Part One: Introduction Police brutality and the use of excessive force unfortunately, is not something that is new in America. From the Rodney King incident in 1991 (Biography.com Editors) to the Michael Brown (Ferguson) shooting in 2014 (Buchanan, Fessenden, Lai, Park, Parlapiano, Tse, Wallance, Watkins, Yourish), to the use of excessive force which resulted in the death of Eric Garner in 2014 (Karabel, 2015). Police brutality and excessive force is quickly becoming a topic of conversation for everyone, not just those directly impacted. Through increased technology, i.e. cell phones, and cameras (Kindy, Fisher, Tate, Jenkins) more reports are surfacing, and as a result police officers and their respective police departments are under more
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Part Three: Major ethical issues surrounding the Ferguson Case The Ferguson scandal rocked America, and as more “evidence” surfaced, people scrambled to justify their stance on the matter, some of which have ethical roots.
Ultimately, the first and most prevalent ethical concern surrounding the situation is one of our most basic human rights (Velasquez, Moberg, Meyers, Shanks, McLean, DeCosse, Andre, and Hanson), life. Taking the rights approach (Velasquez, et al), would suggest that as human beings we have the right to life which is justified and granted to us as human beings and American citizens by the United States Declaration of Independence. Taking solely a rights approach, would not justify the act of killing Brown by Officer …show more content…
These effects can be both positive or negative, but are greatly influenced by the opinions and actions taken by the public. The public has the power to influence positive change within police departments, from policy changes, to changes in standard procedures. Such was the case after the Justice Department investigated Ferguson (Halpern, 2015) as noted in a New York Times article, “in a scathing report issued in March, the Justice Department called on Ferguson to overhaul its criminal justice system, declaring that the city had engaged in so many constitutional violations that they could be corrected only by abandoning its entire approach to policing, retraining its employees and establishing new oversight” (Buchanan, et
Part Three: Major ethical issues surrounding the Ferguson Case The Ferguson scandal rocked America, and as more “evidence” surfaced, people scrambled to justify their stance on the matter, some of which have ethical roots.
Ultimately, the first and most prevalent ethical concern surrounding the situation is one of our most basic human rights (Velasquez, Moberg, Meyers, Shanks, McLean, DeCosse, Andre, and Hanson), life. Taking the rights approach (Velasquez, et al), would suggest that as human beings we have the right to life which is justified and granted to us as human beings and American citizens by the United States Declaration of Independence. Taking solely a rights approach, would not justify the act of killing Brown by Officer …show more content…
These effects can be both positive or negative, but are greatly influenced by the opinions and actions taken by the public. The public has the power to influence positive change within police departments, from policy changes, to changes in standard procedures. Such was the case after the Justice Department investigated Ferguson (Halpern, 2015) as noted in a New York Times article, “in a scathing report issued in March, the Justice Department called on Ferguson to overhaul its criminal justice system, declaring that the city had engaged in so many constitutional violations that they could be corrected only by abandoning its entire approach to policing, retraining its employees and establishing new oversight” (Buchanan, et