ignored all along. The article is quite informative and presents very precise information to the readers.

Works Cited

Barrett, J. “Police: Brutal or Vital”, New York Press. p 99. 2013. Print.

Chapman, C, “Use of Force in Minority Communities is related to Police Education, age, experience and ethnicity”. Police Practice and Research. p 20. 2012. Print.

Johnson Marilyn S. “Street Justice: A history of Police violence in New York City”. Beacon Press. p 365. 2004. Print

Locke, Hubert G. “Police Brutality and Civilian Review Boards: A second look”, p 625. 1967. Print

Martinelli TJ, “Minimizing Risk by defining off-duty Police Misconduct”. p 63. 2007. Print

Powers, Mary D, “Civilian Oversight is Necessary to Prevent Police Brutality”. Policing the Police, Greenhaven Press. .p 56-60. 1995, Print.

Skolnick, Jerome H, “Corruption and the Blue Code of Silence”. Police Practice and Research. p 44. 2002, Print.

Stetser, Merle, “The use of force in police control of violence”, New York LFB Scholarly Publishing. p 448. 2001. Print.