What Are Police Misconduct

Unfortunately, local police now a days are equipped with weapons powerful enough to conquer a small country. The use of SWAT teams have risen up 1500 percent over the past two decades. Police departments have developed a “it’s only us vs them” mentality towards the public that they have sworn an oath to protect. Even though that possession of powerful weapons do not perform misconduct, there is the saying that, when you have power and no one to stop you from using it, why waste it? There are statistics from trusted sources that prove that police misconduct truly does exist. Forty-three percent of surveyed officers have agreed that sometimes, to get the job done, rules have to be broken. Basically half of these officers have admitted to committing …show more content…
An example is the case of Eric Garner. The police are at fault for his death. It is shown that he has done nothing wrong, but stop a street fight. There is evidence in the video of the situation. Eric Garner explains to the police he only tried to stop a fight, but the police keep ignoring that fact. Because of the past history of Eric Garner being arrested over thirty times for selling untaxed cigarettes, assault, resisting arrest, grand larceny, false impersonation, driving without a license, and possession of marijuana, the two officers at the scene hold this into account, but the error is made when one officer made false accusations of Eric Garner selling illegal cigarettes, when the video clearly shows he did not. The officers try to make the arrest, but Eric weakly resisted arrest somehow provoking one of the officers to put an illegal choke hold (illegal since 1993 by the New York City Police Department policy) on Eric that ended his life. Unlike the Michael Brown case, there is actual video evidence. The claims of police brutality are not made based on testimony or unreliable bystanders, but through real footage. The Ferguson case had conflicting testimonies, conflicting forensics, and there was the specter of at least police self-defense. None of the ambiguities in the Ferguson issue were evident in the Eric Garner case, but the outcome was all the same. There was no crime, no trial, and only tragedy. Once again this only goes to show that police are sometimes falsely accused, but when there is real evidence of police misconduct, the department looks as bad as ever.In conclusion, police brutality is an ongoing issue that has yet to be solved. Today, police brutality still exists and cases of it flood the internet. People are making statements against the police departments in the United States to bring awareness to this complication. Even sports stars are making statements. One