The consensus of most people is that people who are facing police brutality are the ones who are “committing the crime” that deserve the punishment. Where does the law stand with what is police brutality and what is not? How does everyone figure out what punishments deserve this?
Well, in America, there are several different categories that fall under the word of “police brutality”, some are: false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, sexual abuse, etc. Since the definition of police brutality is so broad, it is hard to determine what is and isn’t under that terminology. The most notoriously known category for police brutality are racial profiling. Most of the victims that falls under this category are African-Americans. The most famous event of this was the Rodney King incident where an African-American man fell victim to police brutality that resulted in him getting pulled over during a high-speed chase and beaten. This incident sparked a riot in Los Angeles (1992 Los Angeles riots). Police brutalities are more likely to happen in urban areas because areas like these are filled with more people and activities which can be more likely for crimes to happen. However, this can depend on the city that you live in. Some cities can be well-developed but houses poor and ghetto suburban residents that are riddled with criminal activities. Ghetto areas are a hotspot to gang-related activities, violence, vandalism, and drug-dealing. The laws are of course, are against police brutality and any conduct that the police acts against. Cops, as well as any other members of society are instructed to obey the laws or else face punishment. However, some of those police officers do get away with their crimes unpunished. The police have to be aware of others’ rights and use the necessary level of use of force appropriate to what the situation requires. Some police officers happen to jump the gun or being too trigger-happy and end up over-escalating the situation themselves which results in what we know as, “police brutality”.
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Another question a lot of people consider is if the brutality was truly racially motivated, some cases of seemingly racially motivated situations were deemed to be undecided on who was in the right. The problem with that is that there is no solution to the issue of police brutality, police barely ever get convicted of their crimes, as most citizens would. Considering the statistics, it is more likely for a minority who is unarmed to be killed than an unarmed white-person. This is a major threat to minorities and it goes to show that it still has not resolved, considering the methodology of the police force is not working. The issue is not only that there is nothing being done to punish some of those police officers who have done wrong, but also that there is footage and they still do not get punished a lot of times. Some argue that police officers need to spend more time training and demand every department to require passing college before becoming a certified police officer. Eric Garner, a father of six, was arrested for “selling cigarettes without tax stamps”, but Eric argued that he was sick of being harassed and he was not selling cigarettes. The NYPD police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put Garner in an illegal chokehold, which goes against the policy of the NYPD. This is an example of excessive force; since Daniel denied it, but there was evidence stacking against him, the general consensus would be that he would be indicted for his crime, yet the jury did not, and he got away with the murder of Eric Garner. This is one of many examples of the use of excessive force, and white on black crime. The question of motivation will never be answered, but the general assumption would be that there could have been certain racism involved in the homicide.
The one interesting aspect of this conversation is that cops who target and racially profile African-Americans with the use of excessive force are most likely white, it is hard to find evidence stacking against any other race of police officer, but sadly, it is so frequent that a police officer will kill a U.S. citizen, that it seems to become such a common topic that is discussed in politics. The reasoning behind the amount of killings is that the police usually get off with less than they should, since a lot of the crimes they commit are completely unjustified, but it is so hard to pinpoint a way to make them pay for their actions.
All in all, the examples of police brutality are absolutely riveting and the statistics really go against African-Americans, since police usually kill more unarmed black males than they do white males. The facts are absolutely shocking and it is hard not to look at it from a hard standpoint to try to figure out what the country is not doing right for these circumstances. The main point is that the ideology of America is skewed so the ones with more power have it easier and the facts do not go against that statement.
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