Position Paper: Police Brutality; Common Occurrence or Unusual Phenomenon?
With the two recent police brutality attacks this summer, the question arises whether or not police brutality is common practice in the NYPD, or just a few bad apples? The most current happening in Brooklyn with the tattoo artist that got tackled and sodomised in a subway station, brings back memories of a Haitian immigrant that also got attacked by police a decade ago. The recent incident with a Brooklyn man is a situation which makes us wonder whether New York City Police are here to protect and serve, or to rape and pillage? Police brutality was really brought to light by the LAPD and the Rodney King beating, which lead to the riots in Los Angeles after the officers were cleared by a grand jury. Since then, more and more incidences have been in the media’s eye, but before then police brutality was common practice that went on deaf ears and blind eyes. With the most recent incident, the actions of the NYPD have been put under a microscope. People will not let these actions go without reaction, and are speaking up against the immoral treatment of the citizens that police are meant to protect.
Michael Mineo is a 24 year old New Yorker that works at a tattoo parlor in Brooklyn. The New York Times states in its October 25th article entitled Amid Claims of Police Abuse, Details of Injuries: “The police have said that officers spotted Mr. Mineo smoking marijuana and that he ran away when they approached. He scuffled with the police as he resisted arrest, but he was never sodomized, they said.” The Article also goes on to give Mr. Mineo’s account that “a group of officers attacked him for no reason. During the attack, he said, one of them inserted a police radio antenna or a similar object into his rectum.” Personally, Mr. Mineo’s side of the story sounds more likely than that of the police report. There is also a medical report that Mr. Mineo had injuries related to “an anal...