Excessive Force Case Study

Law enforcement and citizens each have their own explanation and definition what excessive force is and how it should be handled. There are different ways how law enforcement uses their excessive force which could have been different in the past from now. There needs to be various amount of changes in the police department to reduce the incident of excessive force. Excessive force is a current issue that needs to be reduced to justify every case correctly and avoid this hot controversy.

All individuals in society have their own definitions and point of views on what excessive force is and how it should be handled. The best explanation of excessive force is when a law enforcement officer exceeds the use of force that was not necessary. Pollock

According to The Washington Post police fatal shooting database in 2015, 991 people were fatally shot by the police based on news reports, public records and original reporting. Then, The Washington Post police fatal shooting database in 2016, 963 were fatally shot by police based on news reports, public records and other sources. Now, not all these fatal police shootings were due to excessive force, but that is a high and scary number knowing there was a lot of police shootings that may have been some excessive force cases. The Graham V. Connor is a famous case in 1989 that involved excessive force. “The case involved Graham needed orange juice to forestall a diabetic episode. When the line was too long he ran out of the store to where his friend waited in the car. Officers stopped him, suspecting that he was somehow involved in a crime. It escalated quickly and the officers grabbed him and slammed him into the car hood, then threw him in the back of the police car, breaking his foot, inflicting cuts, bruises and injuring his shoulder” (Pollock, 2016, p.157). This is an example of an excessive force case that was very unnecessary and nothing should not have happened. Yes, police officers are trained to look for suspicious activity and Graham did fit the action that he could have been stealing, but they were wrong about him. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Graham V. Connor case that determines the legality of every law enforcement use-of-force incident. The Rodney King case was another extremely excessive force case. “Rodney King was beaten by L.A.P.D. officers after they put an end to the 8-mile high speed chase. Once surrounded, King and his two friends were ordered to step out of the vehicle and lie face down on the ground. King refused to comply, but eventually got out of the car and resisted an arrest. Once King got physical with some of the