Dear Future President, 

          Police officers are a common sight in the place I live, and they seem to be peaceful, and I want to keep it that way. There are also some officers that arrest the mentally ill, and shoot those who are innocent. Those officers do not deserve their jobs since they treat the sick like they are garbage, and send them to mentally ill facilities, or to rehab. Police brutality shouldn't be happening because of the horrible impact it has on the victim and their family.

          This issue affects us because we should have a say in what we say and/or want to change to make America a better place. But recently, there have been officers shooting the people whom they are supposed to protect, and yet, they still do it. One of these victims was Eric Garner, an African American, who was put in to an illegal choke hold for 15 seconds by a white officer by the name of Daniel Pantaleo. He was supposedly selling loose cigarettes, and killed while saying ," I can't breathe," repeatedly. Another victim was Akai Gurley, another African American, was shot while he was walking down a dimly lit stairwell by rookie officer Peter Liang. New York Police Department Commissioner called it an"accidental discharge." But in this case, it was purposeful because there was really no reason for him to shoot Gurley. Another victim out of many is Walter Scott, in this case, another African American. The officer claimed Walter had taken his stun gun, but in actuality, Walter was just trying to run away, while the officer shot him in the back. Even though the officer's duty is to protect civilians like us, they still hurt the ones they are supposed to protect. 

          A way to solve this unacceptable problem is to have body cameras on the police officer's body to record what they do, and to see if they did anything wrong. If they did, we could expose the wrongdoings to the rest of us. But we also have easy access to cameras on our phone, so now it is easy to hold them accountable for their actions. The Huffington Post study shows that when police officers are wearing a body camera, there is less violence and complaints against them, against those who don't. The study also shows that there were less civilian injuries and injuries to the officer themselves, when they were wearing a body camera. The study shows that this solution is working, and should be enforced to all officers. 

         Police brutality is becoming more and more common, which isn't good for us, the citizens. Police brutality will not be good to any of us because it makes us more wary of them, the police officers. Police brutality is happening due to race, the officer jumping to conclusions. This issue is an important thing to resolve because if it keeps on happening, it would create a situation awkward for both of the groups, because it would affect the calm state between us. May the new president help address and solve this problem to make us feel safe again.

Sincerely,

Antoine