Why Do Police Officers Abuse Their Power

Today in America there has been a growing problem amongst people and the police force. There has been many cases over the past couple of years were the police has used brute force on citizens. The main group of people suffering from police brutality is young African Americans. The young blacks feel that they are being targeted by the police. These cases continue to happen with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The police have been using brute force on black Americans for years now. There was a major that spark awareness on police brutality a couple of years ago. This case was the Trayvon Martin case that stated the whole black lives matter movement. This case was one of the key features to start the black lives matter movement.

When looking back at all of the success of the civil rights movement, it seems that our country has come a long way on many important social issues. Whether it’s ending racial segregation in public facilities or putting an end to disenfranchisement of African Americans, our country has made many strides. That being said, our country still has a long way to go in order to reach true equality for all. Specifically, when it comes to the subject of police brutality. Throughout history, African Americans have been plagued by unfair treatment from members of law enforcement and with each passing year it seems to become an even bigger issue. In fact, it has led to the protest of many powerful members of society, including Tina Charles of the WNBA.

Police brutality isn’t something new in the United States. It’s just been something that has been covered, payed off and forgotten about for years, until the next event occurs. Police brutality is when the officers who are supposed to be protecting us from danger and harm are the ones causing it in our communities today. Every other day you hear on the news about another ‘black’ man has been killed by police because he was ‘resisting arrest.’ Eric Garner, was killed in Staten Island on July 17, 2014 by police because they suspected that Erica was selling cigarettes. Eric was put into a chokehold for half a second because he was supposedly resisting arrest and was then thrown to the ground and stomped in the face while being handcuffed while continuously saying “I can’t breathe.” There were plenty of videos floating around the internet from people who recorded the arrest. Everything was caught on camera, yet, the arresting officers weren’t charged or put in jail or even lost their jobs. No, they

The history of Police Brutality for minorities; especially people of color has left America wondering have times changed. Police brutality has deemed the opportunity for socioeconomic advancement or access to good and services for many Black/African Americans dating back as far as 1955. The system of Police brutality has affected many realms of society for minorities’ employment and family life. After some scholarly research, police brutality is still prevalent in the Black/African American community; moreover, it comes in many different forms and fashions. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use

African Americans are the number one group to be gunshot by law enforcement officers. Police brutality has been an issue for many years, and it is still a major concern for the minority community. Police officers use deadly, excessive force that leads to inexcusable assaults, beating, shootings and overall many deaths. Although, police brutality comes any many forms but some of the common ones are racial profiling, and use of deadly force. In order to see why so many people are outraged by the recent police brutality events we should change how police are trained, how they communicate with the community members, and overall how we can change the outcomes of police brutality.

There is a major issue with police brutality within the confinements of the United States of America, within society in general. The problem of police brutality is not just a problem with African American, it is spread throughout all the races. “Mr. Castellani who is 20 years old, yelling and pointing at officers, who are posted down the street, after his ejection from an Atlantic City casino for being underage. Four officers rush him, take him down and begin beating him -- a fifth officer soon joins in.”(The Baltimore,Leonard Pitts Jr.). It just so happened that this man was black and had been brutally attacked by police because he said something they didn't like it. It isn't always African Americans that are attacked thought, in 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the hospital by police men claiming Duran was intoxicated and hallucinating. He was brutally attacked because of what he believed in, it didn't have anything to do with his skin color, as he was attacked by white police man and Duran turned out to be a Caucasian man with a family and a job. All of that was taken away from him the moment the cops dragged him into the hospital claiming he wasn't right in the head and the cops found him like that. In 2014 Donovan Duran, a Colorado MMA fighter, was beat and dragged to the

Police brutality has increased and intensified especially these past years. Citizens have become angrier after the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and the untold number of other unarmed or innocent people who were killed by excessive force by police. This is just a heinous and monstrous act that needs to change in law enforcement. Police officers need to change their ways or the war between law enforcement and the community will just intensify, The problem with law enforcement now a days is that they use deathly force as a first priority. They should instead use a non-violent ways to de-escalate situations.

