
There are very few careers with as high demands for an ethical standard as law enforcement. Although there are many careers, which require a dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there are a lot of responsibility and expectations placed on a law enforcement officer. With some careers allowing for careful thoughts and planning, a police officer is often demanded into a situation with little knowledge as to what is about to occur. With a split-second decision, all an officer has to rely on is prior training which allows the officer to successfully navigate in a variety of situations, ending with different outcomes. Walking home at the end of the shift is the daily main goal of every law enforcement officer. 

The perception of excessive use of force has been fiercely debated for the last two to three decades. Police abuse remains one of the most serious human rights violations in the United States. Over the past couple of years, some police officers have acted out in ways that have left the public with questions as to be “Are we protected by our law enforcement officers, or targeted?” With excessive use of force used by some officers, the perception of the public is police brutality. What is Police brutality? Police brutality is an act of misconduct done by a member law enforcement through the use of an extreme amount of force to physically, mentally, or emotionally attack a member of society. However, with continuous civil disobedience, cases over the last 3 years has sparked the mindset of police brutality, which have grown at an exponential rate. Many cases of police brutality has come to where the victim is of a different ethnicity. Most cases of police brutality are brought to our attention through public media, whether it’s the local news, Facebook, YouTube, etc., with several showcasing’s of disturbing and unlawful situations. Some may say that prejudice toward the minority culture may be the root cause of this recent problem, on the other hand, some may say that resulting social inequalities towards the minorities may bring about frustration thus causing police officers to use more force than often. Which then leaves the public to question, “Is excessive force in police brutality race related?”

It all started back in time in 1991 when a mostly white jury acquitted the Los Angeles police officers who were filmed on video beating an African American by the name of Rodney King, which later started riots. On March 3, 1991, Mr. Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police, after a high speed chase. Once caught, four Los Angeles Police Department officers began to pull King out of the car and beat him brutally, while everything was being filmed by Mr. George Holliday. The four officers who were involved were indicted on charges of excessive use of force and assault with a deadly weapon, until after a three month trial were a predominantly white jury acquitted the officers, resulting in the violent 1992 Los Angeles riots.  Several years after, on June 17, 2012, King was found deceased in his swimming pool who then later became a symbol of racial tension in America. 

After the Rodney King case in 1991, a whole new era begin with a war between the African American culture and law enforcement. Over the last 5 years, there has been several cases leading up to the question whether or not excessive force in police brutality is race related or not. Beginning on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, a 28 year old Hispanic man by the name of George Zimmerman fatally shot 17 year old African American Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch coordinator where Martin temporarily lived with his father. On that day, Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during an altercation between the two. Similar to the Rodney King case, Zimmerman was charged with Martin's murder but acquitted at trial on self-defense grounds. The incident was reviewed by the Department of Justice for potential civil rights violations, but no additional charges were filed, citing insufficient evidence. With rioting occurring with the African America race against law enforcement in the state of Florida, just added gas to the fire.

From Ferguson to Baton Rouge caused even more racial tension between the black community and law enforcement, due to the fact of excessive use of force. From Jamar Clark, Yvette Smith, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown, to the recent case of Walter Scott, were all cases of African Americans who were fatally shot by white officers from different police departments around the world. All resulting in several riots across the world has left the minds of the minorities wondering, if they are protected or targeted by law enforcement being that you never hear cases about white Americans being killed by law enforcement. Is it that the media don’t blast it or is it not happening? With none of the officers getting indicted but, acquitted has left the minority community with several questions as to why minorities are getting targeted. It comes to the question as to whether or not minorities in the US are not feeling protected anymore. Due to the fact of this, it has brought about many cases and to where the minorities are starting to take problems into their own hands and not calling law enforcement, which is starting to be a huge factor in crime control rising over the US. Not only with crime is rising, to me it’s starting to make this world separate between the white community and the minorities due to the minorities group being formed “Black Lives Matter.”

Black Lives Matter (BLM), is an international activist movement that was created in 2012 after the Trayvon Martin case. Black Lives Matter is a chapter based national organization working for the validity of Black life. BLM started originating in the African American community, where it campaigns against violence and perceived racism toward African Americans. To most people, Black Lives Matter is a contribution that is strictly about extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. According to Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, who are the founders of the movement, stated that BLM is not just a movement against police killings of black people, however, it extends to the broader issues of racial profiling, inequality in the United States Criminal Justice System, and police brutality of the African American people. In 2012 the movement begin with the hashtag of “BlackLivesMatter” on social media after the case where George Zimmerman was acquitted for the death of Trayvon Martin. In 2014, the BLM movement became nationally known, due to its demonstrations resulting in protest and rioting in the streets after the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. Since then, participants in the movement have demonstrated and represented more victims against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody.  The Black Lives Matter movement has had many reactions to the movement. The US population's perception of BLM varies considerably by race, however, has brought about many other movements as “All Lives Matters,” and “Blue Lives Matter.”  “All Lives Matter” has been criticized for misunderstanding the message of "Black Lives Matter" and “Blue Lives Matters” was created by supporters of the police, backing them up in the use of force policy that law enforcement were trained to do.

On the other hand of the whole side of Police brutality, there are many supporters of our law enforcement officers around the world, even after the several cases that has come out. Lately, there has been a war between the public and our law enforcement officer. With the media having a huge part in this, because of them broadcasting on certain cases blowing them out of proportion, has given our law enforcement officers a different perspective to the public. Some civilians are not trusting our officers anymore, which are causing them to feel like they need to handle their own problems instead of calling law enforcement, which are causing our crime rate to rise over the US. With some thinking its police brutality others as well as law enforcement officers are saying it’s what they were taught during the training period of becoming a law enforcement officer. As everyone knows, training and real live scenarios varies in different ways, due to the time effect that it has between the two.

