Imagine that one day you are walking down the street, having a peaceful stroll and all of the sudden you are pulled over by the police and the police just tackles you down just because they believe that you are a potential threat. They decide to handcuff you and pin you down and do not care about your well being, and you know you can not really do much do to the fear that if you resist more then they can easily pepper spray you or beat you down even more. This is known as police brutality and is known as excessive force. It is important to understand what is police brutality and the best way to understand it is by defining it "1. The use of excessive and unnecessary force by a police officer toward a civilian. 2.The willful infliction of pain and/or suffering on someone note." This definition comes from legaldicitonary.net and is a hopeful site that explains exactly what police brutality is while also give examples of the levels of police threat care or how a police officer handles a threat. It important to look over all the information present on the site because it helps us as a civilian know that there are steps and procedures that a police officer must take before they start going up to people and shooting innocent individual.
- Verbal restraint – instructing an individual on where to stand or sit, or telling him to stay put, or telling him that he is under arrest.
- Physical restraint – using hands to physically control an individual, whether causing him to lean against a patrol car, pulling an arm behind the individual’s back, placing handcuffs on the individual, or placing the individual into a police vehicle.
- Less-lethal force – the use of a weapon that is unlikely to cause death, such as pepper spray, and tasers.
- Lethal force – the use of physical force that is likely to cause the death of the individual, such as shooting the individual.
This is important to me because we as individuals need to know that a police officer can not just go up to you and punch you in the face. Police officers have to follow the steps of a obtaining a potential threat and there are limits to how they interact with a suspect. You as an individual must understand that if you are asked to stop, you stop and listen to the next request. If you resist getting handcuffed, then you are showing a police officer that you are raising your potential threat level that could also lead to you either getting pepper sprayed and/or you getting tasered. If you have a gun and threaten a police officer and choose to ignore their request to put the weapon down and surrender than you are looking to getting shot down because your threat level is high and you are refusing to cooperate. Main point that I am trying to get across is that if you are cooperating with a police officer there should be no reason for a police officer to use excessive force on you. Police officer must have body camera to prove that their excessive force was justified. While also encouraging others that are around and are seeing that a police officer is using excessive force, to report police officers for ignoring the procedure and hurting the suspect.
I choose this subject cause it is terrible to think that there are police officers out there that are using excessive force in order to apprehend an potential threat. It terrible to think that one day you could be pulled over by a police officer and you could be cooperating and then all of the sudden be beat down by a police officer and they use the excuse that you were resisting. Polices officers need to understand that there are limits present when trying to catch a suspect, and to see a police officer punch or knell on a already handcuffed man is abuse of power. An example of this is with the case of Manuel Ellis, according to the report, he was already hand cuffed and yet police officers proceeded to beat down and pin him down due to him resisting. Which is excessive force just because they could have easily used pepper spray to call him down which is listed under less-lethal force. Police officers should be held accountable if they are using lethal force on an individual that has already been detained or if there was no need for lethal force. We as individuals should not be afraid to expose these individuals for thinking that it is ok to use excessive force to capture a suspect.
-(January 21, 2017). Police Brutality. Legal Dictionary. https://legaldictionary.net/police-brutality/
-(December 4, 2017). Overview of Body-Worn Camera Use by Law Enforcement. National Institute of Justice. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/research-body-worn-cameras-and-law-enforcement#:~:text=Among%20agencies%20that%20had%20acquired%20body-worn%20cameras%2C%2060%25,%28expected%20to%20increase%20to%2050%2F100%20by%20late%202017%29.
-Kim, Catherine, (June 6, 2020). The fatal arrest of Manuel Ellis, another black man who yelled “I can’t breathe,” explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2020/6/6/21282483/manuel-ellis-black-man-killed-police-cant-breathe-george-floyd
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