The Argument Against Police Brutality

Police Brutality In today's society, it is not uncommon for police officer misconduct, including brutality, to gain everyone's attention. When one officer shoots and kills a suspect, that officer is investigated in order to ensure there was no intentions to harm anyone but to try and keep the peace. Intentional harm to citizens is considered police brutality and can escalate into something more serious such as riots and protests. The kind of misconduct that some police take when arresting a suspect cannot be taken lightly to prevent any sort of riots or protests such as those after Rodney King as 50 people were killed and hundreds more were injured (Katel). Cases, as well as investigations after accusations, need to be dealt in a serious as

A 911 call came in from a citizen saying there was someone in the park carrying a gun so the nearest police car responded. The car that responded had two police officers from Cleveland Police Department. The whole incident was captured on a street camera right in front of where Rice was shot. Though Rice had a toy BB gun, the 911 caller said to the dispatcher that the “gun” might have been fake and a juvenile. This was not translated to the police officers who responded. (TheLipTV). When a Cleveland officer was asked if Rice had threatened the officers with the gun he said “no there was no confrontation,” (...) “he lifted his waistband and the officer fired two shots hitting him once” (TheLipTV). After shots were fired, Rice was described as a “black male around 20” though it was recorded that the 911 caller said he was a juvenile (TheLipTV). The police in this situation responded aggressively despite Rice being 12 years old. It is said that the police officers told Rice to drop the gun twice, though the video recording of the shooting shows a different story (TheLipTV). The officers who responded in this situation responded with more force than needed, costing 12 year old Tamir Rice his

They are trained to act quickly and efficiently in deadly situations. “Police sometimes do need to react quickly in potentially dangerous situations, such as when they reasonably believe the suspect might be armed” (DiLascio). While in the cases of both King and Rice, police acted quickly and violently. The officers in both cases waited to ask any questions, but many believe that is what they were supposed to do. Defuse the situation then ask questions later. Though officers do have actual guns, they have alternatives to the handgun as well. They have tasers and pepper spray that should always be on their person (Katel). “Police officers do have alternatives to their typical hand gun depending on the situation” (Katel). No matter the situation the officers have some sort of weapons depending on the severity of the situation. Many believe that officers only shoot their weapons if they feed complete danger for not only their lives, but the lives of surrounding citizens as