Police Brutality

2 Pages 620 Words

Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed. But, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not, police brutality should be addressed. The use of excessive force may or may not be large problem, but it should be looked into by both the police and the public.

For those people who feel racism is not a factor in causing the use of excessive force, here is a startling fact. In Tampa Bay, Florida, five men died while in the custody of the Tampa Bay police Department (C.C. 27). The thing is, the Tampa Bay Police Department is made up of mostly white officers, but of the five men who died, none where white. Four of the five men that died where African Americans, and the other man was a Mexican National.

If the incident in Tampa Bay does not show a person racism, this event between 1986 to 1989, but in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year, twenty-three Latin Americans were killed by police gunfire.

When asked how he felt about racism being involved in police brutality, Yussuf Naimkly of the University of Regina commented: “Excessive police force against blacks has always been tolerated, because as a formally enslaved minority African Americans are trapped in a cultural context specifically designed to inhibit their development and thus minimize their threat to white hegemony” (C.C. 72)

Executive Director of Police Misconduct Lawyers Referral Service Karol Heppe commented, “Brutality against minorities is a daily occurrence in Los Angeles,” she says. “The difference this time is someone videotaped it (C.C. 36). Another shocking incident of police brutality occurred in Reynoldsberg, Ohio. A group of offices named themselves “S.N.A.T.” squad. This acronym stood for “Special Nigger Arrest Team” and they made it a point to harass African Americans whenever.

“The number of people killed by police has gone down from...