Police brutality and wrongful deaths are huge problems that seem to be occurring more and more often. There are so many instances of police shooting and killing people unnecessarily and punishment for a crime should be decided by law, not an individual. Although, there are situations in which the officer has a split second to make a decision, and when it comes down to the officers life and the criminals, there is only one clear choice. Yet there are many other instances where there should have been other options exhausted before using lethal force.
2. Purpose Statement: Police Brutality needs to come to an end. The point of this paper is to to show that there are many different alternative options to prevent police brutality and if even just …show more content…
Just within the last couple days The United States Department of Justice released a 59-page report that reveals widespread, excessive use of force by police officers in Cleveland (Millhiser, 2014). Included in this report was the case of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, who was shot and killed on a playground because the police thought he had a gun, it turned out it was just a toy gun (Millhiser, 2014). It also included a case where “…a 300-pound officer sat on a 13 year-old boy who weighed half as much and punched the boy in the face repeatedly while the boy was handcuffed in the back of a police car,” (Millhiser, 2014). Incidents like this have been going on in Cleveland for years and have been continuously swept under the rug by the police department. This leads into the next …show more content…
There is not a single thing that could stand on its own to stop it from happening. The main options that would work the best in my opinion are body cameras, squad car cameras, every police officer being required to have a taser that is placed on the opposite side of the gun they are carrying, and police officers being held accountable for their actions. Implementing body cameras would be like automatically putting a reliable eye witness on every scene. In most cases, there would be no question as to who did what first, and that on its own would help a lot of instances become a lot clearer as to who should be at fault. The same goes for squad car cameras, they can catch action and audio that can be very helpful in solving a case. They can also catch any cop who slips up and talks about anything that incriminates them. Every police officer having a taser on their gun belt means that there will never be the excuse of, “I didn’t have a stun gun,” like Darren Wilson did in the shooting of Mike Brown. There will always be a less than lethal option at hand when dealing with a situation from a distance, and even at close range the stun gun is still a very viable option. Having the taser placed on the opposite side of the gun is a much safer option than placing it near the gun because there will be a significant change in the chances of grabbing the wrong weapon. Lastly, and perhaps most
2. Purpose Statement: Police Brutality needs to come to an end. The point of this paper is to to show that there are many different alternative options to prevent police brutality and if even just …show more content…
Just within the last couple days The United States Department of Justice released a 59-page report that reveals widespread, excessive use of force by police officers in Cleveland (Millhiser, 2014). Included in this report was the case of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, who was shot and killed on a playground because the police thought he had a gun, it turned out it was just a toy gun (Millhiser, 2014). It also included a case where “…a 300-pound officer sat on a 13 year-old boy who weighed half as much and punched the boy in the face repeatedly while the boy was handcuffed in the back of a police car,” (Millhiser, 2014). Incidents like this have been going on in Cleveland for years and have been continuously swept under the rug by the police department. This leads into the next …show more content…
There is not a single thing that could stand on its own to stop it from happening. The main options that would work the best in my opinion are body cameras, squad car cameras, every police officer being required to have a taser that is placed on the opposite side of the gun they are carrying, and police officers being held accountable for their actions. Implementing body cameras would be like automatically putting a reliable eye witness on every scene. In most cases, there would be no question as to who did what first, and that on its own would help a lot of instances become a lot clearer as to who should be at fault. The same goes for squad car cameras, they can catch action and audio that can be very helpful in solving a case. They can also catch any cop who slips up and talks about anything that incriminates them. Every police officer having a taser on their gun belt means that there will never be the excuse of, “I didn’t have a stun gun,” like Darren Wilson did in the shooting of Mike Brown. There will always be a less than lethal option at hand when dealing with a situation from a distance, and even at close range the stun gun is still a very viable option. Having the taser placed on the opposite side of the gun is a much safer option than placing it near the gun because there will be a significant change in the chances of grabbing the wrong weapon. Lastly, and perhaps most