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Police Brutality Research Paper

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Eban Stern
June 2, 2015
AP Lang
Ms. Davis
Police Brutality and the Mentality of Police Officers “To protect and to serve.” This has been the motto and duty of law enforcement agencies since their creation. The earliest police forces were established in England during the early 1800’s. These law enforcement agencies were established in order to help the people. However, not long after the first one was established, the first known case of police brutality was documented. Excessive use of force by a police officer dates back to the late 1800’s. Since then, thousands of innocent people have been improperly and cruelly treated by law enforcement officers. The United States has one of the highest rates of police brutality in the world. Though …show more content…

These countries include Britain, Norway, Iceland, and New Zealand. Every one of these countries has a lower crime rate than that of the United States (Noack, “5 countries where police do not carry firearms- and it works well”). Norway, the lowest has a crime rate of 29.93, compared to 55.84 of the US. Police in these countries, especially England and Iceland, do their best to serve the people and remain consistent with the belief that their job is to help the citizens of the country. One police officer from Iceland in an interview with the Washington Post said, “She considered every citizen precious because 'we are so few and there is so much to do.’” Police in these countries are polar opposites to what law enforcement officers in the US believe. The image at right confims my worst fears. An anonymous survey conducted on police officers in the United States reported that 43% believe that “Always following the rules is not campatible with getting the job done.” This does not sound like these “public safety” officers are here to “protect and serve” the American people. Instead, they view citizens of America as threats that must be dealt with accordingly because, according to them, the written law does not suffice in punishing a criminal. They believe that justice is done when the law is taken into their own hands. This makes them nothing more than criminals with badges and given guns by the US government. High crime rates in America are due to our lenient gun control laws. High police brutality rates are due to the fact that when police are given guns, they believe the weapon puts them on a pedestal. And this pedestal gives them more rights than the citizens, who are subject to excessive uses of force because the law is not “sufficient” to punishing

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