In every state throughout the US, training for every law enforcement officer differs, due to the different state laws. As training is paramount, safety is the main goal of every officer at the end of every shift. With law enforcement being one of the most dangerous careers to pursue, every situation that an officer is called upon, could take a different turn in a matter of time. Even though every officer goes through training for several weeks, they can never get trained for every situation in the world, just like every officer doesn’t know every law that abides in their state. From robberies, fights, traffic stops, domestic disturbance to domestic violence, every situation has its ability to go from life to death. When an officer is dispatched to a call, he/she doesn’t have all the details of the call so yet they don’t have any idea of what’s to come out it.  Some officers can go into a call just thinking he/she is going to give advice, however, on the flip side, within a split-second they can be in a situation where they are fighting for their life. Just as anyone would want, an officer wants to go home as well to his family at the end of every shift.

Across the US, every law enforcement are trained differently, however, when it comes to “Use of force,” they all have to follow the same continuum. Every law enforcement agency must use the same “Use of force Continuum” to guide their use of force.  The policy describes an escalating series of action that every law enforcement officer may take to handle every situation.  The “Use of Force Continuum” has many levels of defense, however, every officer is instructed to respond with a level of force that is proportional to the situation at hand. The continuum acknowledge that an officer may move up the ladder in the continuum in a matter of seconds depending on the situation. The “Use of Force Continuum” has 5 different levels of defense for every officer to follow. Starting with Officer’s Presence, Verbalization, Empty Hand Control, Less- Lethal Methods, and ending with Lethal “Deadly” Force, are the 5 steps of defense that law enforcement officers live by today.

Officers Presence, which is the first step of the continuum, has been deemed to be the best way to resolve a situation due to the fact that there is no force used. Officer presence is where an officer identifies his/herself, stating their name and the agency that they work for. The key factor to Officer Presence is that the officer must be in some type of uniform to identify that he is a law enforcement of some agency. Verbalization being the second step of the continuum. This is where force is not being used physically, however, this is where the officers gives basic commands. Verbalization is merely where officers issue calm, and nonthreatening commands such as “Let me see your hands, identification or registration. Some officers may increase the volume of their voice and give shorter commands to try and gain compliance. Common short commands are “Don’t Move,” or “Stop.” The third command being “Empty Hand Control” is where an officer starts to get physical to gain control of a situation. There are 2 elements of the “Empty Hand Control” known as; the soft technique and the hard technique. With the soft technique, officers most likely use their hands to grab and hold an individual to restrain them. Sometimes with going to joint locks to help with the restraint. The Hard Technique, officers uses punches, kicks, and knees to help take down an individual who is resisting or not complying. Majority of Law enforcement officers carries up to 50 pounds of equipment on their duty belts. Some equipment being Less Lethal and some being of the Deadly Force each piece of equipment is beneficial to the officer to help in a time of defense. Less Lethal Methods, being the fourth level of the continuum, officers use less lethal weapons to sometimes gain control of a situation. Blunt impact weapons known as the baton, is normally used to immobilize a combative person. Pepper spray which are the chemicals, are used to help restrain an individuals as well, which burn parts of the individual’s body mostly effecting the eyes. Last, but not least the Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) are what most officers are beginning to use. CEDs are known as “Tasers” which is a small gun shaped weapon, that discharges a high-voltage, low amperage jolt of electricity shock at a distance.  Lethal Force known as “Deadly Force” is the fifth step of the continuum, which every officer and family member hate to see being used. Officers use lethal weapons known as a firearm to gain control of a situation only when a suspect poses a serious threat to the officer or anther individual. Even though there are steps to the levels of the “Use of Force Continuum,” different situations can make an officer escalate from level one straight to level five, or even starting at level two reaching level four. This is known as the “Split-Second Syndrome” which states that an officer can reach the highest level of the continuum with a split second to defend his/her life. It doesn’t stop here, however, to the public they want to know “How much force does it take to identify the force as Police brutality?” 

With that question being on mind to some of the civilians across the US, one thing that is asked to some civilians is, “Why do people try and fight the police?” Over the last several years, respect for our law enforcement has decreased tremendously, which has caused the police to become a target. There is starting to become several civilians who stand against our law enforcement officers, due to the fact of some previous cases where some officers was acquitted by a jury. First, thought being brought up is racism, is the most commonly used word to describe a lot of law enforcement officers. The public however, doesn’t take the time to look at the details and evidence of the case, they are just soon to come up with their own conclusion which then sparks the media’s attentions, causing them to broadcast different stories, going against our law enforcement officers. Once the media broadcast, it then begins to spread nationally around the world, causing riots and protesting to occur in different cities and towns. With most protesting and rioting turning violent, there has been several landmarks that has been destroyed leaving the town a disaster. This then leads to many law enforcement officers are out in full gear to try and defuse a situation, only causing it worse on every law enforcement officer, which results in more people becoming victims and suspects of law enforcement.

Law enforcement officer once again are one of very few careers with as high demands for an ethical standard.  Law enforcement requires a lot of dedication to doing the right thing, with a lot of responsibilities that trail along. If the civilians of the world would just get racism out of the way as the key factor and respect law enforcement more than a lot of the victim rate would decrease that are caused by law enforcement, having to use a lot of force where a situation could have ended differently. No one will ever be able to understand the life of a police officer unless they have been walking in the shoes of one. Just like everyone wants to live life to the fullest, so does our law enforcement officers. 
