When speaking of our
criminal justice system and law enforcement, the topics of police corruption
and police brutality always find their way to the highlight of the
conversation. Personally, I am very interested in the topic of police
brutality. I am very interested in why it happens and how it can be controlled.
I am aware of and support police discretion and giving officers the luxury of
patrolling without being monitored and letting our officers act and respond on
their own; I feel these acts make our profession professional; however, the
inconsistencies among officers cause a lot of controversy.
Studies are showing
that police, prison guards, and other law enforcement authorities use of excessive
force and other tactics to violate victim’s civil rights has increased over the
years, and the vast majority of these cases are not being prosecuted. There are
so many cases, nationwide, about police brutality. Most of the time in cases
involving minorities, they seldom get justice. Other cases officers who are
caught committing these crude acts are only suspended for a short time. Is this
because they wear a badge, get superior treatments, and get away with things? I
always wonder what the true, underlying reason is for these kinds of acts by
our police officers, the people we should feel safe around, the people we call
on for help. It makes me wonder if some individuals who decide to go in to law
enforcement do it for all the wrong reasons.
Here is a link to an
article about an instance where five officers were caught on tape beating an
unconscious suspect and were actually fired from their agency.http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7637333&page=1
After a high
speed chase for over twenty minutes, the man in the van, Anthony Warren, spins
out of control and the van begins to tip and roll, ejecting him from the
vehicle. Due to the high speeds and being flown out of the van, the impact
caused Warren to become unconscious. While he lay there, not moving or
resisting, showing no signs of fighting back, the officers swarm him and used
their fists and feet to strike his unconscious body. Warren suffered from
internal bleeding, skull fractures and other serious issues; all of what he
thought was from the accident, and not knowing he was also crudely beat by the
officers while unconscious. The worst part of the police officers’ behaviors is
they were all seasoned veteran officers.
Now, the question is,
did the officers have a right to beat this man? Some critics say, “yes they
were right to fire the officers.” Others say the man deserved it because he pissed the
officers off; he tried killing officers and other innocent bystanders during his
reckless acts. Some people believe the officers could not tell whether or not
the man was unconscious and they felt they could have a very dangerous man on
their hands and they did what was called for and necessary. If you all watch
the video you can clearly see that this man was no longer resisting an arrest
and was making no attempt to resist. Officers knew how fast they were driving
and saw the man get ejected from the car, they should have known the impact
that this accident could have caused to Warren. Like I mentioned earlier, police brutality has been on a rise, but when will this ever stop? Why is it now, in these days that we are facing these types of issues, especially with the better training we give to our officers?
With any job or profession there are going to be some bad apples or people who break the rules, it is just inevitable. The problem here though is that it effects the police force in a much more negative way in comparison to any other profession. Police officers are looked at like they cannot and should not make any mistakes. When someone is using excessive force like in this video. The video creates a very negative effect of the police as a whole. However, i think that since the great emergence of video surveillance, police brutality has lessened. Cops now know that they could be on camera at any time. Back in the day cops could do whatever they want and really not have to answer to anyone because it was their word versus the offenders word. Now a days cops are video taped by random civilians all the time.
ReplyDeleteClearly we need to train our officers more and give them training on ethics, because now a days police officers are being reckless and careless on what they are doing. The officers see the guy get flown out of his vehicle, they see him laying there not moving and what do they do? Injure him even more. They are the people who are suppose to be protecting us, i feel so much safer now! Just because the officers were mad does not give them the right to beat him up. I am glad they got fired and the guy should of pressed charges on them.
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