Why Do Police Brutality?

"Police Brutality is a fact of American life. In Major cities across the country, officers are abusing their authority in the most flagrant ways"("Must End"). Law enforcement officers carry guns, are given special privileges and great responsibility. Public safety officers are trusted and expected to respect society as a whole. Taking all of this into consideration, do cops actually break the law? Yes, they do. They do it quite often. Continuing high crime rates of today have resulted in more police officers being placed on the streets. The Federal Government is paying for 100,000 new officers. Accompanied by this high crime rate comes a desire for officers to achieve rapid results thus there are less restraints on how they behave (Saari 1).

These aspects of the job that police officers encounter on a daily basis tend to make the police act more violently then they should in many situations (Saari 1). In smaller towns, officers know most of the people they are dealing with. Police in larger cities do not have this luxury. Small town life lends itself to a quieter relationship between the police and the citizens. The greater tendency of crime in larger cities combined with less knowledge of the local population subjects the law enforcement officers to more violence and abuse than police in smaller towns. This increased violence is also due to the fact that police in cities are shot at and attacked on a frequent basis making them quicker on the draw because they feel the need to protect themselves. Police are not only subject to physical abuse but to verbal abuse as well, being constantly called bad names making them act angrily towards people they meet with causing brutality rates to increase (Bernards 2). Police officers in small towns have less to deal with so they react differently and with calmer attitudes in most situations. Police in small towns know many of the people they meet and talk with everyday, and if there is a problem they are able to address people as a friend instead of an authority figure, and get the problem resolved. In smaller towns, the police know the children of the community and know whom the troublemakers are, which makes it easier for them to keep those kids under control. Police in smaller towns are also respected more in their communities and are known as friends, rather than adversaries. People in these towns engage in dialogue with police officers because they do not react violently towards them. Police in small towns do not feel sympathy for their city counterparts, which means that they do not share the same emotions, thoughts and feelings as city police (xofficer