Police actions, brutality, observing on patrol and how suspicion restricts freedom

In societies, relationships are established mostly with control as a background — directly or indirectly. And one of the examples of this type of relationship is the police-citizen relationship. However, it has been questioned to what extent the actions of the police, in some scenarios, come to justify their abuse under the idea that it is “an authority figure” for some citizens. I think it is evident that the behavior of the vast majority of people tends to be based on a notion of punishment or reproach, in such a way that, paradoxically, behaving according to this is curtailing their own freedom of action. So, it ends up being a form of self-coercion derived from the naturalization of the idea of ​​punishment in a community. In this line, citizens and the police do not always agree on what constitutes proper police practice , as Albert J. R once pointed out. So here the notion of what is proper and what is considered brutal enters the scene. It seems as if the real “problem” was not in the practice itself but in the way the citizen conceives the practice through what it means to him/her. So, what citizens call police brutality is the judgement derived from the fact that they have not been treated with the full rights and dignity owing citizens in a particular society. So, as it´s evident, any practice that degrades theirselves , that annoys or harasses them is frequently seen as unnecessary and unwarranted, and this occurs mainly when the notion of “power” of the police is so distorted that they think that through force or violence they can regain their legitimacy as an “authority figure” . So , then the dilemma poses itself in the notion of “power” from the citizen point of view and the police point of view, which becomes a conflict of interests that seeks to find a way out through imposition, coercion ,force or insults . And is it really about that? For example, some years ago (and nowadays it also applies) someone who had been drinking was told he/she was a bum or a shitty wino, a woman walking alone in the street was called a whore , a white migrant was called a hillbilly or a shitkicker , a Puerto Rican a pork chop and a young boy a punk kid. This shows how the actions of some policemen tend(ed) to degrade the citizen , also by treating people as “suspicious” of something, because through this label the citizen could not move freely and, in general, young people were the most likely targets of harassing orders to disperse or move on. So, my question is to what exent is police brutality justified under the law enforcement that many policemen aduce ? And I ask this taking into account that- according to the aforementioned author — by law the police can use force if necessary to make an arrest, to keep peace or to maintain public order: Peace by force? Public order by force? Here there is a thin line between force and violence that can not justify the achievement of particular ends based on a notion of what the police considers “reasonable use of force”, because , in the great majority of cases this “reasonable use of force” is considered as brutality by citizens.Taking into account this, as Albert J. R. pointed out , a physical assault on a citizen was judged to be improper or unnecessary only if force was used in one or more of the following ways:

(i) If a policeman physically assaulted a citizen and then failed to make an arrest, proper use involves an arrest.

(ii) If the citizen being arrested did not, by word or deed, resist the policeman, force should be used only if it is necessary to make the arrest.

(iii) If the policeman, even though there was resistance to the arrest, could easily have restrained the citizen in other ways.

(iv) If a large number of policemen were present and could have assisted in subduing the citizen in the station, in lockup, and in the interrogation room.

(v) If an offender was handcuffed and made no attempt to flee or offer violent resistance.

(vi) If the citizen resisted arrest, but the use of force continued even after the citizen was sbdued.

Is not force, in this scenaries, the result of a so distorted notion of punishment whose legitimacy demands to be recovered through a social imposition?

Is not brutality the result of a degradation of the ius puniendi?

Regina Angarita