Michael Villar
Mrs. Ricobaldi
English 12CP
02 May 2016
Police Power Abuse Abuse of power and discrimination are bound to happen when people are given the position of authority over others. This happens in businesses, households, and in the police force. The corruption and abuse of policing is a serious problem facing many people living in the world today. But in countries that are less developed there is an abundance of power abuse and corruption especially over the poor and marginalized who fall within the lowest quintile of income (Agbiboa). The corruption is easier to see in the underdeveloped country, but the fact that it happens in other places means that it is just as possible to happen here in the United States.
To be able to
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So when it comes to situations involving the police this is because the police know more about the rights of the people then the people themselves. Body language is a tell tail sign that the police demand control and power over situations “Officers learn to project a command presence”. They practice and observe eye contact, stance, and non-verbal body language and are schooled, "If you look good, you feel good. If you look confident, people will perceive you to be confident." Men and women change once they do not have the uniform and equipment of an officer” (“The Misuse”). The confidence changes with the uniform which shows that the police have a false sense of superiority because of the badge that they wear. This could be seen as intimidating to people that have a fear of police that is pushed onto the people through the media so without having that same sense of demanding control will be more likely to conform to what the officer says even if it were to infringe on their rights because most people are unaware of their own rights that they are given. Also considering that the police are suppose to enforce the laws they should be trusted to follow them themselves because if a cop is seen breaking a law then that means that they do not fully understand the rules that they are meant to enforce. For example the police are …show more content…
You may never stop the abuse of power as it is human nature to want power and to take advantage of it. That is why it is important to have checks and balances to monitor the heads of police departments, and other officials in charge. In this day and age of cell phones and dash cam cameras everyone is or should be more aware that abuse, when it does happen, is not just “he said she said” when there may be video proof. People in charge can use and abuse power, and “victims” may not really be providing the full story. Police officers know that they have to be more aware and cautious when dealing with a person who is not cooperating with an arrest or questioning. They are aware that cameras are everywhere this hopefully this will change the way people in charge use their power over people. All people should be treated with respect and should be assumed innocent until proved guilty. Police put their lives at risk every day, most of which are honest, dedicated and hardworking people. It only takes a couple of prejudiced, power hungry people to corrupt any system. This is why check and balances are so important. Police and the people they protect must all be held accountable for their actions. In this age of readily available technology is it wise to provide all responding police with body
Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of police officers actually serve their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic some
2. When the police kill unarmed citizens, the officer is often not charged but cities across the nation pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle these cases with the families of the victims. Why do cities consistently pay this money? What does the Bill of Rights have to say about police brutality? https://www.thenation.com/article/chicago-has-spent-half-a-billion-dollars-on-police-brutality-cases-and-its-impoverishing-the-victims-communities/
There has been many situations in which police officers have abused their power. In these cases police officers have brutally beaten or killed innocent civilians. Everyone has heard about a story about how police officers have abused their power by utilising their personal beliefs rather than the reason their profession requires. Some officers cannot disunify their professional life from their personal life. Their identity is distinguished by their uniform. Any struggles in their exclusive life are seen as a threat to their dominance, jurisdiction, or power over the other person and the situation. It is either ethical or unethical. There is no accommodation for the victim to voice their opinion or position. Situations like these are known as Ferguson trails, Floyd Dent, Najee Rivera, and etc. These people have either lost their life or been physically abused. Police officers should wear body cameras because with body cameras it protects others, protects officers, and proves the reality of the actual situation.
With today’s advanced technology, police body cameras have proven to be very useful. They are crucial in putting an end to unnecessary police misconduct. In 2012, the Rialto Police Department in California implemented police body cameras and recorded the outcome. The results showed that “the number of complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent compared with the previous 12 months. Use of force by officers fell by almost 60 percent over the same period” (Lovett). Without a doubt, police body cameras do the trick to prevent potentially dangerous situations from occurring. As William A. Farrar, the Rialto police chief once stated, “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better. And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.” I strongly agree with this statement because if the interaction between the officer and the citizen is being recorded, neither of the two will want to behave badly. The citizen knows that their bad behavior could result in consequences and the officer knows that their misconduct could result in punishment or even the loss of their job. The cameras record every detail that can be looked back on if there was a complaint filed against the officer that was wearing it. Clearly, police body
Body cameras have been created and can now help solve this problem. For example, society has seen police brutality as a misuse of authority and is wanting a change. So by having police wear a body camera, it can help show who was in the wrong. By using body-worn cameras, now there are specific details and evidence of everything that happened during the incident “The objective of body cameras is to deliver an accurate record of officer engagements for complete situational awareness and tamper-proof digital evidence.” (“Should Police Officers Wear Body Cameras”). The goal is that there is hard evidence, even when there is not always a third party witness around. With these body cameras, there will no longer be any need to depend on what the police or citizens have to say about what happened during the incident because there is clarification in the evidence of what went on and what was
Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive force by law enforcement while dealing with citizens (What Is Police Brutality?). When referring to excessive force, it is defined as using more force than needed when handling a situation (What Is Police Brutality?). Police brutality has been a common issue in the United States since immigration (Walton-Crosby). Police officers target the poor, powerless, and the minorities, which makes it easy for them to have the upper hand (Walton-Crosby). Police officers also target the mentally-ill, because the officers do not know how to deal with the mentally-ill community. The less powerful people in society did not have the power to fight back against police officers,
In a democratic country law enforcement officers are expected to undertake their duties with dignity and respect thus following both the rule of law and its procedure. Law enforcement officials whose duty is to enforce the law should abide by the law and should be accountable for both their decisions and consequences of it. But the main issue is – quis custodiet ipsos custodes – who controls the controllers? This critical issue is of importance because the history of policing is littered with scandals in which police officers broke the law and also in which the police organisation failed to detect the deviance (or colluded in it; or tried to deflect investigations by defensive opposition). I will be examining in this article police corruption and its prevention and I shall focus on three main aspects: definitions of corruption; the forms it takes in different societies; ways of preventing
After performing this research about police use of force I hope to shed some light on this issue. The use of force has been come a big problem in our country today there are many things that we can do to help the people understand the use of force. I hope that this research has help many of you understand what police can and cannot do. Also shed some light on the differences of justified use of force and police brutality. As a officer, I hope that we can all come together and help stop the violent acts towards each other.
