Background police brutality
Lately police brutality has been happening a lot in the United States. Everyone should find this topic important, but I find it important because I plan on majoring in criminal justice studies. As a future police officers I would not want everyone to think horrible things about police officers. I know police brutality is a major problem nowadays with all the cases that have happened and I would like to know why. It is also important for me to understand what police officers do when they encounter these type of situations. For example, what type of training they receive for situations where deadly weapons must be used. I also wonder if race plays a big part in situations, since most people who have been in these situations have been people of color.
Other people should find this topic important because it can affect their communities. With all the police brutality going on people start fearing the police and that is not a healthy relationship to have with the people that are there to help you. For example, Nikole Hannah-Jones, wrote a story about how Black Americans fear the police. She talked about an incident she encountered and how when a police officer needed help no one wanted to help him, because they did not want to get blamed. By seeing this example you can see that when police officers need help they will not receive it. Everyone gets affected with police brutality and everyone should care about what goes on.
Not everyone knows about police brutality, but people should ask themselves why it has increased. To answer that I would say it is because police officers do not get the right training. People should also know what police brutality means. This is important to know because sometimes people might mistake one type of action for another. The main thing to understand is that when a police officer uses more force then needed then it is considered police brutality.
The main issue with police brutality is that people feel like the officers are not being punished correctly. Most people think that police officers who use excess force should be arrested and put in prison. While others believe that the actions the police officers used were right and just because that is their job. The people who disagree with police officers usually go out to protest against them. For example William Mathis writer for the huff post politics wrote an article about how hundreds of people rallied in New York City to protest police brutality. People from all ages gathered in this protest to stand up for what they believe is right.
This topic has been ongoing for a while now, but before it was less common to hear about these cases. Nowadays you can hear or read about a case involving police brutality almost weekly. The main reason people still are talking about this topic, is because it has not ended and probably will not end soon. I believe that police brutality is a problem that needs to be addressed now before things get worse.
