American criminal justice system was intended to protect communities, to respect and restore crime victims, to rehabilitate the offenders leaving prison and ensure they are self-sufficient and law abiding. This system has become a great failure that our nation and states can never afford. Stories arise that serve in as a reminder that the justice system means injustice for many Americans, with some getting next to zero punishment for horrifying offenses, while others get faulty or brutal punishment for a significantly lesser offense. American criminal justice system is broken and is perpetrating more wrong than right. These include but not limited to mass incarcerations, racism, wrongful convictions, police brutality and the practices of capital punishment. However, among all these, police brutality is one of the major rot in the justice system.
Under the law, when necessary, a police officer has the privilege to utilize reasonable force to arrest, to keep the peace and maintain order (Sen 148). Exactly how much force is wanted under different situations is contentious. If a police officer applies excessive force, he or she is violating the law. According to James Fyfe and Jerome Skolnick, police brutality is a deliberate and cognizant action the police uses toward civilians, generally members of a powerless group, for instance, gay people or racial minorities (Skolnick and Fyfe 32).
Historically, from the 1960s, brutality by the police was an impetus for the majority of the race riots that occurred in America, including the 1965 Watts Riots and the 1967 riots in Detroit. Also, in 1980 a section of Miami rioted over the killing of an unarmed black man by the police. Within just three days, around 18 American protestors were killed and somewhere in the range of 1,000 were detained, and more than $100 million in property was damaged (Todd Beer 2018). The assault of Rodney King by Los Angeles cops twelve years later and their consequent exoneration on excessive use of force and assault with deadly weapon charges set off the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. This is considered the worst race riot in the history of American. Within six days, at least 50 protestors were killed, over 2,300 injured, and an estimated $1 billion worth of property damage.
Essentially, the majority of police brutality are not reported. For instance, the federal government financed a study on police service in 1982, in which over 12,000 Americans were interviewed in three cities. The investigation revealed that 13 percent of those studied had been victims of police brutality in the past year (Beer 74). However, just 30% of those who experienced brutality in the hands of the police recorded formal complaints.
There rea many instances of excessive and unwarranted use of force by the police (Todd Beer 2018). In 2014, Manning’s senseless “stop and frisk” experience with Philadelphia officers left him with a ruptured testicle. In the same year, Neykeyia Parker was viciously hauled out of her vehicle and forcefully arrested before her child for allegedly “trespassing" at her apartment in Houston. And there are many others, both reported and unreported. Kajieme Powell was shot multiple times at close range by police in 2014, only a couple of miles from the crime scene where Mike Brown was executed ten days earlier.
The American justice system is tainted by racism and racial profiling. According to Todd Beer, systematic racism is apparent again in the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed young Black man by a Ferguson police officer (Todd Beer 2018). Pulling stories straightforwardly from the latest news features is one approach to stand out enough to be noticed and show the inexhaustible pertinence of the sociological perspective.
Many instances of police brutality are coordinated against otherwise powerless populations or minority groups. Police officers who take part in these brutalities justify their application of excessive force claiming that they are punishing those people who are threatening to disrupt the order in the society (Skolnick and Fyfe 134). The significance of understanding racism with regards to excessive police use of force should not be underrated. Many police officers naturally see members of racial minorities as conceivably dangerous irrespective of their specific attire, activities, or gestures. This impression of ethnic minority Americans as “trouble" in some cases converts into racially prejudiced police conduct, for instance in the case of Michael Brown.
There is also the issue of problem officers. Some of the police officers are repeat offender responsible for many complaints of brutality. For instance, in October 2018, Ryan Macklin, A Maryland police officer was arrested and charged for rape after he allegedly assaulted a woman while conducting a traffic stop. Those who receive many of these complaints are youthful, relatively less experienced, and susceptible to start violent activities toward the civilian suspects (Chevigny 123).
It is worth noting that we are living in a considerably polarized nation than the one in which Americans were galvanized by the killing of Mike Brown at the hand of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson (Chevigny 187). And in spite of the three years of serious pressure from the public over the deadly police shootings of blacks, juries, judges and district attorneys across the nation have hardly found law enforcement officers responsible. Thus, the shootings of innocent citizens and exonerations continue.
To make matter worse, President Trump did send a clear message that his Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will not undertake any investigation on the department of police’s purported abuses (Sen 149). The president has cozied up so conspicuously to the famous police union and embraced police officers that it is no big surprise that in Charlottesville, reports arose that police watched self-proclaimed fascists and radical right-wingers attacking counter-protesters. As a result, law enforcement has turned into protectors and allies of Donald Trump’s supporters.
Stopping police brutality
Through preventive administrative control
To prevent police violence, police administrators have to be pre-emptive. Police departments in some cities have embraced programs for special training to decrease occurrences of brutality. Others have created guidelines that limit police on their use of force. However, these preventive control should have supervisors (for instance, leading surveillance on officers' work) and disciplining those who disregard the rules. Many cities are creating systems for early warning to recognize officers with high citizen complaints rates (Beer 75). These occurrences ought to be investigated, and whenever substantiated, the involved officers must be charged, restrained, disciplined, as well as counseled. Be that as it may, liberal reformers are advocating for an increased investigation and surveillance of officers all through the nation.
Punitive administrative control
Police internal affairs units get and examine grievances against their officers. They look into complaints of brutality or suspicions of corruption, and circumstances in which cops discharge weapons. In case after investigating, they find adequate proof for the claims in a complaint, it recommends the necessary disciplinary action (Todd Beer 2018). However, one of the most significant issues on the viability of internal units include reluctance of the public to file complaints and the reluctance of police to testify against each other.
Civil lawsuits
Citizens can file civil suits in which they may either seek injunctions (requiring departments or police to stop doing anything which infringes on their rights) or damages (money) either under federal or state laws. The State laws provide that public may sue the police for false imprisonment, breaking, false arrest, battery, assault, and wrongful death (Chevigny 102). Notwithstanding state laws, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 Section 1983 enables citizens to sue public officers for civil rights violation.
Paul Chevigny points out that civil lawsuits have minimal deterrence since officers never personally pay for the damages, notwithstanding when they are found personally liable by the courts (Chevigny 2). Chevigny calls attention to the fact that the general city reserves and not the police budgets, are used to pay these damages.
Criminal prosecution
Prosecutors also may file criminal charges but only after a police officer’s misconduct has occurred. The high burden of proof in courts, for instance, a prosecuting attorney must demonstrate intent and should establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt renders it unlikely to be successful (Sen 150). Indeed, even convictions may not affect police policy in case executives do not agree with the choice to indict.
Consequently, when prosecution at the local level fails, the federal government may come in to control brutality within the police department. However, while police powers are limited by the federal constitutional, the federal government seldom put on trial such infringement. Interestingly, the federal trial of the Los Angeles officers who assaulted Rodney King was an exception (Todd Beer 2018). Following the acquittal of the officers in a court in California by a jury, federal prosecutors indicted them in federal court for denying King of his constitutional rights.
Conclusion
From Baltimore to Ferguson, protests and riots over police killings of unarmed African America women and men have criticized the offenses of police officers as well as have raised doubt about the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and intuitions of law enforcement that are meant to “serve and protect” the people. The rise in riots against police use of excessive force has brought back the painful memories of the 1960s urban riots, which were ignited by episodes of police violence in poor, prevalently African American neighborhoods. Five decades later, expectant black women are being shot and killed by police before their kids. Young African American men are being shot and murdered by police. And while civil lawsuits are being filled all over, there are not convictions happening. Communities and families are more than once being advised to remain quiet and have faith in the justice system, yet only a fool would do that. It is a categorically and fundamentally unfair system. To stop police brutality, we should use preventive administrative control, punitive administrative control, civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution measures.
Works Cited
Beer, Christopher T. "Ferguson and “Rapid-Response” Teaching." Contexts, vol. 14, no. 1, 2015, pp. 74-75.
Chevigny, Paul. Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas. New P, 1998.
Sen, Sankar. "Police Brutality in Perspective." The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, vol. 71, no. 2, 1998, pp. 148-150.
Skolnick, Jerome H, and James J. Fyfe. Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force. Free P, 1994.
Todd Beer. "RACISM AND THE POLICE: The Shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson - Sociology Toolbox." The Society Pages, 18 Aug. 2014, thesocietypages.org/toolbox/racism-police-ferguson/.
