Police Brutality

Thesis Statement

Some officers use extreme measures when it is not needed, police brutality should be addressed.

Introduction

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.

Discussion

Alleged police misconduct due to race dates back to the beginnings of the USA. Many dismiss complaints as a person in the wrong trying to play the race card. Consider this 75% of the people who filed complaints with the CCRB from January to June were african american. Thats not the only astounding number, 50.3% of the Latino background. Only 21% were white. Most of the complaints filed with the CCRB were due to excessive force, offensive language, or discourtesy. The image of the white officer using excessive force on a african american subject is backed up by numbers. According to the CCRB 69.2% of the officers who had complaints filed against them in that same time period were white. If the incident in Tampa Bay does not show a person racism, this event might. In New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year 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)

It is rare for a officer to be criminally prosecuted for using excessive force, and ...