...nation — are deeply divided over whether a police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., should be charged with a crime. The law that determines when police can use deadly force generally gives officers considerable leeway in making that split-second decision about whether they need to kill to save themselves or others. Police officers are also automatically authorized, based on training in most states, including Missouri, to use deadly force if a suspect tries to grab the officer’s gun. Wilson has told investigators that Brown tried to get his gun during a scuffle in which Brown was reaching into Wilson’s patrol car. Law enforcement experts say the legal standard, established by two Supreme Court rulings from the 1980s, has made it hard for prosecutors to obtain convictions in cases of alleged use of excessive force. Experts say the high court rulings and Officer Darren Wilson’s account give investigators several reasons to find Wilson justified in shooting to kill 18-year-old Michael Brown. A teenager in Washington, D.C. named Michael Brown was shot dead after he allegedly flashed a knife to the police officers assigned in the area near Ferguson, causing his death (Flatow, 2014). Witnesses, however, tell that Brown was unarmed, and the police officers ruthlessly shot him six times on a Tuesday afternoon. Tensions and criticisms arose since the circumstances that were considered in the use of deadly force were unjustifiable (Siddiqui, 2014). This...
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...Use of Force Brenda Love Mississippi Valley State University Mrs. Rochelle Cobbs Law Enforcement Systems/Practices CJ 384-Spring 2015 March 22, 2015 Use of Force Abstract This paper addresses the reasons why police use force and how police use force to apprehend suspects. There are several elements that should be considered before police use force. These elements include: if the police officer has reasonable cause to use force to arrest the person, if use of force will help protect the officer and others, and if the police offer should result to using deadly force. These elements are things that all officers are trained on, but officers have to use their own instincts on the way that they will use force based on various specified situations. This paper will observe the reasons why police use force and focuses on how police may use force to control situations. Introduction Force can be defined as restraining someone or something by use of strength, by command, or by use of weapons and/or animals. Police officers may use force when making an arrest. Samaha (2014, p. 155) states “Whether the manner of an arrest was reasonable is affected by whether the amount of force, if any, was reasonably necessary.” Due to each patrol, crime scene, and situation being different, police officers have to go with their instincts and use their knowledge and skills to take control of the situation. After several reports of police brutality, the Supreme Court began to observe...
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...In today’s world all over the news stories about unlawful killings bombings and the use of deadly physical force are being portrayed as just while a handful of those cases are viewed as unjustified. Police and other officials need to understand the definition of deadly force and the differences between justifiable and excessive. The public needs someone they can depend on and if the police are using deadly force in harmful ways that trust is lost. However, police should be prepared to shoot to kill in any situation because the outcomes cannot always be determined. Police should use deadly physical force in only necessary situations to protect the public. A 15 year old boy named Jordan Edwards from Mesquite High School who weighed 150 pounds and was nearly six feet tall, was shot in the head by a police officer from Dallas suburbs over this past weekend. The police officer whose name still has not been released allegedly killed Jordan Edwards, and also gave false information on the way the incident happened. According to the officer who shot Jordan said, “The car was reversing down a street towards the officer in a very aggressive manner.” Police Chief Jonathan Haber told reporters at a news conference that the video showed opposite of what actually did happen. The unknown officer fired when the car was...
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...the Moral Justification of Force in the UK Police Consequentialism and the Use of Deadly Force Among Police Personnel in the UK Against a backdrop of a democratic society, the use of deadly force by the police in countries such as the UK seems implausible for human rights activists. First, police officers are expected to uphold the human rights of every individual hence, civilian rights are always preserved even in criminal cases where the due process of law is considered to be the golden standard in the judicial system. Thus, threading the line between regulations and policies of the agency as well as the ethical and moral dilemma in the use of deadly force predisposes police officers to question the legitimacy as well as the moral justifications in their use of deadly force. While several philosophical theorists have argued for different justifications through philosophical theories, the theory of consequentialism appears to be the one that closely justifies the use of deadly force among the police. Before examining the moral and ethical arguments for the use of deadly force using the consequentialist paradigm, let us first examine the important aspects of deadly force and the use of it by the UK police. First, deadly force as defined by Geller and Scott (23) pertains to the force reasonably capable of causing death or bodily harm. According to this definition, an act that can kill should be consumated before it can be considered as a deadly force hence; threats are not considered...
