
 The people in uniforms, paid by the government to protect and serve are abusing their power now more than ever before. We live in constant fear of the police. It’s appalling that too often many of those who are marginalized feel threatened instead of a sense of safety when they see a navy uniform. Through my paper I will give multiple examples of police brutality. The police brutality is a hard enough situation to remedy, but now as a result major riots have broken out that have caused cities over half a million dollars in damages to each. One of the biggest protests against police brutality is in Hungary. They have had mass outbreaks of police brutality for the last 3 years and it is diving the country and causing major problems. The quote that they use to unite the country is “Together we stand, divided we fall.” If people would start to respect others, treat others how they wanted to be treated, and just took a second more to consider the outcome of their actions before they do them, and not only for themselves, but consider how it will affect others, the world could be a much more peaceful place. If we continue to treat others with disrespect because their opinion contradicts yours, the world will continue to be at war with one another, police brutality will never end, and crime rates will continue to rise. 

The main reason I have behind writing this paper is I have dealt with police brutality first hand. On October 28th of 2016 I drove to my family’s country club to drop off balloons for my grandmothers 80th birthday. On the way back to my house I was driving 67 mph in a 35 zone, which is highly unlawful. As the police officer pulled me over I started to collect my license and registration, and when I looked out my window the only thing I could see is down the barrel of a pistol. The cop immediately told me to raise my hands and step out of the car. As I did so the cop pressed the gun to my back and placed me in handcuffs. As he placed me in the back of the cop car and ran the tags of the car he started to lecture me on what I had done wrong, but the one line that made me cringe inside was “when I pulled you over at the speed that you were going I for sure though you were a young black male who had stolen a car.” Once he said that I couldn’t give him any respect. As my parents arrived on the scene they talked to the police officer and I was let go because of the way the officer treated me we were going to sue for police brutality, but he agreed to not report it and we agreed to not press charges. Ever since then I have been in constant fear of being pulled over.  Police officers like this should be taken off the streets before they accidently pull the trigger on an innocent child who was only speeding. 

Once somebody is profiled solely off of their race, problems begin to occur. Over the last couple of years racial profiling has seen a massive surge: “In 2009 261 officers were given citations based upon unlawful arrests” (Lendman). One of the best examples is when Oakland, CA transit officer, Johannes Mesherle arrested Robert Davis solely on the basis of being African American. Once he was cuffed and beaten with a baton, Officer Mesherle shot Robert in the back when he was face down. How could somebody shoot such a defenseless man in a situation where deathly force was not necessary? During the trial people were outraged; starting riots outside the courthouse, blocking streets, and protesting through the whole trial. The Legal Dictionary defines a homicide as "The act of unlawfully killing another human being unintentionally,"(Lendmen). The absence of intent distinguishes it from voluntary manslaughter. Many states don't define it or do it vaguely. Wallin & Violent Crime Attorneys say in California it carries a two-four-year sentence. However, since a gun was used, Judge Robert Perry can add three to 10 additional years. It was a blessing that Mersherle was put in prison but is a couple years in prison going to bring Robert back? Some things are unforgivable, and murdering somebody with no cause is definitely one of those things. Some facts that I found about 2009’s police brutality shocked me. There have been “3,445 reports of police misconduct,” over “4,000 officers have been charged with misconduct,” “one out of every 266 officers accused of violent crimes,” and there is “an average of a police brutality incident every 96 minutes.” (Lendmen). What is even more horrifying is that institutions that represent the police continue to deny the fact that there is any issue of racial profiling. These facts are outrageous; how can the government sit by and pay these people our tax money to carry out these crimes. Things need to change very soon for this country, so we can live in peace and not fear the law.

