Joey Nguyen
ELA 11
Period 1
5/15/17
Police Brutality:
Throughout history, the relationship between police officers and citizens of the United States has been at a steady decline. There have been countless cases of police officers injuring civilians ranging from minor bruises to fatal incidents. Regardless of the magnitude of their injuries, it’s police brutality and it’s unnecessary to maintain order. Police brutality is the use of extra or excessive force by police that results in injury, hospitalization, or death of civilians. In the United States, events of police injuring civilians have appeared more often and have become more serious as time progressed. Police officers have the power to enforce the law and protect citizens, but they …show more content…
Others also say that criminals may have weapons and are unpredictable, so police officers have to take precautions when approaching any person. These points are valid because being a police officer is a dangerous job and there are many police deaths in the U.S. each year. These claims are true, but they fail to acknowledge that police brutality is the use of “excessive force.” Rachel Raasch presented in her article, “that power should be only used as a last resort and not an automatic reaction to the slightest sign of danger… police should be ready to act at a moment’s notice, but also ready to think before jumping to conclusions.”(Raasch) Rachel’s main point is that police officers are trained to think fast, but also think before they do things, so there won’t be a split second decision that wasn’t planned moments in advance. It’s appropriate for police to use moderate force to detain a dangerous criminal, but using excessive force to detain someone during a traffic stop is unacceptable. Police officers also have other weapon choices like tasers, pepper spray, and police dogs in replacement of beating or shooting the victim. Many cities have come up with an effective solution to this issue by having on-body cameras on officers while working. Body-cams have been proven to reduce police brutality and abuse of authority in officers. According to Rachel …show more content…
Police officers are trained to think fast, but also think about their actions beforehand to protect the safety of citizens and maintain peace in a confrontation. Many officers abuse their power and “harass” citizens without a proper motive and these actions often lead to excessive police force and violence. These violent behaviors of police officers make it hard for civilians to have trust in police. Police violence cases are increasing each year and they have gotten worse. There is an effective solution to this problem, but it would need the help of you, the reader, to make a change in this ongoing problem of police brutality. If you want to contribute to the termination of police brutality, write a letter to the mayor of your city to start having body-cams placed on working police