Justin2013

Justin Chen, 5/30/14, B2   Police Brutality

Imagine a policeman shot you because he thought the silver umbrella you are holding was a samurai sword. Now imagine he didn’t get punished by the law. Imagine a policeman TAZED a 7 year old in your school instead of calming him down when he saw him misbehaving. These are really stupid and unwise things that police sometimes do. But at the same time, they prove that the police have a very unfair advantage against civilians when it comes to violence. Police brutality is when policemen use unnecessary violence, like verbal abuse, physical torture, and intimidation toward a victim. It also means false arrests, racism, suspect torture, or even sexual abuse from a policeman. There are so many incidents, from the slightest mistake to an absolutely inhuman action. There are even stories that a policeman that handcuffed a female driver because he wanted to rape her! Police brutality happens in almost every country. America had reported that they have more than 200 cases about police brutality each year, killing 500 innocent civilians each year. Police officers do have permission to use violence if necessary. Even the public expects them to do so. But some people agree that police are overly violent because of their personality traits. Between 2003 and 2009, 4,813 people died while they were getting arrested. But 57% of the people that were killed were not white. It is possible that the police have xenophobia against other colored persons. (Xenophobia is dislike or fear of people from other countries) The best way to stop police brutality is to write a letter to lawyers, Mayors, Police departments, or anyone that can change how police behave. Try to include laws in the letter to get a better chance of being accepted. Spread the news about police brutality if possible because you might have more support if something goes wrong. If a police asked you to do something, you better do it. Always ask permission before you make an action or else they might get nervous and do something unnecessary at you. If there are more innocent killings then real arrests, more unnecessary damage then helpful actions, then what are police for? Are the police saying that they are only going to serve and protect themselves? If we want them to protect ourselves instead of harming ourselves, we really should do something about it. It could happen in your life when a careless police think you are a crook. So whenever it happens, we have to tell them what they did wrong so there would be no one to encourage them to do the same mistake again!

[] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality