Police Brutality Effects

Numerous times, protests start off as untroubling. In fact, they are beneficial to a certain extent, for they “provide a vent to society and also allow governments to understand better the issues their citizens are facing” (UN News Centre 2012). However, often these protests cross this blurry line and are rendered violent, causing danger to the American people. A recent example of a protest transforming into a riot was the Anti- Trump protest in Portland. These protests started off as being peaceful and allowed the protesters to express their opinions on the issue. However, the protesters eventually became so invested in the matter that it quickly mutated into a riot with people smashing windows, kicking cars, and vandalizing buildings (USA TODAY 2016) .This rapid change from peace to violence is a result of the blurry line between what is considered peaceful and what is considered violent. Due to the few restrictions on both the right to petition and assemble, what is perceived as violent is open to interpretation. More specifically, the protesters may not have deemed that kicking cars and smashing windows was violent; thus, they proceeded with these clearly dangerous activities anyways. Since the unlimited nature of both of these rights leaves a massive gray area in regards to what is

Police brutality makes people wonder “are our officers of the law really doing their job or am I next?” This causes people to lose faith and trust among the police force. According to HuffPost, journalist

This just in Donald J Trump is our president there is no amount of protesting that is going to change that peaceful or other wise. We the people of the United States of America voted him in. If you did not vote for him and do not believe him to be your President

Due to the actions that are not being taken to put a stop to this brutality, citizens begin riots, releasing their anger toward the government. Justice isn’t being served and that surely baffles me and any other person who is against this criminal act done by those who are supposed to stop it. The effects that police brutality leave on their victims is paranoia and the feeling of not being safe due to those are supposed to protect from the danger are the ones causing danger.

When violence occurs, the first Amendment is broken and they could possibly go to jail. You can make a parade, go on strike, or host a rally as long as all things are peaceful. In these events you can say whatever you may want and not be punished. In 2014, an unarmed black teenager was shot by a police officer which started protests in Ferguson Missouri. These protests turned into riots where hundreds of people were arrested, business buildings were burnt down, hundreds of shots were fired, and lots of injuries/hospitalizations.

-By definition the term police brutality is “applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure.” In today’s society we have police known as riot police, who are known throughout the world to use extreme force. Statistics show almost every time the riot police are involved in crowd control, there is at least one fatality and multiple injured. This is why I believe this is one of the most important issues in the World today. Police are there to protect us but from April 2009 to June 2010 in the United States there were 5986 reports of misconduct from police officers. Police brutality has today’s citizens doubting the police department, and how they go about their arrest. Police brutality is an everyday occurrence, especially in cities where there are large communities of Blacks, Latinos and Asians.

Police brutality is one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States and it occurs in every community. The job of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crime. They are engaged in a dangerous and stressful occupation that can involve violent situations that must be controlled. In many of these confrontations with the public it may become necessary for the police to administer force to take control of a situation. Sometimes this force takes the form of hand to hand combat with a suspect who resists being arrested. Not all police officers in communities are good cops. At least once a year the news is covering a story about a person

Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians ("What Is Police Brutality?"). Recently, there have been a surplus of incidents involving police brutality. Cases like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice are examples of police brutality. All three of these victims ended up dead at the hands of police. Statistics show that, just this year alone, 1,013 Americans have been killed by cops (Cop Crisis). Social media has made it remarkably easy for cases like these to gain and raise awareness. Many hashtags and movements have begun because of the new-found awareness about police brutality. The public is finally recognizing it as a problem and movements are trying to remedy the system. Unfortunately, police brutality is not easy to fix. Some suggest we need to institute several laws, others think we need to get to the root of the problem and revamp the way police officers are trained.

Police brutality has been a growing issue in the United States of the past century. The unique thing about police brutality is it does not discriminate. With that said some races have it worse than others. Such as the African American race they are continently in the news for African Americans being shot and killed by the police. Many look at police brutality as a physical abuse, but it is much more than that. Some people have suffered from mental issues to, such as thinking back to a incident with the police or having anxiety everytime they see a police officer. With that in mind if the police are viewed as a threat in the eyes of some of the public it can only get worse.

Protests riots in the United States has proven to an issue for both the country’s financial strength and the unity of the nation. With the presence of social injustices, combined with the increased impact of social media propaganda, protests riots are beginning to reach an all time high. Protest riots destroy individual communities and businesses, jeopardizes the safety of others and taints the protest’s cause by resorting to civil disobedience. Action must be done in order to prevent these random acts of violence from continuing after every social hot topic. The goal is not to prevent citizens from protesting; in fact, this should be encouraged. The goal is to change the way the protests are handled from both the citizens and authority perspectives, in order to prevent these protests from escalating into something dangerous.

Police brutality is defined as “excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians,” and this has become more prominent within the United States throughout the years (Danilina). There has many cases where police brutality has been seen via news channels, and it has dismantled the unity of trust between the civilians of the United States and the law enforcement who are supposed to protect the everyday people from harm. The issue is if the law enforcement is actually right within their means of protection, or have they gone too far with using excessive force in any situation that may or may not be harmful to them. There is, also, the question of whether racial profiling is the biggest contributor to police brutality.

Although I should know by now, I cannot help but think that there has been an overwhelming amount of police brutality in recent years. Police brutality can be defined as, when a police officer uses more force than necessary. This issue has spread throughout the United States of America, and is putting the lives of our citizens in great danger. Police brutality is not only physical, but it can also be verbal attacks; and, in most cases, it is caused by false arrest and racial profiling due to police corruption. Police brutality has been and continues to be a major concern in society and it is used very loosely to any and all forms of police misconduct. Whereas, in reality, excessive force of police misconduct is what defines police brutality. The jobs of a police officer are too calmly resolve public disturbance and disputes. Police officers are supposed to protect citizens; instead they are hurting and using excessive force. It is not right and it is unjust for a police officer to hurt a citizen due to an assumption without any actual proof of criminal activity.

I have never seen a reason or understood why people have to use violence as a way to get a point across and make people notice them more. They should be mature enough to be calm and have peaceful marches instead of using violence. I feel that it is not fair for all United States citizens to be put at risk by people who don’t agree with white power and who go out of their way to violently protest. It upsets me that people go straight to violence instead of coming up with a better way to publicly protest what they think is better for them. It is not right that they are treating our police officers in a disrespecting way by hurting them. It is not fair for our police officers to get treated with disrespect when trying to protect citizens of the United States. I do not agree with how they decide to get a point across. Using violence is never necessary, but still they choose to use it. It is not okay for them to break other people’s property when protesting in public. I do not think that this should be tolerated any more and we need to find a way to stop this nonsense. In my opinion, I would still disagree with what they believe, but I wish they would stop using violence as an answer and have peaceful educated campaigns or marches so that people can get a good chance to hear what they want to stop. To me it is hard to understand them when they are making a big deal out of their protests.

In history there have been many peaceful protests. For example, the women’s suffrage movement and the famous stand taken by Rosa Parks in the bus against segregation. In a free society that allows these protests (such as the United States) they can be very profitable in bringing about positive change. The women who were imprisoned because of their stand on equality eventually brought voting rights for all women. Rosa Parks inspired a movement which gave African-Americans the right to sit on a bus like every other person. Out of this movement came our modern society where all races are allowed to coexist as one.

Police brutality has adverse effects on society in its entirety and, hence, there is need to stop these acts so as to improve cohesiveness and the observation of the law in society.