Police brutality has been a major issue since slavery. In slavery people, mainly whites, were able to do anything to black people without having to deal without dealing with the consequences. Families were destroyed, people died, babies were killed, and many unknown factors still to this day that will never be known. When slavery was abolished, it did not end right away. It took several years and still is not abolished if you look at in a political way. People of power, mainly white, were not happy that a black person could be seen as equals. This is the main reason why they feel it is okay to lash out at black people. There are several major issues that are causing and epidemic in The United States. However, the main issue that seems to be the most discussed is about police brutality in the black community. “Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. “Excessive use of force” means a force well beyond what would be necessary in order to handle a situation. Police brutality can be present in a number of ways. The most obvious form of police brutality is a physical form. Police officers can use nerve gas, batons, pepper spray, and guns in order to physically intimidate or even intentionally hurt civilians. Police brutality can also take the form of false arrests, verbal abuse, psychological intimidation, sexual abuse, police corruption, racial profiling, political repression and the improper use of Tasers”

African Americans get the most brutality in communities. “Over the last 500 years people of different race, especially African Americans, have encountered a pattern of state sanctioned violence and civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered and executed private persons, and brutally repressed struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination. (Sundiata,1)”. The African Americans began to fight back against the beating of their race with riots. These riots and brutality started during the middle 1900’s. The government also takes the responsibility for the actions and non-actions of the police officers during race riots and rebellions. But why do blacks feel like they get beaten and harassed by law enforcement? Over the years, police have come to a conclusion that just because someone of a different race is in a luxurious car, they must be dealing drugs or looking for trouble in the community. Law enforcement isn’t trying to harass the community by pulling

As of September 1, 2015, in the United States police officers have killed 776 people and 161 of those people were unarmed at the time of their death (MintPress). There have been too many incidents where police officers have injured or killed someone that could have been prevented. Using maximum force with a suspect has become a routine in many confrontations. Officers have not been given the proper training to deal with individuals and how to handle them without using a weapon. If they were given more training on how to deal with situations resulting in using a weapon to stop an individual during certain scenarios police brutality situations would decrease, lives would be saved, and police would get their good reputation back. However, police departments would have to spend more money on re-training. Some people agree with police brutality and think that a civilian deserved their punishment, which is not right because no one deserves to be beaten or killed. Situations involving police brutality have been increasing throughout the years, which is a problem that must to be solved.

Police brutality is a major issue in today’s society. Many African Americans tend to avoid the police for that very reason. A campaign was started in 2012 against police brutality and the unfair treating of African Americans entitled, Black Lives Matter. This movement was met with controversy as well as support from the American people. This movement has followed several controversial police brutality cases in the United States including, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland. All African American and all killed in the presence of a police officer, with no convictions. These three cases have been some of the biggest cases in the Black Lives Matter campaign. This campaign is determined to make sure that Black lives are treated just as equally as white live and Hispanic lives, because black lives matter

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

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.

Typically when you are in a situation where your safety is at risk you would call the police for help,Considering their job is to protect you at all times. But, who Do you call when it 's a police officer abusing his authority? Who do you call when the peacemakers are disturbing your peace and just adding to the crime rates in America? Police brutality is a crime very much present in today 's society just as it was present during the civil rights movements of the 1960’s and years after that . It is a very big issue in our highly populated cities in america. Police brutality is an extremely serious offence. And despite all that has been done such as laws being enforced and police officers getting indicted(very few ) the numbers are still increasing. Many of us wonder what are the roots behind this unjust act. Could it be something that is sociological , maybe psychological or even just something as simple as following what they think is their job. One group in particular that is greatly affected by the actions of these corrupted officials are minorities,African Americans in particular. Throughout the years the amount of African americans who have been subjected to police brutality has tremendously increased.