Stop Police Brutality against Minority’s

Police abuse remains one of the most serious human rights violations in the United States. Over the past decades, police have acted out in ways that have made people wonder, are our officer really doing their jobs?. Unjustified shootings have contributed to the ever present problem of police brutality in America. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States mandated racial segregation in all public facilities.

Police can aggravate an existing prejudice, though they seldom generate prejudice on their actions. Police brutality leads to an abuse of authority because we view officers as someone that is going to help us when in danger not harm us. It can be regulated through tougher training and more efficient outreach programs with the community.

Police enforcement was started to protect the whites from the slaves. In an academic journal, Because vigilantes, by definition, have no external restraints, lynch mobs had a justified reputation for hanging minorities first and asking questions later. Because of its tradition of slavery, which rested on the racist rationalization that Blacks were sub-human, America had a long and shameful history of mistreating people of color, long after the end of the Civil War. (Kappeler). The Whites thought that it was right to be treated people of different color wrong. In the beginning policing had been very informal, based on a for-profit, privately funded system that employed people part-time. Towns also commonly relied on a night watch in which volunteers signed up for a certain day and time, mostly to look out for fellow colonists engaging in prostitution or gambling. But that system wasn’t very efficient because the watchmen often slept and drank while on duty, and there were people who were put on watch duty as a form of punishment. In addition, police officer had no additional training and anyone who wanted to join could of they wanted to.

Using physical violence is an abuse of authority because society entrusts member of law enforcement with power over citizens to allow the police to keep the peace and preserve social order. Police are granted a great deal of freedom to use their judgment regarding which laws to enforce when and against whom. This wide range of options and authority can lead to the abuse of their power. The most common form of police brutality is a physical form. In a journal by the Police Foundation Abuse of authority that ranges into the mobilization of a political unit against minority populations on the grounds of its drugs or on the grounds of its public order, or on the grounds of its other points.. 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. Since they are relied upon to ensure general society and stand up to possibly rough people, they can lawfully utilize physical, and even fatal, power in specific situations. Be that as it may, an officer who uses power when it is not called for, or who utilizes more constraints than is important to perform his or her occupation, may go too far into police ruthlessness.

The origin of bias in the police force encourage police brutality because police may refrain from addressing criminal behavior within a particular minority group because they believe that members of that group typically engage in such behavior The relationships between police racial minorities present some of the more enduring and complex problems in policing throughout the world. For example, minorities may be generally deprived of police protection and other services to which they are entitled. In a journal titled Amnesty International states, Institutional racism thus goes beyond stereotypes held by individuals but points to a police culture that tolerates or even contributes to racism. Police officers have this mentality given to them from the previous police officer who thinks that it is okay to still treat minorities different because of the past in the Jim Crow era. As well as the minority’s community who have no trust on the police because of the long history of racist policing.

The unequal treatment of minorities leads to an abuse of power because as a police stops an innocent minority, it becomes an inconvenience, humiliation and a loss of privacy. The action of the police for them stopping you is the color of skin or just your accent. minority groups as well, are victimized by disproportionate targeting and unfair treatment by police and other frontline law enforcement officials; by racially skewed charging and plea bargaining decisions of prosecutors; by discriminatory sentencing practices; and by failure of judges, (Dunnaville). The minority group are stopped more often than Caucasian this leads to a hatred from the minority’s to the police officers. Every citizen regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, background, age, or culture deserves the highest level of service available and equal treatment under the law.

The lack of accountability of the minorities group is an issue because if they go to report the crime then nobody believes them because they are police. The accountability of individual police offices is a fundamental issue for police executive. Community relations units are supposed to carry the message of police departments to communities but have proven to be insufficiently responsive to community definitions of problems and solutions. (Wasserman and Williams). Community accountability is one critical option. Community accountability is a community-based strategy, rather than a police/prison-based strategy, to address violence within our communities. Community accountability is a process which a community a group of friends, a family, a church, a workplace, an apartment complex, a neighborhood, etc. work together to: Create and affirm values and practice that resist abuse and oppression and encourage safety, support, and accountability Provide safety and support to community members who are violently targeted that respect their self-determination Develop sustainable strategies to addresses community member’ abusive behavior , creating a process for them to account for their actions and transform their behavior. Commit to ongoing development of all members of the community, and the community itself.

