Hello everyone, welcome to my website about police brutality! If you are anything like me, you might find yourself pondering about police brutality and all the details regarding it. To display my take on the topic I wrote an essay on the major controversy as well as a few pictures with specific cases and examples of police brutality that are happening now. Towards the bottom of the page, I also put up some well known comics, statistics and additional resources. ENJOY!
Controversy over Police Brutality
Right off the bat I asked both of them to
explain to me what their definition of police brutality is. Rinaldo explained police brutality as “the
use of excessive force usually during an arrest but can occur without an
arrest.” Whereas
Metzger said, “To me, police brutality is when an officer uses more force
than required or necessary. Officers are only allowed to use an
amount of force necessary to affect an arrest. The measure of whether an
officer uses too much force to affect an arrest is judged by what the officer
knows at the time of arrest, and would do the same as another prudent officer
would use the same amount of force in the same situation.” Coming to a conclusion of the two, I now see
police brutality as the use of excessive force by over stepping their rules and
boundaries that they were trained to follow.
As I asked
more questions I began to wonder why a police officer would do anything to harm
someone no matter what the circumstances were.
Both officers told me that they have to do what they are told to do and
if people do not listen they need to go to new levels to get people to
listen. If people would do as they were
told, no violence would have to take place.
After I heard them say that I began to think of situations in which that
could happen. A recent event that is
still going on today came to mind. Major
cities all over the United States of America have been fighting with Wall
Street “to take back our democracy and build a new economy.” Many people want
to make a change to the way the world is going but there is a group of people
bringing them down.
Who can control thousands of people
and get the chaos under control? Mayors
around the world are telling police officers everywhere to get protesters off
the streets. The first step officers
took was just telling the protesters go to home. Obviously that did not happen so they began
arresting people but many did not even give their names. It is their job to control these mass crowds
and they needed to have the upper hand so they began handling people roughly in
hopes protesters would slow down. When
that didn’t work they started hitting people with batons and hitting them. Some police began going over the top by
spraying protesters with mace. Anthony Bologna an officer has been seen in
many videos recorded by other protesters is seen spraying countless women in
the eyes with mace. “The
clip, which first received attention when it was picked up by USLAW.com’s YouTube
account, plays in slow-motion, showing a “high ranking
member”(Bologna) of the NYPD approaching a group of women standing behind
orange netting and spraying a substance directly into their faces. The video
identifies the spray as either Mace or pepper-spray, which would concur with
reports the New York Observer received on the ground yesterday from Nathan Schneider of wagingnonviolence.org, who
told us that “a woman who was pepper-sprayed” was speaking to Democracy Now.” Bologna is going to trial to see if he will be terminated or remain a
police officer in the state of New York.
The more and more I read from websites about
what was being done in these cities I began to see the conflict. Some people thought the police were simply
doing their job and following orders no matter how violent. Whereas many people think that officers have
lost their minds! Personally I think
some of the actions of the officers were out of line but not all of them
were. Plus, the officers that were out
of line like Anthony Bologna are either being terminated or given a desk job
until they can get more training to help them handle situations in a less
violent way.
The most famous, controversial case of police
brutality is the Rodney King case. On March
2nd, 1991, Rodney went out with a group of friends were they went to
a game and went out for drinks. When
their night was over Rodney drove home with two passengers in the car. As he drove home he went well over the speed
limit, an officer noticed and tried to pull him over. Rodney did not pull over because he knew he
was over the blood alcohol level and was almost over his probation for
robbery. The officer began calling other
officers to chase Rodney down. After a
long chase, they pulled him over. Immediately
the two passengers in the car followed the police men’s orders. But, Rodney resisted. He would not take their orders and fought
back. The officers then began tasing him
twice while clubbing him with their batons.
At this point, that is not considered to be police brutality. During this incident there was a by standard
that got the whole thing on their video camera.
In the beginning of arresting Rodney they took action and controlled
him. But towards the end of the video
Rodney is laying on the ground motionless and the groups of officers were
continuing to beat and kick him. “"I
felt beat up and like a crushed can. That's what I felt like, like a
crushed can all over, and my spirits were down real low." The end
of the arrest turned into police brutality.
But, the controversy continued when I bought up Rodney King to
Metzger.
He felt that officers took action as they were
trained to do. “The
officers involved in the Rodney King incident never once violated the Policies,
Procedures or General Orders of the Los Angeles Police Department. Every
action they took that night was exactly what they were trained to do in the
police academy.” I went against he said
and stated that in the beginning they followed procedures but beating him when
he is motionless to me is police brutality.
