Police brutality is a civil rights violation that occurs when a police officer acts with excessive force by using an amount of force with regards to a civilian that is more than necessary.
Excessive force by a law enforcement officers is a violation of a person’s rights. Excessive force is not subject to a precise definition, but it is generally beyond the force a reasonable and prudent law enforcement officer would use under the circumstances. Police brutality is a problem in the United States, some police officers are getting away with hurting people severely and in some cases; killing them. Many times these police officers repeatedly beat a person after restraining which leads to death and nothing happens about it. Racial profiling is one of the facts that causes police brutality. African Americans, Latinos and others in the minority community are the people we see most abused by the police. Those of the minority community have been subjected for many decades to violence by those in law enforcement in the United States. In cities across the United States, police officers participate in unjustified gunfights, severe beatings, and unnecessarily harsh physical treatments; While its superiors, municipal officials and the Department of Justice do not act decisively to contain or penalize such acts or even to record the magnitude of the problem.
Usually, violent agents usually a small percentage of police officers may be subject to repeated allegations, but their peers and the poor quality of internal police investigations tend to protect them. A victim seeking compensation faces barriers at every stage of the process, obstacles that go from intimidation open to the reluctance of local and federal prosecutors to take on cases of police brutality. Serious abuses persist because the considerable obstacles to the establishment of responsibility make it very possible for agents committing human rights violations to circumvent due punishment and continue their abusive conduct.
Race remains an important element of police brutality in the United States. Despite the terrain gained in many respects since the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s, the treatment that the police gives to racial minorities has been an aspect that has tenaciously resisted change. In the cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., members of minority groups have denounced human rights violations by the police more often than white residents.
The police have subjected minorities to a seemingly discriminatory treatment and has abused their members physically and verbally through racial epithets. Each new incident related to the police’s ill-treatment of an African-American, Hispanic/ Latino, Asian, Muslims and Jews member of another minority group, especially those who receive the attention of the press reinforces the idea that some residents are victims of treatment especially hard and racial discrimination. According to study the number of people killed by police in 2014: 1,149, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research collaborative collecting data on police killings nationwide. Another search done states that the number of Latino people killed by police in 2015: 67, according to the Guardian .Victims of police brutality have many options for reporting abusive treatment by agents but with very little chance of punishing or prosecuting those agents. In the United States, African-Americans, Hispanic/Latinos and other minority groups are consistently and repeatedly victims of unjustified arrests, records, and traffic controls. They are also three times more likely to be victims of ill-treatment, kicking, punching, beating with batons or other weapons, indiscriminate application of electric shock weapons and gunfire with firearms even when disarmed and not represent a threat.
Civil review agencies tend to be overloaded and lack of personnel; It is possible that the allegations of such abuses to one of these agencies will ultimately result in an investigation, but the reported agent is unlikely to be properly penalized. The submission of a complaint of abuses to the internal affairs unit of a police department may be subject to intimidation and the excess secrecy in police departments often implies that the complainant never knows if measures have been taken Disciplinary proceedings against the accused agent. Some victims have the option of filing a civil suit, but the chances of success vary widely in each city and are usually economically responsible to the municipal government instead of the reported agent. In addition, most victims of abuse correctly consider that criminal prosecution, at both the local and federal levels, is very rarely an alternative, except in cases well known to the public. As a result, resentment and frustration often exacerbate the original abusive treatment. Since the ineffective operation of police abuse monitoring procedures is a secret to voices, many abuse victims do not even bother to file a complaint. This series of factors leads to violent agents remaining in their positions. The individuals in charge of monitoring and, in some cases, investigating cases of excessive use of force, are undermined by all parties: police unions and other organizations that criticize them, officials that provide them with scarce funds and the police officers who refuse to cooperate.
What’s even more shocking is the limitation of the faculties of many civil review bodies makes the public not encouraged to participate in or support them. Some civil review agencies do not produce public reports, while others offer incomplete information to the public. Although these agencies have the maximum transparency within the system, their reports hardly ever include the most fundamental facts about concrete cases of public interest.
Police brutality must end the police must have the cultural skills and competence to protect and serve our communities without killing people. The following solutions may restrict the police in their use of excessive force in daily interactions with civilians: establish rules for reporting police use of lethal force, review the guidelines for the use of violence in the local police department, ending police homicides related to traffic offenses, proactive monitoring of how police use force and prosecution of officers responsible for excessive use of force. Police departments should revise and reevaluate its training exercises in order to provide solution to excessive force. New training methods must be provided on situations that usually lead to brutality. Officers should be educated on how to correctly operate pepper spray, how to engage in post chase arrest, and how to handle in a non-violent way towards young adults and mentally ill citizens. Some of the cases that shaped society and led to start a powerful movement all across the U.
S and other Countries that joined our pain and protests are the cases of Trayvon Martin Case, Eric Garner case and Tamir Rice case. Trayvon Martin was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Walking back from a 7-Eleven to the Sanford, Florida townhouse of his father’s fiancee on a dark and rainy February evening in 2012, Martin aroused the suspicions of neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman, setting in motion a chain of events that led to Martin’s death and one of the most intensely followed trials of the twenty-first century–a trial that provoked arguments about America’s gun culture and racial profiling. The life of seventeen year old boy ended when Zimmerman shot the unarmed child on the chest, for no reason. When a video was released there was no signs of aggression from the young boy.
Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder on April 11, 2012, but was not found guilty for his crime. Another tragic case was of Eric Garner. Garner died July 17, 2014, after a police officer in Staten Island, N.Y., placed him in an illegal chokehold during an encounter on the sidewalk, where police said Garner was selling illegal cigarettes. A bystander shot video showing Garner’s final moments, and it quickly fueled major protests and demands that the officers involved face criminal charges. The city’s medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide because of the compression of his neck and chest. Two officers faced an internal investigation in connection with Garner’s death: The one who applied the chokehold was put on modified duty, meaning he was stripped of his gun and badge, while a police sergeant was stripped of her gun and badge and charged internally with failure to supervise.
Neither has been charged with a crime, and police say Garner’s poor health and his refusal to cooperate with officers contributed to his death. Police Commissioner William J. Bratton ordered a review of police training techniques in the wake of Garner’s death.. The last case I will discuss is of Tamir Rice,12. Rice was shot and killed in a park in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014.
Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback responded to a call about a black male sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people in a city park. The caller expressed doubts about the gun’s authenticity and said the male was probably a juvenile, but that information wasn’t relayed to the responding officers. Within two seconds of arriving at the scene, Loehmann fired two shots, one hitting Rice in the torso. Rice’s weapon later was found to be a black toy gun.
In December 2015, a grand jury declined to indict Loehmann or Garmback.. These cases are a grave example of the ongoing issue that exist in the United States, this is the country where millions of people migrate for several reasons such as; a better education for their children, a better future of their families and the upcoming generations, to have the right to express themselves freely on religion, loving a person of same sex and embrace their culture with others, but this country has let many people down, the fact that racism is more alive than ever is scary for parents who want to protect their children, and for kids who aren’t white. This is the “Land of the free and Home of the Brave” but it doesn’t seem that way. With the recent election of Donald Trump as president of the United States of America, whose election campaign and the first actions of his mandate have been characterized by the construction of the exploitation of hatred, the recurrence to Racism, xenophobia and misogyny as a unifying discourse of the masses, coupled with a permanent and excessive criminalization of minorities. Donald Trump has allowed many of these crimes pass by because he believes he is superior to many and often makes racist comments against African Americans, Latinos and people of Muslim religion. His racism comments were not only for immigrants but to the Former President Barack Obama when he publicly asked the president to display his birth certificate to prove his American roots, he also labeled Mexicans as “Criminals and Rapist” , he even mentioned he was going to Bomb all the Muslim countries. Racism is more alive than ever because the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis feel supported by the president of the United States, these racism and murderous groups believe “white” is the true definition of an American Citizen.
This country was built by Immigrants and people of color who sacrificed their lives to fight for a better tomorrow, for equality and freedom of speech. Police brutally is more alive than ever because African Americans and Latinos aren’t white and being part of the minority, gives the upper class and whites to view them as criminals, unworthy and uneducated. In conclusion, Police Brutality is a serious issue that many African Americans, Latinos and others of the minority groups face. It is important for the government and police departments to end this kind of atrocities, its embarrassing for a country that’s known as the free world, victims and families are effected the most because many are killed and families have to take the agony and pain of loosing a loved one. Unfortunately, this is an issue that will continue to grow and spread because there is no consideration or respect for people of color or immigrants.
