Police Are Bad Essay, Research Paper

Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force

is needed. But, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is

not, police brutality should be addressed. The use of excessive force may or may not be

large problem, but it should be looked into by both the police and the public.

For those people who feel racism is not a factor in causing the use of excessive

force, here is a startling fact. In Tampa Bay, Florida, five men died while in the custody of

the Tampa Bay police Department (C.C. 27). The thing is, the Tampa Bay Police

Department is made up of mostly white officers, but of the five men who died, none where

white. Four of the five men that died where African Americans, and the other

man was a Mexican National.

If the incident in Tampa Bay does not show a person racism, this event might. In

New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year between 1986 to

1989, but in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year, twenty-three Latin

Americans were killed by police gunfire.

When asked how he felt about racism being involved in police brutality, Yussuf

Naimkly of the University of Regina commented:

“Excessive police force against blacks has always been tolerated, because as a formally

enslaved minority African Americans are trapped in a cultural context specifically designed

to inhibit their development and thus minimize their threat to white hegemony” (C.C. 72)

Executive Director of Police Misconduct Lawyers Referral Service Karol Heppe

commented, “Brutality against minorities is a daily occurrence in Los Angeles,” she says.

“The difference this time is someone videotaped it.” (C.C. 36).

Another shocking incident of police brutality occurred in Reynoldsberg,Ohio. A

group of offices named themselves “S.N.A.T.” squad. This acronym stood for “Special

Nigger Arrest Team” and they made it a point to harass African Americans whenever.

“The number of people killed by police has gone down from the middle 1970 s to

the middle 1980 s in major cities,” says Patrick V. Murphy, former head of police

commissions in Detroit, New York, and Washington, D.C. (C.C. 17).

Also, in Kansas City, Missouri, a police department there has 1,110 officers.

Amazingly, the only received approximately 108 complaints from the public about those

1,100 officers.

Adding to the belief that police brutality isn t a very big problem, most legal

authorities and officials agree that the use of excessive force by police officers is going

down. In fact, they say that they see brutality declining from twenty years ago (C.C. 57).

Police brutality is defined as involving the unnecessary and unjustified use of force

be that either physical or verbal. Gerald Williams, president of the Police Executive

Research Forum (PERF) commented, “Let me assure you we are committed to a

professional level of policing with an emphasis on fairness, humanity, and integrity”

(C.C.168).

Other than the police stopping brutality internally, civilian review boards can be

used. These boards must be able to receive all of the evidence in a case, including the

police audio tapes, in order to make fair judgment if excessive force was used or not. If

excessive force is present in cases, these review boards must be able to punish the police

or they are almost useless.

Whether or not a person believes police brutality is a serious problem, it must be

stopped. Even in areas where police and the use of excessive force is not a huge problem,

it must be decreased properly by both the police and the public. Finally, there needs to be

rules making sure it never happens again.