Another incident that shocked the nation on October 9th, happened in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Robert Davis was out walking to get a pack of cigarettes and was stopped by three on duty officers. The officers reported that Davis was “highly intoxicated” (Pace) at the time of the incident. Davis was beaten repetitively to the point where he was unconscious. The video shows him putting up no resistance during this whole conflict. The issue with the polices accusation of intoxication is that Robert has been sober for the last 25 years of his life after being an alcoholic. This incident was broadcasted all over the news and it caused riots across the country. When the police violate the law in ways such as these it causes people to erupt in anger for justifiable reasons. People lose trust in the country and what we stand for, they stop believing that the police’s true job is to protect and serve, and they start to rebel against the government. This video is just absolutely vulgar. I can’t begin to comprehend how you could be racist to the point where you arrest and beat somebody just for the color of their skin. I also can’t believe that as these events continue to happen across the country there is no call for action from the government to change the way police are trained. Although the officers were all relieved of duty after this event and served time in prison, it can never compare to the tremendous pain that Robert had to go through and still goes through. Incarcerating the officers who carried out the attack is the right thing to do however, this doesn’t change the systems in place. The thing that makes me cringe the most is that during the beating an innocent bystander was recording the event on his phone when an officer came up to him and told him to stop recording. When the man refused the officer took his phone, leaned him over the car, jabbed him in the stomach, and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade. Even as states started to compromise with the people and force all on duty officers to wear body cams, officers refused to do so.  This just shows that the officers knew what they were doing was unlawful, but continued to do it. Even when somebody stood up for what was right, the power of the badge can be used to stop it. These are the officers that we need off the streets. We need the proper officers out there protecting and serving the community, not their own personal interests. 

In 2016 alone there have already been 896 people that have been killed by the police in the United States alone. February and March had over 100 people killed each month! One fact that surprised me though was that more Native Americans are being killed by police than African Americans. The worst part about this isn’t even the killing of the innocent people; it’s that so many of these officers who kill these innocent people get away incarceration free because the jury sees the acts the bestowed as self-defense. On April 12th, 2015 Freddie Gray was apprehended by police while they were on bike patrol. The violence of the arrest left Freddie unable to walk because of how badly the police had beaten him, and was then thrown into the back of a police van. No officer placed a seatbelt on Mr. Gray so as he was on his way to be booked, he was thrown around the backseat of the van and eventually it killed him. There was a total of six officers that had involvement in his death and only three have been on trial, and none have been ruled guilty. On June 23, the latest trial in Gray’s case found Officer Caesar Goodwin not guilty of second-degree depraved heart murder, reckless endangerment, second-degree assault, and manslaughter. Goodwin drove the police van where Gray suffered the spine injury that ultimately led to his death, didn’t secure the 25-year-old’s seat belt, and waited to call a medic when Gray was in distress. 

Police are so quick to make assumptions about who they are about to arrest. They see a dark skinned man with a hood on and hands in his pockets and just expect him to be on his way to rob somebody. In Minneapolis Jamar Clark was shot in the back after being put in handcuffs. The whole encounter was recorded by an innocent bystander and you can clearly see Clark putting up no resistance after being cuffed. Officer Shwarz was on the scene for only 61 seconds before pulling his trigger to end Jamar’s life. These are the acts that should have a punishment of life in prison. The state of Minnesota disagreed though. They ruled that all officers involved to be ruled innocent and they have all returned to their on duty patrols.  It is officers like these that people are terrified of. They have killed innocent people and have been told that they are not wrong for doing so. This Will just lead to the murders of more innocent people. 

