preview

Police Brutality And Its Effect On Society

Better Essays

Police Brutality in the USA Police brutality has adverse effects on society in its entirety and, hence, there is need to stop these acts so as to improve cohesiveness and the observation of the law in society. Police brutality is an old problem that has been around in this country for many years. Unfortunately, civilians have experienced it in their thousands, suffering varying degrees of damages, ranging from injuries or even loss of their lives at the hands of the brutal police. Even more disheartening is the fact that numerous officers in the American police force believe that their brutal and hostile tactics are contributing and giving justice to society, which is their basic role in the world (Vila and Morris 29). However, the …show more content…

This places the police in a difficult situation, whereby they have to assess the situation and decide whether the situations warrants brutal force, but in that split second before making the decision, they could be harmed or even killed (Slansky 83). This is what makes it easy for some officers to feel justified in their abusive brutal actions. Avoiding this quagmire calls for adeptness in the roles of the police, as well as strict discipline that their training can only enhance. Without these qualities, the poor judgement of a police officer means that they compromise on the rights of civilians when they overstep the boundary in efforts to protect their own rights. Regardless of the cause of purported justification most of the situations that people are upset about entail them being faced with verbal and even physical abuse from the police. For instance, a regularly abused constitutional human right is the protection against the act of torture (Kuhns and Knutsson 58). This is further cemented in the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment yet the abusive officers commonly violate these rights in the reported cases of police misconduct. An illustration is the prominent case of Rodney King, which involved members of the Los Angeles Police Department brutally beating down Mr. King, although he was subdued and defenseless (Sklansky 58). Proving abuse of rights, some of these

Get Access