The Effect Of Police Brutality Essay

1
Police Brutality
Police brutality is still one of the most serious human violations in the United States. The intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation by police officers persists because of overwhelming barriers to accountability. Police brutality can be from calling a citizen by his or her name to a death by a policeman’s bullet. What the average citizen thinks of when he hears the term, however, it is something midway between these two occurrences which can be more common to what the police profession knows as alley court. These facts make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often repeat their offenses.
Widespread police brutality exists in all cities and many countries. The system that is set up to deal with these abuses all had similar failings in each city and other countries. Complainants often face enormous difficulty in seeking administrative punishment or criminal prosecution of officers who have committed human rights violations. A national survey was taken by Seattle Times and states that had seventy percent of all police crimes against the public go unreported (Database of Abusive Police).Despite claims to the contrary from city officials where abuses have become scandals in the media, efforts to make meaningful reforms have fallen short. The scenarios are very similar from city to city. It is a fact that officers who repeatedly commit human rights violations tend to be small minority, but are still routinely protected by silence of their fellow officers and by flawed systems of reporting. Data is also lacking regarding the police departments’ response to those incidents
2
and their plans or actions to prevent brutality. Where data does exist, there is no evidence that police administrators or, prosecutors utilize available information in a way to deter abuse. There is very much a need in most...