Kevin Pejoumand English 1A Mr. Somer 13 November 2014 The Horrors of Police Brutality Imagine being in the Bart train, going to a party with some of your friends, but while in route, you are shot by the Bart police for a crime you did not commit. This is the story of a young man named Oscar Grant. On New Years Eve of 2009, he was fatally shot. . Police brutality is the use of excessive force, physically or verbally, by a police officer. In one year, how many incidents of police brutality or misconduct do you think have occurred? In the U.S. alone, statistics show that over 2,500 incidents have occurred. Because of the constant stories of severe police brutality, it is clear that the efforts to stop this are not effective. Protecting …show more content…
While the term “police brutality” is usually applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm by the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure. In the past those who engaged in police brutality may have acted with the implicit approval of the local legal system similar to what existed during segregation. However, in the modern era, individuals who engage in cases of police brutality may do so with the approval of their supervisors. They may execute their actions under color of law, and more often than not, engage in a cover-up for their illegal activity. Recently, I saw the film, “Fruitvale Station” in which a BART police officer fatally shoots Oscar Grant. On January 30, 2010, prosecutors charged, police officer, Johannes Mehserle with murder for the shooting. He resigned his position and pleaded not guilty. Michael Rains, Mehserle's criminal defense attorney, argued that Mehserle mistakenly shot Grant with his pistol, intending to use his taser when he saw Grant reaching for his waistband. On January 30, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson set bail for Mehserle at $3 million. A week later, with the help of fundraising from the police union, Mehserle posted bail. Oscar Grant had been celebrating New Year's Eve with his friends at the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and was returning to the East Bay in the lead car of a BART train bound for
In the true story Fruitvale Station, Oscar Grant was racially discriminated after getting into a fight with an ex-inmate at a train station. After the fight, officers hand cuffed him and his friends and threw them on the ground. While Grant’s friends were let off, Grant was innocently shot and killed by one of the officers. In no, shape, form or fashion was the situation correct or supposed to happen the way it did. Oscar Grant did not deserve to be killed the
The shooting occurred at the Fruitvale train station on January 1st, 2009. At the station, a fight broke out in one of the trains and when the train stopped the fight started again outside of the train at one of the stops. While they were fighting on the train the BART officers were called. The officers came and arrested everyone that was in the fight. A guy named Oscar Grant was in the fight and was also arrested (Meyer). While Grant was being arrested by Officer Mehserle, he resisted the officer’s attempts. Since Grant was resisting he was pushed onto the ground on his stomach to be handcuffed. Johannes Mehserle was having trouble handcuffing Grant so the other BART officers helped him. When Grant was on the ground Mehserle was going to tase him since he would not stop resisting. When Mehserle thought he pulled out his TASER, he instead pulled out his gun. Mehserle accidentally shot Grant with his gun since he thought he pulled out his TASER (Bulwa).
Oscar Grant was reported to be rowdy on the train and was shot at point-blank range. The policeman later revealed he was trying to grab his Taser not his handgun. While reading this review, the author was using present day situations such as the Zimmerman case to reflect on how two different cases can be the same but in different standpoints. Trayvon’s incident was not recorded, but Zimmerman was reported to be running behind an unarmed suspected to have a gun. The author wanted to say that cases are similar considering that both officers were not prosecuted. A better example he could have used was the Walter Scott shooting. Both men were believed to be causing a disturbance, the policeman was trying to grab their Tasers, and someone was
What is police brutality? This is a fundamental query that we all must answer before further dissecting this issue. It is the abuse of authority or the unjustifiable infliction of excess force by the police in the performance of their official duties. (Marilynn) The use of brutal force by the police is an activity that dates back many years. However, sustained campaigns by reformists and human right groups have led to the decline of the vice over the years. It is appalling to see the police regressing back into this old practice given the hard work that went into its eradication. More especially, the allegations of racial-motivated brutality are too derogatory to the significant leaps that have been made to achieve zero discrimination and racial prejudice. The partial application of the law by the police and brutality has reopened the wounds of slavery and the struggle for equality in the country. (Merle) Their lack of humanity and use of excessive force pokes holes on their nature of training.
History has shown that not only is police brutality and profiling nothing new—especially to minorities—but it is also a problem that is unlikely to go away. Some research hypothesized that due to the dynamics of our society, such as social and emotional variables, fighting police brutality is a losing battle. In their writing, Malcolm Holmes and Brad Smith (2017) concluded “the social circumstances that shape the emotional responses characteristic of police-minority interactions seem to make certain adverse outcomes inescapable, given the structure of inequality in America.” Police brutality and its relationship with minority communities has been the center of research beginning with the Wickersham Commission in 1931. (Ruffin, 2016) The Commission found officers routinely tortured and beat arrested citizens to obtain confessions. This regular practice had a negative effect on the opinion of law enforcement among minority communities.
