Police Brutality and corrupt cop issues have increasingly risen. The problems posed by the illegal exercise of police power, which is an ongoing reality for individuals of a disfavored race, class, or sexual preference.
There are innocent people beaten or put in jail or prison. They can be helped, but the ones beyond help are dead. There are good cops and there are bad cops. Under the law, article 7 states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane degrading treatment or punishment” (Amnesty 42).
The definition of police brutality is the excessive use of deadly or physical force made by a police officer or officer of the law. By kicking, punching, using weapons, shooting, and killing innocent victims. If every cop followed the articles there would be no brutality. If the court systems barely help, if the police won’t do anything, and the media isn’t around. How can we prevent police brutality? With violence in America steadily rising you might support the fact that cops have to use physical force on criminals.
But is excessive force needed for “unarmed criminals?” Is it necessary to shoot at an “unarmed” man 41 times because he made a suspicious move? Is it fair to have a man with no previous crime record to wait over 15 years on death row, while the legal system does nothing? While another man has a wooden stick shoved so far up his intestines that they ruptured. Instead of sitting down watching all this happen around you and just being glad it isn’t you. You can do something about it. Prevent police brutality; corrupt cops and the killing of innocent lives. The heinous, cruel and inhumane acts the following cops have done are by no means justified, moral, or legal. The Articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states the rights that we the people have: Article 6 states: Every human being has the inherent right to life.
Article 7: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishments. Article 10: All persons deprived of the liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Article 26: All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. Source: Amnesty International Report. United States of America Police Brutaility and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department. online Available http://www. amnesty. it/Ailibtop/1996/AMR/25103696. htm 42-43. June 1996.
Knowing all this, these are the guidelines, which the police are supposed to follow. Why isn’t police brutality being prevented? “The average police officer in America is never going to draw his gun during his entire career. ” Said a former NYC Commissioner of police (Rockwell 1). Yes it’s understood force is sometimes necessary to refrain criminals when they get out of line, or put the police officers life endanger but: “The idea of inherent criminality, the belief that people who commit crimes are animals and incapable of rehabilitation leads police to treat people brutally.
By refusing to prosecute police the justice system promotes police brutality” (Rockwell 2). The majority of the victims of police brutality are blacks and Latinos, males and are unarmed. Their deaths range anywhere from shootings, excessive force, while in custody, suicide by cop, domestic violence, and high speed chases. Statistics show that police brutality is definality a real problem that is wide spread, not just in the United States but worldwide. With minorities being the highest at risk. Why are minorities, the poor, the young, and the powerless at so much more risk of being brutalized by police? A question with an answer that still remains unknown.
“We live in a society where a murder occurs every 24 minutes, a rape every 6 minutes, a robbery every 55 seconds, aggravated assault every 33 seconds, motor vehicle theft every 20 second and a burglary every 10 second” (Policing the Police 61). Just because blacks make up 14% of the population in America and are 63% of the prison population (Rockwell 2) doesn’t make it right for police to harass them more. As many lives are beaten and killed by the officers in blue hardly anything is done to stop them.
