Mercedes Zuniga (819 words)

Mercedes Zuniga
Professor Norton
English 1C
5/25/2017
Deadly Use of Force: Police Brutality
In recent years, police actions, particularly police abuse has come into view of a wide, public and critical eye. While citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that they must also keep a watchful eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve.Police officers have beaten and shot unresisting suspects. They have misused batons, chemical sprays, and electroshock weapons. They have injured andkilled people by placing them in dangerous restraint holds. I believe racism and police brutality goes hand in hand. This has caused a major concern in today’s society in the United States.
On March 3, 1991 in California, Rodney King an African American, was pulled over after a high-speed chase, and after stopping was beaten by four white police officers (Worsnop 635). Tracy Brock also an African American was arrested in Manhattan in November of 1986. An officer smashed his head through a plate glass window, when Brock refused to go into the officer’s lunchroom (Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department 14). Ki Tae Kim a Korean grocer was assaulted when he was accused of passing a counterfeit bill. He was punched in the face, his head was slammed into the counter, and the officer also subjected him to racial slurs (Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department 17). Marcos Maldonado a Latino grocer was mistaken for a suspect after an armed robbery to his store. He was handcuffed, thrown to the floor, repeatedly kicked, andbeaten with the officer’snightstick (Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department 17). Abner Louima a Haitian immigrant was arrested outside a dance club in Brooklyn, and was brutally assaulted when he arrived at the police station. These are just a fewexamples of the people who have beenaffected of police brutality, and racism.

There are five stages through which force can progress and lead to brutality: verbal persuasion, unarmed physical force, force using non-lethal weapons, force using impact weapons and deadly force, which most of the officers mentioned before fell into this stage. The deadly force stage is only to be used when an officer’s life or another person’s life is in danger. The deadly force stage should be terminated, if not made illegal in the United States. By having the “deadly force”stage, by law you are permitting someone to commit a murder.In many of the cases stated before these guidelines were violated, and stronger action was used on the citizen than necessary. The officers who were accused in these cases were charged with only minor offenses, and some were charged with nothing at all. Stronger action should have been enforced on the police officers that committed these crimes. All of these victims mentioned are from minority groups, and were harmed by white New York City police officers.In less than four years fifty-five people have died whilebeing in police custody, in the New York City Police Department (Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department 8). This number compared to earlier statistics seems to be low, but still seems extremely high, for the rules and regulations the officers are supposed to be following.
Many law enforcement officials appear to have a tough exterior towards crime, but are very sensitive to crime on the inside. Police officers build up negative feelings towards certain races, sexes, or religions. Officers tend to get the impression that if one or a few people treat them with disrespect,thenother people of that same sex, race, or religion will treat the officer inthe same way. It isproven that less than five percent of all cops are the “bad element”,but iftheother ninety-five percent stand around and do nothing, then that is where the real problem lies (Worsnop 636).
Whether or not a person believes police brutality is a serious problem,it must be stopped. In some cases, where