Police brutality is not only prevalent in the United States; thousands of incidents occur across the globe yearly. Ever since the police were formed we have had a problem with them abusing their power whether it was the Roman tax collectors stealing money or police shooting an innocent black man. Countries have started to revolt against their countries because of this. In Turkey at Gezi park thousands came to peacefully protest against the demolishing of it. The people of Turkey all sat in the park in silence to stop the deforestation. As the police started to get involved things began the get very hostile. The police began to use force to make the protestors stand up. As the protestors refused they began to burn the protestors tents, fire off tear gas into the crowds, pepper spray protestors, and use water cannons. At least 12 people had to go to the hospital. Police officers hospitalized 12 people because they were trying to protect a park from being destroyed. Police have to be smarter than this. There are better ways of controlling people rather than using blunt force. The only way that the protestors get their word cross is by getting into mobs, screaming chants to provoke their message, and burning items to get people’s attention. Through my eyes I see roughly 100 protestors trying to end a problem that the world has by doing whatever they have to do to get somebody who has the power to make a change to take notice. Peacefully walking around and pouting isn't going to cut it in these times of crisis. People are forced to go out and create madness just so that they can get their message out to the world. None of those protestors are out there making fires and screaming because they just want to annoy people, they are out there because they see a true problem with their countries and they want changes to be made. They are forced to do illegal things just to be noticed.

Police brutality has been flourishing throughout the world ever since the police was formed. Once people are in control of enforcing the law, they feel as they are above the law. Police use it to their advantage by turning on their lights to get home faster, pulling people over just to make their quotas, and by arresting people and treating them with little to no respect all because they are the ones who are wearing the badge. One thing that the government does to increase the rates of police brutality is set quotas and commission for officers. This create an urge to pull over people for unjust reasons. They have to give out a certain amount of tickets ever month/ quarter, and so as their quarter comes to an end if they haven’t met the quota yet they start arresting and ticketing people for just about anything which infuriates the public and causes problems.  I do believe that there’re lawful police officers that are out there doing exactly what they need to do to keep to people of their city safe, but if we continue to have these cases in which people are being killed while they are unarmed and not guilty, the police will forever have that reputation. The only way that we are going to affect the rates of police brutality is if people begin to stand up and start protesting like the Turkish and Brazilian people are doing currently in their country. Our generation is the future of this planet and only us can decide what kind of world we wish to live in, so why not unify and create not an amazing world, but a sanction for all living beings? Doing this alone is never going to work either. People need to realize what is going on in the outside world and make changes. The citizens of every country needs to contact their government and state our problems and not stand down till we start to see resolutions. In times like this is when you truly need somebody by your side. If we want to see this world turn into a better place, every country needs to come together and unify.

Americans have been surrounded by police brutality for the last 100 plus years and it has done nothing but escalade. In order to cut down on the consistently rising rate of police brutality we are going to have to take advice from other countries with less police brutality than us. “Historic rates of fatal police shootings in Europe suggest that American police in 2014 were 18 times more lethal than Danish police and 100 times more lethal than Finnish police, plus they killed significantly more frequently than police in France, Sweden and other European countries.” (Hirschfield) Some reasoning behind why we may have so much violence is because of how easy it is to obtain a lethal weapon in the United States. As long as you are 18 and a legal citizen with no record of any type, you have the ability to purchase a weapon. When there are more guns in circulation this allows guns to fall into the wrong hands and this is when terror happens. Obtaining an illegal gun is almost as easy as obtaining a legal one. Thousands of untraceable Glock-9s, AR-15s, and other deadly weapons are sold on the black market everyday. In the U.S. police training, officers are taught to expect to have a gun drawn on them at every stop they make. This leads them to be to “trigger happy” (Hirschfield) and pull the trigger on a kid holding a candy bar. On fact that stood out the most to me states: “British police have fatally shot only one person wielding a knife since 2008. US police have fatally shot more than 575 people allegedly wielding blades and other such weapons just in the years since 2013.” (Hirschfield) America is the only country in the world that has had the police kill more than 1 person for every 1million people. Our average according to Hirschfield is 3.42 people for every million, and the closest country to us is Denmark with .187. This ratio needs to be lowered as soon as possible and the government needs to realize that this is one of the most dreadful things that occurs in our country. Police do provide a lot of safety for the country as well though. Police officers risk their lives every day to save the public. I thank the police for all they have done for this country and don’t want to blame all police officers for the few that do these bad things, but I want to make it known that cynical officers are out there so be weary. Training of the officers and the whole system that each officer goes through should become less “trigger happy” so that the future can live in more peace and less fear of the law. 
