Police Brutality

Essay by sunshine4432College, UndergraduateA+, May 2006

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It is human nature for problems to arise any time one side is told what to do by

another. With regard to police abuse, there will be many officers who feel that their job of

fighting escalating street crime, gangs, narcotics violations, and other

violent crimes is difficult enough already, and that worrying about excessive

policy for abusive behavior will only further decrease their ability to

fight crime effectively, efficiently, and safely. Citizens, however, have

been caught up in this gung-ho attitude, and police are more and more often

crossing the line of investigation and interrogation with abusive behavior.

This abuse must be monitored so that police do not forget who they are

serving--not themselves, but the public. This means that even the

criminals, who are a part of the public, have certain rights, particularly,

civil rights. All citizens must be aware of these rights to protect

themselves against over-aggressive officers who take advantage of their

position as badge and gun holders to intimidate and abuse civilians for

personal or departmental goals.

Such conflicts have significant implications on departmental and

administrative policy procedures. One of the main police abuse problems is

physical brutality. The main goal here should be to get the police

departments to adopt and enforce a written policy governing the use of

physical force. The policy should restrict physical force to the narrowest

possible range of specific situations. For example, their should be

limitations on the use of hand-to-hand combat, batons, mace, stun guns, and

firearms. However, limiting polices' actions will bring much debate,

especially from police officers and administrators themselves. Many feel

that their firepower is already too weak to battle the weapons criminals

have on the streets, and limiting their legality of gun use will not only

endanger them, but the innocent...