William Westley, a man who helped pioneer policing, once said,”Brutality and the third degree have been identified with the municipal police of the united states since their inauguration.” Excessive force used by police is not uncommon. Instances of this can be seen throughout history, most notably in Los Angeles, California during the 60’s which helped lead to the Race Riots, but the examples don’t stop there. This brutality is surfacing more and more with advancements in video and audio recording technology. We have discussed this issue in lecture and is something that i take very passionately, not only since law enforcement is a career path i look forward to getting into, but i have been a victim of this as well.
Today, we see videos of police committing violent acts against citizens regularly in the news and online which is giving police a bad reputation nationally. Media focuses mainly on negative police-citizen interactions that involve violence or would stir public outcry. Viral videos such as a officer in Texas pulled his weapon on unarmed children and used force against an african-american girl is an example of what the media uses. This causes a serious problem when Americans around the country begin to lose confidence in their police force. The majority of police officers uphold the law and act accordingly. This brings us right into the “Bad Apple Theory” discussed in Matt DeLisi’s third edition of Criminal Justice: Balancing Crime Control and Due Process, which means a certain few rogue police officers ruin the integrity and reputation of the rest of law upholding ones. In the 80’s with people in arms about the police behavior, reform of policing was happening throughout the country, resulting in initiatives like community oriented policing. However, these acts of violence against citizens continue to happen to this day. After reading chapters from the textbook, it shows there are multiple factors to take into account for this behavior. The book notes that “of more than 71 million encounters between the police and the public, jut 1.6% of these interactions resulted in the use of threatened …show more content…
The job as a police officer takes a hefty toll on the mind. Officers deal with the worst in humanity on a daily basis. James Q. Wilson said,”The police see people when they are dirty, angry, rowdy, obscene, dazed, savage, or bloodied…”, which ultimately brings about change in a person. It changes they way you see people, life, society as a whole. In Chapter 6, the text states,”…cynicism occurs when officers ‘lose faith in people, society, and eventually in themselves’” (DeLisi 132). This could bring about a myriad of different mental status changes including depression and anger. These traits are not ideal to have for a person whose job it is to preserve life but has the ability to take it away. The textbook touches on many mental changes that happen to a police officer on the job over time. The book states that “the police personality is a constellation of traits that include danger, isolation (and thus alienation), authority and power, suspiciousness, conservatism, and a fiercely held solidarity with other officers” (DeLisi 130). The Texas officer accused of excessive force previously in the essay was dealing with a suicidal case earlier that day, something that patrol officers are not fully trained on handling, to which he responded to his next call nerves rattled, not knowing what to
Today, we see videos of police committing violent acts against citizens regularly in the news and online which is giving police a bad reputation nationally. Media focuses mainly on negative police-citizen interactions that involve violence or would stir public outcry. Viral videos such as a officer in Texas pulled his weapon on unarmed children and used force against an african-american girl is an example of what the media uses. This causes a serious problem when Americans around the country begin to lose confidence in their police force. The majority of police officers uphold the law and act accordingly. This brings us right into the “Bad Apple Theory” discussed in Matt DeLisi’s third edition of Criminal Justice: Balancing Crime Control and Due Process, which means a certain few rogue police officers ruin the integrity and reputation of the rest of law upholding ones. In the 80’s with people in arms about the police behavior, reform of policing was happening throughout the country, resulting in initiatives like community oriented policing. However, these acts of violence against citizens continue to happen to this day. After reading chapters from the textbook, it shows there are multiple factors to take into account for this behavior. The book notes that “of more than 71 million encounters between the police and the public, jut 1.6% of these interactions resulted in the use of threatened …show more content…
The job as a police officer takes a hefty toll on the mind. Officers deal with the worst in humanity on a daily basis. James Q. Wilson said,”The police see people when they are dirty, angry, rowdy, obscene, dazed, savage, or bloodied…”, which ultimately brings about change in a person. It changes they way you see people, life, society as a whole. In Chapter 6, the text states,”…cynicism occurs when officers ‘lose faith in people, society, and eventually in themselves’” (DeLisi 132). This could bring about a myriad of different mental status changes including depression and anger. These traits are not ideal to have for a person whose job it is to preserve life but has the ability to take it away. The textbook touches on many mental changes that happen to a police officer on the job over time. The book states that “the police personality is a constellation of traits that include danger, isolation (and thus alienation), authority and power, suspiciousness, conservatism, and a fiercely held solidarity with other officers” (DeLisi 130). The Texas officer accused of excessive force previously in the essay was dealing with a suicidal case earlier that day, something that patrol officers are not fully trained on handling, to which he responded to his next call nerves rattled, not knowing what to