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...unnecessary use of force when dealing with citizens is what police brutality is defined as(Police Brutality). The term “police brutality” has been used since 1872 when the Chicago Tribune reported the beating of a civilian that was under arrest. There have been countless cases where unarmed African Americans have been shot or physically harmed to the extent where they are killed when the citizen is unarmed. The police force is supposed to make America feel protected and should enforce the nation’s law. Officers should be prime examples for the youth of the nation. Throughout the years it seems police has especially targeted minorities. Citizens are being mistreated because of wrongful assumptions made by police officers. Police...
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...Police Use of Force Introduction When we look at the term, use of force, and how the police use this for the protection of the officers and the lives of others, this becomes a very debatable part of a police officer's job. The U.S. has experienced a number of incidents over the course of 20 years involving police use of force that are cause for concern among the public. People get upset about perceived misuse of police force, but say little when police officers are gunned down or seriously injured during violent encounters or situations that escalate to lethal action. It is important to know that police departments strive to reduce the amount of use of force incidents within their respective agencies. Are there alternatives to a potentially deadly encounter? One may ask, Can the officer step back and call for assistance? If the suspect's identity is known, rather than engaging in a foot pursuit, can an officer make an arrest later? Can the officer not shoot to kill? Can the officer shoot in a non-life threatening part of the body? By nature, every situation is different and must be evaluated on an individual basis. Stepping back is not always an option for an officer. When the life of an officer is threatened by someone pointing a gun at them, or by any other life threatening means, and not knowing the assailant’s intentions, this forces the officer to make a split-second decision. That decision will determine if the officer will live or die. In the early nineties...
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...In the modern day media, the debate of police abusing their power comes up quite often. A recent example of that would be the shooting of Michael Brown which occurred in Ferguson, Missouri just 2 months ago. This was an example of a police officer using excessive force. Throughout time the idea of Police using excessive force has been recognized more and more. A pretty interesting statistic I found was from More (1972), which basically says since the early 1970s, police murdered a person a day since the statistics were conducted. According to Hickman and Piquero(2009), the question of trusting police to cooperate with citizens has been recognized since the 1960s when America was split because of race. Of course many of you know the 1960s were a time where blacks were beaten because of the Civil Rights Act. Because of incidents and statistics like these, excessive use of police force should be limited more than it currently is. Excessive of use of police force a lot of times can cause many outrages throughout a society. Things like rallies as well as riots can occur. Take for example the Rodney King case. The whole entire city of Los Angeles literally went into chaos because of the verdict on the trial....
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... These rules are the reason why we can talk walks, go to school, and perform a various amount of activities without the fear of being persecuted by another individual; however there are in fact, those who commit crimes ranging from theft to assault and even murder. In accordance to the law, the police-force are given the power and authority to persecute any person who commits a crime. When an individual commits a crime that warrants a physical means to stoop them, the police-force are put in charge of persecuting them. In short, the “Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore...
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...Policing in the Future: Use of Force CJA333 May 11, 2009 Policing in the Future: Use of Force The role of being a police officer is one of the most stressful and challenging tasks one can be charged with. An officer is expected to assess any given situation and is always supposed to make the right decision when dealing with that situation. This can be very difficult to deal with when a situation is becoming very intense and almost out of hand. An officer must gain control of the situation, restore order, and ensure safety for themselves and for civilians. However, ensuring the safety for an individual is difficult when an officer has to use force on the individual. The use of force is a very sensitive topic because officers are authorized to use force if they deem it necessary and that can go to lethal force. The majority of the public does not always agree with the use of force and excessive force is always looked at if any force is used. An officer is supposed to use force, but not too much force. Policing is a thankless job and one that brings a great deal of responsibility and risk. The officers must deal with having to use force and the management and superiors within a department are supposed to ensure proper training and review of any use of force. Ultimately the police must respect individual rights, and protect the community, even if that means using force. The use of force has and will always draw critical reviews from society...