Changing the gun procedure could stop police brutality by limiting law enforcement to have the gun as the last option. It can seem easy to focus only on mass shootings because most people agree that there should be some restrictions on civilian access to firearms. But police involvement in gun violence is often not even considered when the debate is brought up because police are expected to protect, not harm. However, the U.S. has a serious problem with police brutality and law enforcement having unchecked power, and it should not be ignored.

One way we can help stop the crimes against police brutality is by changing the training. Some police academy still has beliefs from centuries that go back to slavery but the times have changed as so the culture must change as the police academy’s teach the new forms of training one way is for the police officers to out into the community and show the people that they can get along. The community should be reminded that the police officers are here to protect you not shot. There are some programs that officer go to attend such as, National Night Out, which target specific efforts needed to make connections to underrepresent communities and ethnic groups. Building relationships within all populations is critical for achieving the goals of community outreach. Other programs are Back to School Picnic, the Atlanta police department hosted the event where they give out backpacks and free hair grooming. Kids grow up and are not fearing the police and this way there would be less crime as well as violence against the community and the law enforcment.

Changing police training can regulate police brutality by enforcing new ways to help citizens stay safe. There have been to many lives lost to police shootings. Police officers perform the way they are trained to perform. Police training starts in the academy, where the concept of officer safety is so heavily emphasized that it takes on almost religious significance. More pointed lessons come in the form of hands-on exercises. One common scenario teaches officers that a suspect leaning into a car can pull out a gun and shoot at officers before they can react. Another teaches that even when an officer is pointing a gun at a suspect whose back is turned, the suspect can spin around and fire first. Yet another teaches that a knife-carrying suspect standing 20 feet away can run up to an officer and start stabbing before the officer can get their gun out of the holster. There are countless variations, but the lessons are the same: Hesitation can be fatal. So officers are trained to shoot before a threat is fully realized, to not wait until the last minute because the last minute may be too late.

When police officers have body cameras that are actively monitored it helps end police brutality and enforce good act. But applying these tools to already-recorded footage is only the beginning. Body cameras equipped with live-streaming capabilities will allow police supervisors, from a command center to be able to see on map where officers are and be able to pick certain one’s law enforcment officials would be able to forward the footage to the officers who need it most (Sara). Police officers already have body cameras but if we have people the cameras the livestream to specific people to actively keep the officers and the citizen at peace it would help. in 2015 a police shooting took place where Walter Scott was and an officer, Michael Slager, claimed that Scott had tried to take his stun gun and use it on him before fleeing. Video footage from a civilian at the scene, however, revealed that Scott had not tried to grab Slager’s stun gun, and Slager had shot at Scott’s back as the 50-year-old black man very slowly attempted to flee. After the shooting, Slager then planted the stun gun near Scott’s dead body presumably to give his story credibility. In this because a citizens was around the cop got caught but if officers have body cameras that get actively monitored then they would not be committing hideous crimes.

All though few police officers ever face trial for shooting deaths let alone are convicted, in this case a white police officer was convicted for killing of a young black man after a car cash. Between 2005 and April 2017, 80 officers had been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty shootings. During that 12-year span, 35% were convicted, while the rest were pending or not convicted (Stinson). Stinson explains this numbers and when you look at them is hard to believe how many actually are hold responsible for their actions. Police officers should be able to take responsibilities for their actions when they carry a gun. Instead of protecting citizens they become victims to the shooting of unarmed black individuals. When police officers commit a crime and are not convicted it makes it more likely for them to committed the crime again.

In conclusion police brutality lead to an abuse of authority by invading the citizens trust and some ways it can be monitored are through police enforcements new training and body cameras on every police who are on duty. There are steps we should take to curb police violence; Body cameras should become a requirement for every law enforcement officer. t would also be helpful if there were some restrictions on the types of arms police can use and the frequency in which they can use them. Nonviolent intervention and negotiation tactics should be heavily emphasized, and officers should be required to go through training and courses to make sure violence becomes a last resort when all other options have been exhausted. Resorting to violence, especially shooting and killing a suspect or civilian, should be investigated heavily and the officer in question should have to face appropriate punishment if it is found that excessive force was used. There are many more options that can be considered, but we actually have to broach the topic of police brutality before discussing ways to improve it.

Did you like this example?

567

24