Because of this, we would see people with different backgrounds getting shot and arrested for no reason. Whenever we go on social media, we would see that people are living in a state of fear whenever a police is nearby because they don’t know whether something bad will happen to them. In the article, “Something’s wrong when the law-abiding are afraid of police,” it talks about how a black woman was fearing for her life because a police officer pulled her over. The police officer didn’t arrest or shoot her, but instead asked her if she was feeling fine since she was driving under the speed limit. People started commenting that this black woman wouldn’t need to fear the police officer if she obeyed him. Perhaps that’s true for someone else, but African Americans are living a different truth. The problem with this is that no one should fear a police officer because they are suppose to serve and protect the community. When someone is fearing a police officer then we know that something isn’t right. We see that many different ethnic people are getting killed by police officers because they don’t seem to trust them but white people. That is why as a community, we should train police officers to become more comfortable with residents of a different racial background. Police officers are required to make our society safe but it turns out that they are the one that are causing us to live in a state of perturbation. For that reason, we know that our police officers are
First things first, the damaged community relations between authority and the public must be fixed. If the two cannot trust one another, the odds of eliminating police brutality are almost impossible. The little things we do as humans for other humans will always go a long way. Officers taking time out of their day to play basketball with teenagers, cops mowing lawns for people who are physically incapable of doing it themselves, or the police discovering a homeless family in a car and then proceeding to buy the family a room at a motel are acts of compassion that will slowly but surely repair the distrust that exists between police officers and minorities. If the COPS budget were to actually receive funding rather than lose significant amounts of money, new officers would undergo the proper training that is required for a job that is so physically and mentally demanding. Once the new cops have 5-10 years and a record of good behavior under their belt, then consider trimming the COPS budget once again and have the veteran officers train developing officers. The process will take quite some time, but will save large amounts of money in the long-term as a result. Many cops believe that wearing body cameras is an invasion of personal space and privacy. While this is partially true, if authority has nothing to hide, body
In the United States of America, law enforcement has the ability to make their own judgement, while encountering criminals. Although discretion is at all levels of the police department, law enforcement agencies can easily make unlawful decision. Researchers determined that police officers are prohibited from using offensive language or speaking discourteously, abusing their authority, and using unnecessary force (Carroll, Kovath, & Pereira, 2004). Law enforcement officers are expected to respect their community and ensure that all citizens are kept safe. Some police activity can occur in a private view without supervision from the public, which allow police officers to make a reasonable decision. Police often make quick reaction when it comes
This paper will describe police power and police authority. I will also talk about police discretion as for as whom gets locked up and who is allowed to go free. This paper will discuss the different use of police force. In this paper I will also talk about police attitude, police misconduct, and physical abuse among police officers.
Police misconduct is illegal or unethical actions that violates an individual constitutional rights. This includes police brutality, sexual harassment, dishonesty, fraud, coercion, torture, abuse of authority. Sometimes police misconduct can be even systematic. Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was arrested on federal obstruction of justice and perjury charges for allegedly lying about whether he and other officers under his command participated in torture and physical abuse of suspects in police custody dating back to the 1980s. There were several occasions when Burge tortured and physically abused people in custody in to order make them confess. One top of that he was also aware that all the detectives he supervised also participated
Police officers are given a lot of power because it is needed to help protect citizens and the community. However, police often abuse their power by the over use of force, corruption, sexual misconduct, bias based policing, and failure to maintain police ethics. (Peak, 2011)
When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to feel as though they need to take down their target since they are taught to make sure they don’t do something that will end up killing them. While nobody is at fault with these cases it is unfortunate that it does happen. Thankfully most of those cops are not as bad as the actual corrupted ones where they do business with drug lords and take their money just so that the criminals don’t get ratted out and so that they can continue their business. While there are some organizations that are corrupted the people in America do have power and a decent morality to do something about it. There are many organizations and cases that happened in the supreme court that has changed how the police behave and act when they are out on the