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...Police Brutality against Minorities Tiffany Harris ENG/147 November 23, 2015 University Of Phoenix Back in 2000 my cousin Andre Harris was killed by a Correctional Police Officer in front of a crack house. Did you know back in 2000 Trayvon Martin was killed by a neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, my point is when is it going to stop? They were two authority figures who didn’t serve their community in a good way. The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that African Americans, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police, insert the paraphrased material (“Deadly Force, in Black and White,” 2014) . That’s why I don’t understand the term Black Lives Matter, because every life matter when it’s taken away by violence by the police or by one each other. A great deal of society views officers as heroic and honorable individuals, whose purpose is to protect and serve the community. For so many officers, this description is true, however for others; violence and brutality against innocent people is part of getting the job done so should we consider that as protection. For so many years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other reasons that has cost innocent lives. The involvement of police officers in police brutality against minority groups causes...
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...The Fist of Justice: Why Force is Used The question of why police may or may not use force in a particular encounter is difficult to answer. A number of scholars have attempted to answer this question explicitly and have theorized a number of different explanations to answer this question. The question of why police decide to use force, may be harder to answer than originally anticipated because of the gap that exists between theoretical versus practical police work, coupled with the vast differences in environmental factors. Currently, the answers remain convoluted at best. The purpose of this document is to shed light on research that has been previously completed in regards to trying to better answer the question of why law enforcement...
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...lets officers to be able to stop someone, as you need to only have reasonable suspicion that the person in question has or is about to commit a crime. As for the frisk the officer needs to show that it was for his own safety. For example, say a police officer is conducting a stop and frisk, during the stop and frisk he puts his hand into the suspect's pocket and finds a baggie of cocaine. First thing that the officer did wrong is that he or she put their hand in the suspect's pocket during a stop and frisk. In Criminal Law Stop and Frisk article by Allan Ashman, the office can make a quick...
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...responsibility. Police are on the front line of society’s efforts to resolve conflict. That’s why police brutality is such a betrayal of our peer’s sense of safety from its state law enforcement systems. Police brutality is when the police uses excessive force, usually physical, but also forms of verbal attacks and intimidation, against any person. Police brutality is nothing new to the American people. No matter what state you’re in, what race you are, or your gender, everyone has seen or experienced some type of police brutality. Attitudes towards the police is not the sole function of race or class; they are also affected by the resident’s perceptions of the community’s social capital. Over the...
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...Should people in the United States be afraid of our police force? In the past year the ongoing battle between our nation and the ones who protect and serve their communities has escalated to a point where every police officer is in question, but should it be the officer in question or the community he is protecting, many officers have good character, but some are corrupted and see race as correlation to crime, other officers are tagged with crimes done by other officers. Officers should be required to wear body cameras while on duty so it shows any questionable move they make, any good deed the officer does, and it will show what they see from their prospective in critical moments. Everyone knows there are good and bad people in this world,...
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...Criminology | Why All Police Officers Should Carry Tasers | Why All Police Officers Should Carry Tasers In this day and age self-protection is always a key concern for many people. The fear of crime and even the people who commit crime, there is always a chance that you could get robbed, caught up in physical altercation, or even happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. People in general approach these situations differently and prepare for these situations in different ways. Smart people normally avoid putting themselves in situations like these by just avoiding “problem areas” thus eliminating as much trouble as they possibly can. However, police officers put their lives on the line daily, putting themselves on the front lines against crime willingly putting themselves in the middle of these “problem areas”. Police officers are certified and carry many different kinds of personal protective equipment, and the military also happens to use a lot of the same equipment as well much of which I have personal experience. Most commonly is firearms, batons, and pepper spray but there is also the Taser. A problem for law enforcement was that police needed an actual method to enforce the law when criminals were hazardous or non-compliant. Officers are always responding to 911 calls and such, it forces them to make quick decisions and use their training and tools issued to them. In most cases, officers strive to resolve incidents quickly with no injuries. Non-lethal...
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