Police brutality is one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States and occurs in every community. The job of a police officer is to maintain public order, prevent, and detect crime.Police officers were once called peacekeepers; however, now they seemed to be nothing more than law enforcement officers. Most still do their jobs with pride in their hearts and are willing to serve and protect their communities, but they are even more officers in today's society worried about quotas and making arrests on innocent people then abiding by the law. The biggest issue that is arising in America today with police agencies is police brutality. It’s a major problem, and it seems law enforcement officers are abusing their …show more content…
Many law enforcement officers, those sworn to protect and serve, have abused their rights and authority to ferociously assault and manipulate citizens, even if they were innocent. Citizens who have been attacked have been left with physical and emotional scars that will forever haunt them.In some cases, it has even caused death. In a report by David Packman, prepared for the Cato Institute in 2011, states that 247 deaths were linked to police misconduct cases.(Packman 2011)They are engaged in a dangerous and stressful occupation that can involve violent situations that must be controlled. In many of these confrontations with the public it may become necessary for the police to administer force to take control of a situation. Sometimes this force takes the form of hand to hand combat with a suspect who resists being arrested. Not all police officers in communities are good cops. .The claims range from abusive language, misuse of batons, use of chemical sprays, non supervised field interrogations, tight handcuffing, choke holds, kicks, inappropriate uses of electro-chock devices, and finally- unnecessary use of deadly force. Although an alternative method of force may be …show more content…
In 2015, there were 1,307 people who lost their lives at the hands of a police officer or law enforcement official. Between June 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016, media reviews done by The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) identified 1,348 potential arrest-related deaths. During this period, the number of deaths consistently ranged from 87 to 156 arrest-related deaths, with an average of 135 deaths per month. In 2016, that number was 1,152. Although lower, both years are still higher than the 1,149 people who were killed by police in 2014. (Fatal Encounters/Mapping Police Violence).A respected school nutritionist, Castile was one of 233 African-Americans shot and killed by police in 2016, a startling number when demographics are considered. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 24 percent of people fatally shot by police. According to the Washington Post, blacks are “2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.”It does not stop there as of April 5 of 2018, 337 people have been killed by police