April C.

Police Brutality

The policemen are here to protect the people, NOT to kill them!

Dear President Elect,

The police is here to protect the people not to kill them! Policemen has been abusing there powers instead of using them for good, because they are doing this the people are getting scared. Police brutality has been a topic that many people are questioning. According to social media there has been many incidents about police brutality, and it needs to stop. According to the dictionary police brutality means, the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. “Excessive use of force” means a force well beyond what would be necessary in order to handle a situation. If the policemen are doing this to the citizens who are innocent, no wonder they are getting scared. Police brutality has been increasing over the years and has become more and more violent and it must stop. Some people think that police brutality has went out of hand in the black lives matter movement but is it true?

The article Law Enforcement:Police Misconduct in the United States explains that, “The `U.S history police Brutality has been here for a long time. In the early days of policing, acts of brutality were usually done to the poor labor workers. From the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, to the Hanapepe massacre of 1924, the police would brutally beat striking laborers. The Civil Rights Movement, The Vietnam War, and the Nixon Administration then came, which all had large acts of police going from the 20s through the 60s.However, it did not stop there. Police brutality is still a problem in our country. An extensive U.S. Department of Justice report on police use of force released in 2001 indicates that in 1999, “approximately 422, 000 people 16 years old and older were estimated to have contact with police in which force of the threat of the force was used. Another Department of Justice report issued in 2006 shows that out of 26,556 citizens complaints about excessive use of police force among large U.S. agencies in 2002, about 2,000 were sustained.” However, others studies have shown that most police brutality goes unreported. In 1982, the federal government did a “Police Services Study” in which over 12,000 randomly selected citizens were interviewed in three metropolitan areas. The study found that 13 percent of those surveyed had been victims of police brutality the previous year. 30 percent of those who witnessed and had formal complaints.

Almost a thousand times this year, an American police officer has shot and killed a civilian. According to the washington Post, the first five months of 2015, there were nearly 400 cases of fatal police shootings in the Unites States. Of those 400 cases, less the one percent resulted in an officer being charged with a crime Affirmed by Jim Bueermann, these shootings are “grossly underreported.” Deprived of such essential information, we are largely ignorant about the truth of police-involved fatalities, and this makes it difficult to fix the problem. We can; tack on something we know about. Regardless, our own ignorance is only the first half of the overall problem of ignorance involving the police’s excessive force. In a year-long study, The Washington Post found that the kind of incidents that have ignited protests in many U.S. communities — most often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings. Meanwhile, The Post found that the great majority of people who died at the hands of the police fit at least one of three categories: they were wielding weapons, they were suicidal or mentally troubled, or they ran when officers told them to halt.

U.S. police have killed at least 194 black people in 2016.

Police brutality could happen to anyone but we're going to focus on one story. Molly Suzanna shared a post on facebook about the experience she had with the police beating her and laughing at her. Suzanna wrote that a cop pulled her over, and that she refused to sign a ticket from him, but she didn’t realize at the time that a person can go to jail for not signing one. She claimed that the officer told her to get out of the car as a result, and was very aggressive with her for resisting him. Her father died three days earlier the police brutality happen to her. When the policemen ordered to get out of the car. She locked the car and started crying. She was afraid. The police officer keeped screaming at her to “stop F***ing crying.” When she didn’t listen to the police officer, he then dragged Molly out of the window car. When the police officer dragged her out of the car he then kicked her in the ribs, fractured her wrist, and bounced her head off the side of the car when he put her in the back of his car, "all while laughing."

Police Brutality is a problem in society because people are getting hurt by policemen who are abusing their power and getting people into situations they shouldn’t be in. The problem with police brutality is that it’s a complex problem. The misconduct of police officers, such as, physical abuse, unlawful shootings, and verbal assault must end. Police precincts across America should function as a force that handles situations in a professional and civilized manner. The issue of police brutality is becoming more crucial as society grows.