Police Brutality In America Essay

Improved Essays
How can you live in a world knowing that your safety is at risk by those who are supposed to protect you? The ever-present issue of police brutality is one of the most serious violations of someone 's human rights. Police have committed many unjust crimes that get swept under the rug and the officer gets a slap on the wrist. Beatings, shootings, failure to provide proper treatment, and fatal chokings are all examples of police abuse that happen in America every year. Although, it can happen anywhere and to anyone the most common area where these crimes are committed are highly urbanized areas with low income families. A majority of the people who live in these places are of color. Race is a huge factor when it comes to police brutality. There …show more content…
A study was taken by Cop Crisis asking how many police officers do not report abuse when they see it or commit it? 61% of police officers stated that they do not always report when they witness police brutality (Cop Crisis). The reason why people do not know how severe this problem has been in America is because over half of these incidents are not even reported. Just this year alone there has been 1046 Americans killed by cops (Cop Crisis). But the average American has most likely only heard of 20 of those cases. Every eight hours an American is killed by a cop (Cop Crisis). That is three times a day that an American civilian is killed by the police officers that are supposed to be protecting and serving …show more content…
They are supposed to "protect and serve" the people of America. Many steps need to be taken in order for this problem to be diminished. There must be open police records in all states that gives the public access to records of police misconduct. A Federal law should be passed that makes it a crime for police officers who commit acts of brutality and murder. Small steps such as these could drastically change this issue and open the eyes of many officers who have committed this

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Police brutality against minorities is a big issue in the United States, and there is almost an incident a day in America. Police have an immense amount of power that they can tap into, but some offices do abuse that power. By doing this, there are often incidences almost weekly where police use excessive and sometimes deadly. The one big detail that everyone has missed is that most of the victims of police brutality are minorities. These occurrences have gotten so bad that there have been riots in cities such as Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore and Ferguson.…

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Police brutality is a very sensitive and controversial topic of discussion in the United States. Police brutality occurs when an officer uses excessive or unnecessary force when dealing with other people. Police have been under a microscope recently to make sure that their actions are necessary and appropriate for the situation that they are in due to the fact that there has been widespread media coverage of police brutality. This media coverage has allowed people to examine how police officers go about their business and determine whether or not they think that the police officer’s actions are just. Police brutality has been the cause for protest and the formation of movements such as “Black Lives Matter”.…

    • 1995 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Police Brutality Police officers risk their lives daily to keep our communities safe. These men and women are often in situations where their lives are in danger. Facing dangerous criminals, police sometimes must use force. However some officers use more force than what is needed. Today this issue is debated constantly.…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police brutality is a social issue that has plagued America for decades. One of the most infamous cases of police brutality is the Rodney King case. On March 3, 1991, four Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) officers brutally beat Rodney King during a traffic stop. A bystander captured the beating on tape and the four officers involved faced criminal charges, including excessive force. The video broadcasted nationwide during the trial, but despite the evidence, a predominantly white jury acquitted the four officers of all charges (Biography).…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This is all due to the Justice system allowing to bend its laws around, in order to protect the many members from the Police Department who have committed the crime best known as police brutality or in other words, police force. This type of issue has been known throughout history, although some negative police force cases were not recorded. Such as cases from before even laws were created against them. As this progressed, worsening through the 1800’s to the late 1900’s, the wrongly using of police force has affected many including the communities trust in the Justice system. Like John F. Kennedy once said,” The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened,” most of victims of police brutality are those of color.…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People from all walks of life have been subject to the injustice that is police brutality for what seems to be forever. Even after the Jim Crow laws were removed, people of color are still being mistreated by police brutality but of course, the assault charges had nothing to do with “race”. Many people (myself included) believe that police officers should be held accountable for their actions whilst on duty. It appears to be that many of the occurances of police brutality stems from a racial bias aginst black people in particular. But whatever the reason may be for these shameful displays of how police should be protecting its people, its rather clear that this needs to stop sooner, rather than later.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Police Brutality in America has become a new plague, it has infiltrated our country, and has exposed a dark side of the justice system. Thousands of cases involving police brutality are reported yearly, and thousands of incidents go unreported as well. Incidents of police brutality go unreported because of fear. The American justice system is being ran by fear, causing uncertainty for citizens of America. The terrifying idea of waking up to a news report stating that a person has died at the hands of a police officer for no logical or specified reason has become a reality in modern day America.…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the root causes of police brutality is that there is not enough representatives that are people of color. Another root cause is that people have it installed in citizens today that people of color should be targeted because they are the true suspects of most crimes. The good that people of color do us never shown, but the bad is always portrayed at its worst. Moreover, police know the job they came to do, but they decide to do just a little more extra which actually doesn’t help the community in any way.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his essay “For Cops…” Kevin Johnson claims that videos of police officers are placing their actions under new scrutiny and changing the way that claims against officers are played out in court. Police have responded by trying to limit such recordings when they feel that they interfere with police actions. The fear that is most present in law enforcement is that these videos will cause officers to change how they behave in a life or death situation. To combat this, officers are now receiving training to deal with being recorded.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being a police officer comes with great responsibilities. They are expected to maintain law and order, protect the lives of citizens, reduce fear of crime and most importantly prevent crime. But in the past few years, it seems as if they’re the ones putting fellow citizens in fear. Police brutality isn’t a topic you frequently hear about, but the times we do it’s nothing short of a serious problem. I’m not sure if it’s to do with race or just about the law enforcement agencies believing they can abuse the power that is a privilege to them.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Police brutality and racism seem to be consistently connected to one another. This has become a serious issue in which circumstances have ended violently or even fatally when involving police officers and African American citizens. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that African American people make up only 13.2% of our population. Anyone can become a victim of police brutality, regardless of their race; but statistics show that African American people are being killed by police at more than twice the rate of Caucasian and Hispanic people. It is also considerably more likely for the African American victims in these situations to have been unarmed at their time of death.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Benjamin Spock, a best selling American pediatrician, once said, “Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.” Police brutality is defined as the use of excessive or unnecessary force by police when dealing with a civilian. People in power abusing their ability to take advantage of citizens has always been a problem. In U.S. history, this abuse of power has mainly been directed towards minorities, and to this day still exists. In an effort to solve this issue, we must examine its complications and the best way to approach them.…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence in law enforcement. That makes the job of good police officers unsafe.” (Berry) Recently police brutality has become an alarming issue in society. At the end of 2015, thousands of deaths resulted in accusing victims dying in police custody.…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Police Brutality Essay

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 11 Works Cited

    Throughout history, African Americans, as a group, endure various forms of brutality. Long ago in the United States, entire towns would capture innocent African Americans and kill them in mobs. This horrendous act is known as lynching. Now, while African American brutality exists on a smaller scale than it used to, it still occurs in exorbitant amounts. One of the most infamous cases of police brutality against a black person was that of Rodney King.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 11 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Recently, there have been several incidents involving police brutality, where police have been too violent with people. Police brutality has been around for a long time and for the same reasons, one being racism. The victims are usually, specific races such as African American and Hispanic. The reason behind why they receive such major punishment doesn’t make sense due to their lack of guiltiness. Police have used excessive force against them for unjustified reasons; the situation has resulted so inimical, to the point where these poor victims have actually been killed.…

    • 1843 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays