Police Brutality in America

By Latesha Udy

CJ 1010- SP14
4/15/2014





Latesha Udy
Julia Ellis
CJ 1010-Sp14
April 15, 2014
Police Brutality in America

The justice system is obliged to enforce accepted standards of conduct so as to protect
individuals and the community. (Gaines/Miller, 2013)

Justice is defined as The quality of fairness that must exist in the processes designed to
determine whether or not individuals are guilty of criminal wrongdoing. (Gaines/Miller, 2013)
The quality of fairness is intertwined with equality. If you want to be fair, everyone involved
must receive equal treatment. When youre talking about the justice system, which hinges its
very name on fairness, everyone who enters it need to be treated with the same standards. To
betray that basic rule is blasphemous, and it should not happen.
The law is the law, and it applies to everyone it protects as well as to everyone paid to
uphold it. If the scale were going to tip one way or the other, I would say a policeman should be
held to a higher standard than a civilian. A police officer has clearly defined responsibilities in
society, They investigate most crimes and attempt to deter crime through patrol activities. They
apprehend criminals and participate in trial proceedings, if necessary. Local police are also
charged with keeping the peace, a broad set of duties that include crowd and traffic control and
the resolution of minor conflicts between citizens. (Gaines/Miller, 2013) Their very presence
should promote honest and law-abiding behavior. So when policemen break the law and betray
the trust bestowed upon them to keep us safe, they should be severely punished. In a perfect
world where justice, fairness and equality were priority, they would be. Instead we live in this
corrupt world, where they are protected and treated as if they are above the law. So I ask you,
what is the bigger contradiction-wrapped slap-in-the-face handed out by this supposed justice
system? The fact police officers are brutally beating civilians, or the fact that no one does
anything about? Men with badges abusing their power and serving their own perverted ideas of
street justice have been protected by prosecutors and judges who refuse to see it for what it is and
are instead worried about saving face. Well, its taken some extreme circumstances to get this
hushed topic out in the open, but we are finally seeing the truth. Cases such as Rodney Kings
have brought it out loud and clear for the world to see.
Rodney King was lying on the ground when he was hit with a taser two times. Directly
after being tasered he was savagely beaten by three uniformed police officers. Rodney was
clubbed with a baton fifty-six times and kicked in his head and other parts of his body seven
times. The supposed good-guy crime-fighters were the ones who did this to Mr. King. Police
officers, on the clock and in uniform brutally and maliciously beat this man after he was on the
ground, unarmed and in no way an immediate threat to their or anyone elses safety. The only
reason the world knows about this horrific incident is because it was caught on tape by a
bystander. If there were to have been a complaint made without the videotape it would have been
deemed not sustained because the complaint contradicted the police officers report. No
investigation, just an immediate decision that always lands in favor of the man behind the badge.
But there was a videotape proving that this incident occurred. Everyone assumed the cops
involved would be punished severely; you could not deny evidence that so clearly proved guilt.
But within a year of the beating the officers involved were not sentenced, not given assault
charges or attempted murder charges, but instead they were acquitted. But the issue was not over,
not in the minds of the people who watched this video over and over on the news and saw the
heinous violence so clearly with their own eyes. This irrevocably interested the public and
opened their eyes to how things like this are covered up. It got the world asking How could a
police officer do such a thing? and also Why isnt anyone doing anything to stop them? It
angered people enough that riots erupted across the nation and people were in frenzy. After a
while the President of the United States got involved and had an investigation opened which
resulted in a Grand Jury hearing. Two years after the attack on Mr. King, he finally got a piece of
justice. Two of the officers were charged with criminal rights-violations.
The next case is even more appalling than the first. Elvira Fernandez and her 29 year old
son, Daniel Rodriguez, were having a fight. Their argument got heated enough she felt she
needed to call the police so they could help calm the situation down. The officer who showed up
on the scene did anything but help . The supposed-good-guy crime-fighter first pepper-sprayed
and tasered Mr. Rodriguez, turned around to shoot and kill the dog because it was barking (not
attacking), then immediately shot Daniel Rodriguez two times and killed him. This police officer
was not charged with murder or any other serious crime! The media is also to blame in cases
similar to this one. Instead of publicizing the horrendous acts of the police officer, they attempt
to lessen sympathy for Ms. Fernandez while also lessening anger towards that murderous
psychopath cop by defaming the victims! If this isnt outrageous and unbelievably unjust, I dont
know what is.
These are only two examples of what police officers are doing with no repercussions, but
police brutality reaches further than any of us would like to admit. It is more common than not
for a cop to be a predator. Police officers prey on those with criminal backgrounds, having
confidence that when it comes down to the word of a thug verses the word of a cop, the cop
will be the one to be believed. To avoid ridicule from the public they play on its fear of crime
and criminals. They argue that in order to have the upper hand, they have to show that they wont
back down from a fight. They have to establish their authority or crime will spin out of control.
When spun in this way, the cops look heroic instead of dangerous. Alongside their ability to
manipulate the community, they also have no fear of punishment from their administration.
Policemen are allowed to get away with murder, literally. When they are punished it is a joke at
how little trouble they get in. When a police officer is punished for brutalizing a handcuffed
suspect, they are usually not even suspended for ten days! They are vastly under-prosecuted, in
the 1992 Koltz Report it showed that out of 382 referrals, only one case was pursued! Even in
instances where the witnesses and coroner directly contradicted the officers report nothing was
done. This raises the question as to why there is so little being done to reprimand these officers,
what could possibly be the reason for such gross negligence on behalf of the justice system?
One of the reasons why it is so hard to convict these men and women of police brutality
is because of the burden of proof. Often times the only witness to the incident is the police
officer and the one who was attacked. When the officer is the only one who can vouch for the
amount of resistance they encounter, its hard to determine what a reasonable officer would have
done in that same situation. Also there usually was some sort of crime committed by the victim
at the time the police came into contact with them, so their credibility is damaged and the juries
see the officer as the noble one.
Another barrier for the prosecution is that they are not allowed to question the police
officer involved until 48 hours after the alleged incident. This gives them more than enough time
to corroborate with fellow officers as well as their lawyer.
The final reason most prominent for the under-prosecution of these men is that their cases
are investigated by their colleagues and they are reluctant to testify against each other. They have
a strong bond, they are brothers in arms, and they refuse to throw each other under the bus in
most cases. The head of the Official-Corruption Unit of New York County's District Attorney's
Office from 1990 to 1992, was quoted as saying that "ninety percent of officers will lie to cover
their colleagues. Not only is their loyalty to one another a factor, but the fear of being labeled a
rat and being outcast from their group is enough to keep them quiet.
If their bosses wont fire them, prosecutors wont convict them, and nothing else is being
done to stop them, what is there left to do? The channels in place to provide justice to every
citizen in the United States of America are corrupt. Victims are left with no answers, and cops
are free to beat on and kill whoever they choose. Prosecutors back the cops, juries give them the
benefit of the doubt, and they have no one to testify against them if their case ever sees the inside
of a courtroom in the first place. This is an epidemic, and it is still happening today. Not only in
California or New York or other large cities, but its happening in my home town of Salt Lake
City, Utah. We the people need to come together and find a way to override this corrupt system
and bring justice back. I do not have all of the answers as to how this should be done. Its
obvious the government is not figuring it out either. The numbers are still rising and will
continue to do so. Im not the woman to lead the crusade against this tragic problem, but I hope it
happens soon. Because when the cops are the ones we need to be protected from, we are truly
unsafe and all of us at risk of becoming victims of police brutality, too.
Bibliography

Davis, P. L. (n.d.). Rodney King and the Decriminalization of Police. tourolaw journal.
Gaines/Miller. (2013). Criminal Justice.
Heade, K. (2013). End Police Brutality. Law Journal for Social Justice.
Panwala, A. S. (2002). The Failure of Local and Federal Prosecutors. Fordham Urban Law Journal.
53 Md. L. Rev. 271 (1994).