Again, there is the controversy; what is seen as excessive force.
After learning about the Rodney King case, I wondered what
the consequences for officers were when they committed police brutality. I compared what the two different officers
said and of course Dave had more of an answer because he works in a bigger
agency that deals with brutality more often.
Going back to Rinaldo that says “Often time’s people label the use of force by police officers as excessive
but in reality it is usually justified.
If an officer does act outside the law and uses excessive for they are
subject to arrest, termination and federal civil rights charges. It is a very serious crime.” Metzger goes more into detail about how the
consequences are taken into action. “There are many consequences for officers that are caught
engaging in the use of excessive force. Specific consequences depends on
many different things.....was this a first offense for this officer, second
offense? How much excessive force was used? What were the
circumstances of the arrest or incident? Consequences range from a
documented oral counseling to a written letter of reprimand to days off work
(unpaid) to termination. Is there a training issue? Does the
officer need additional training? These are all examples of consequences
from within an agency, and do not include possible criminal charges from the
District Attorney’s Office.” Deciding if
an officer used excessive force is a huge part of whether or not they get a
consequence. Many people cry that a
police officer used too much force and then they are brought to court but many
times, the officer wins because they were just doing what needed to be
done. Metzger said he often has to go to
court to back up a fellow officer because he was part of the case. Again, if people listen to police and follow
orders no violence will occur.
Continuing with the
consequences, Rinaldo says that that is a major reason that brutality has gone
down. Metzger agrees but also says that
brutality has gone down due to technology.
“With the ease and accessibility of
audio/video recording (digital cameras, cell phones, video surveillance), I
believe the amount of incidents of excessive use of force has
declined. One of the first things I tell a new trainee is,
"Remember, you never know who is watching or recording."
Most agencies have video cameras in their patrol vehicles, some agencies
require their officers to audibly record every contact they have in
public. In my agency, we have two cameras inside the patrol vehicle, one
facing forward to the roadway and the second facing backward to the officer
inside the vehicle. There is a microphone inside the vehicle and the
officer wears a second microphone on his person. We also wear an
audio/video recorder on our shirts.” I
couldn’t agree more that technology and the harsh consequences are the main
reason that police brutality doesn’t occur as much as it used to.
Police
brutality does occur but mostly in larger cities and larger agencies. Officers get frustrated when dealing with big
crowds and began looking at problems in a more violent way. They deal with the same problems over and
over again and they grow tired of the bullshit that people give them. When they are told to do a job, it needs to
get done and when people don’t listen they need to take action on a higher
level.
Using force and harming people is
not police brutality. Police brutality
is when an officer crosses a line over what they have been trained by the
police academy. There are always going
to be officers that cross the line and they do get harsh punishments. Then there are officers simply doing what
they feel will control a situation.
Whether an officer used more force than required will always be a
controversy but people should see where officers are coming from and understand
why they do what they do. Follow what
they say and no violence will take place and if an officer does use excessive
force that is not ethical, they will be punished.
Bibliography
·
Mark Rinaldo, Chief of Avon, Connecticut
·
David Metzger, Officer of Atherton,
California
·
"Occupy Wall Street — YES! Magazine." YES! Magazine —
Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions — YES! Magazine. YES!, 6 Oct. 2011. Web.
04 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupywallstreet?gclid=CPbzwvi4nawCFYHe4AodJhjG3A>.
·
Roberts, Paul Craig. "America’s Police Brutality
Pandemic." INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE. NEWS, COMMENTARY & INSIGHT.
Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18460.htm>.
·
Doug Linder. "An
Account of the Los Angeles Police Officers' Trials (TheRodney King Beating
Case)." UMKC School of Law. LAPD Officers Trial. Web. 05 Nov. 2011.
<http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/lapdaccount.html>.
·
Drew Grant. “Occupy
Wall Street’ Update: Alleged
Police Brutality Caught In Pepper-Spray Video” The New York Observer,
9/25/11,
http://www.observer.com/2011/09/occupy-wall-street-update-alleged-police-brutality-caught-on-film-video/
This picture represents police brutality overall. Its states that officers are brutal because they can be.
Rodney King Before and After
Rodney King was the man who was drunk on his way home and got pulled over. When officers gave him orders, he refused and they beat him. Some of society considered it brutaliy, whereas some considered the situation to be perfectly under control. It isTHE most famous controversey over whether this case was police brutality or not.
Police Brutality Comics
Police Brutaliy Statics and Charts
Source www.CopBlock.org
Two Main Sources: