Police Brutality

Police Brutality

  • Submitted By: mmmm3333
  • Date Submitted: 06/07/2015 4:41 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1369
  • Page: 6

Police Brutality
In the first nine months of the year 2010, there were 3,814 reports of police misconduct that involved 5,711 alleged victims and 4,966 officers of the law in the United States (Packman). I think that everyone would agree that this is too many cases of police misconduct. I know what you are thinking. How do we make sure our police force is not abusing their power? What are some ways we can hold them accountable when no one is around? In this proposal, I will recommend a couple of different ways we could go about checking that our law enforcement officers are working within the laws of the land. I will also ensure that we, as citizens, are educating ourselves about the laws and system that we live under.
Police brutality causes a lot of different ripples on a number of different wavelengths. You have the department that the individual comes from that has to apologize for the officer’s misconduct and the victim who has to deal with not only the physical pain, but the emotional and spiritual pain as well. The community in which the misconduct has taken place will also receive media coverage sometimes that makes the community look bad. If the victim takes the case to court and the officer is found guilty, the city has to pay the victim for their misfortune.
To give you a better understanding on the monetary value of what these cities are paying out to the victims I found some numbers on the subject. There was a study published about Oakland, California spending 74 million dollars settling 417 police brutality lawsuits in the course of the years 2006 through 2010. Between these years, New York City spent 350 million dollars on 6,113 cases. Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located, spent 76 million dollars on 507 cases(Hyatt). This is good that these cases actually get settled, but if we could prevent them we would be saving a lot of money for the city and its taxpayers.
How do we solve this problem? The first solution is already...

Similar Essays