In the early hours of the morning on New Year’s Day, the BART officers were responding to a call about a fight on the Bay Area Rapid Transit train coming from San Francisco. BART officers detained Oscar Grant and a few other passengers at the Fruitvale BART Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and a fellow officer were restraining Oscar Grant who was lying on the ground with handcuffs on. Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant one time in the back. Grant was unarmed, he was pronounced dead the next day a Highland Hospital in Oakland.
Over the past decades, Globalization had made the world a much smaller place. In the passage While I was Sleeping by Thomas L Freidman and The Rise of the Rest by Fareed Zakaria, there is a connection between the two passage. Thomas L. Freidman use the metaphor "the world is flat" which mean there are many competition in the world now. Fareed Zakaria address the U.S power is diminishing because the rest of the world is catching up. Along with the diminishing power, America is also outsourcing jobs to other nations where labor are cheap, and abundant of natural resource are available for use, but it is taking jobs away from many American.
I don't really know what to discuss here so this may not be the best discussion assignment you've ever seen. I've obviously been falling behind on some of my assignments, but now I have time to actually work on iSchool, so my grade should go up soon hopefully. I've been trying to improve my grade recently by doing all of the work I missed, so that should all be sent to you by the end of this weekend. I honestly only took this class so I could get ahead and start English 5-6 next year, rather than English 3-4 since I'm hoping to have almost all my credits by senior year, so I'll start working harder soon. I already talked to my counselor about this, but I'm wondering if there's a way that once I finish English 3, I can immediately start English
The increased knowledge and awareness of police brutality have raised many concerns for people and advocates from various areas. On one side, law enforcement supporters have advocated the legality of officer’s actions while the opposition identifies police racial profiling, corruption, and excessive force. Additionally, police brutality has raised serious concerns for human rights violations; however, guiltiness has only been proven against a few individual officers rather than agencies as a whole.
Police Brutality is the excessive utilization of force, usually physically, but also frequent in various forms of verbal assaults and psychological constraint, by a police officer. The idea of police brutality has been recorded throughout history and has repeats itself today. Starting back in July 1917 occurred the East St. Louis Massacre, the “most brutal riots” against Blacks that included bloody violence of “white folks attacking African-Americans” due to “racial competition and conflict” during the event of World War I (Lind, 2015; Buescher). Without a doubt, there tensions between the white and blacks and also between the police force and the black community. These occurrences did not stop here, but continues to repeat itself with riots
Police Brutality is defined as a measure use of excessive force, usually physical, carried out during law enforcement activities with the population. Police is the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order. “Civilization depends on people who are committee to civility and decency” (Delattre ,Pg 1). With being a police officer their work involves boredom, suffering, anxiety, danger , and disappointment similar to everyone daily lives(Delattre Pg 1). Brutality is defined as a savage physical violence, and classified as excessive use of force. Excessive Force is presumably the most surely understood type of police unfortunate behavior. Excessive Force happens when an officer uses more compel than is important to capture a suspect. It additionally applies if the officer uses a measure of power that is not relative to the wrongdoing that has happened. The population is affected by police brutality on a daily basis Black, Latino, Caucasian, Asian, female, male young, and old. Victims of police brutality endure both physically and rationally. Much of the time, police fierceness can have deadly outcomes. In a few cases, casualties of police fierceness have endured broken bones, cerebrum harm, and even disablement due to their injuries. These casualties likewise experience the ill effects of post traumatic anxiety issue. This can bring about wretchedness, substance misuse,
Police brutality is an act that often goes unnoticed by the vast majority of white Americans. This is the intentional use of “excessive force by an authority figure, which oftentimes ends with bruises, broken bones, bloodshed, and sometimes even death” (Harmon). While law-abiding citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been revealed that they must also keep an eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve.
1.) Yes, there are enough examples because it added interest and persuasion. And yes, they do represent as a “reasonable cross section”. It is because the examples were connected to real life situations.
After seeing the general analysis on police brutality this literature review will go into deeper topics discussing, police brutality mostly against the colored community from the academic articles of Williams Juleyka L, and Mitchell Jacquelyn, but also brutality against minorities like the disabled, and immigrants from an article by Hutto Jonathan. Furthermore, to human rights to amendments and simple rights for civilians in America for protection against brutal police, and activists defending rights and reporting truth being discussed by, Lawson Tamara F, Conde Victor H, Shabazz Saeed, and Wyche Steve, covering all of these topics and going much deeper.
Police brutality remains to be one of the United States biggest human rights violation issue. However, this isn’t just a national problem, but an issue that occurs everywhere in the world. Over the past decade or so, Those of the minority community have been subjected, to violence by those in law enforcement positions in the United States. Unjustified actions such as severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment by the police have caused many to wonder whether the police are for the people. The fact of the matter is that a majority of these incidents go unreported or swept under the rug by those of the police department. Through research and past incidents, we aim to find the source of police brutality and find some feasible solutions.