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Nicole Lawson

ENG 1201-515

Professor Pedrotti

4 August 2019

Final Draft

Almost every day now, you open up your social media and you see another instance of

where a police officer used excessive force against a suspect. I have wanted to be a law

enforcement officer for as long as I can remember, the idea of helping people drew me to the

field. The minute it came to decide my future career, it took all of five minutes for me to apply to

get my Criminal Justice degree. Looking into our current justice system fuels me even more

because I know that I would be able to make a difference. I never understood how someone who

holds such power and respect could blatantly abuse their power in the field.

Police brutality is defined as a civil rights violation in which the officer acts with

excessive force when dealing with a citizen that is more than necessary. The issue of police

brutality is that there is not enough regulation on the officer’s part. Police officers are granted a

great deal of discretionary power, which makes it easier for them to do their jobs, however, it can

lead to them abusing this power. They have the ability to determine how much force is necessary

to subdue or handle a citizen, sometimes they use an excessive amount. The community would

not want someone holding as much power if they are not able to correctly decipher how much

force is necessary and at what point it becomes excessive. Communities need to tackle the issue

of police brutality because it will lead to a mend in the relationship between officers and the

public, people of color will experience less fear around police officers, and victims and their

families will be able to have justice and closure for their loved ones.
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Lowering the instances of police brutality will lead to a mend in the mistrust that occurs

now between police officer’s and the community of those they serve. A former police officer,

Tracie Keesee, recently discussed how police officers can work together with the community to

create safer neighborhoods. She states that police mistrust among communities, particularly

African American communities is detrimental for all involved (Keesee). Police departments and

the way they currently function, is not working anymore. Police departments need to have reform

in order to help rebuild the trust among police officers and the community. In particular, police

officers need to start listening to the community that they serve and working together with them

to solve issues as they arise (Keesee).

In addition to listening to the community and working together closely with them, Officer

Keesee believes that reform needs to happen if we ever expect police mistrust to subside. She has

been inside the system for 25 years, and she was able to conclude that there needs to be reform.

If we do not start training new officer’s differently, and re-training current officer’s, then we

cannot really expect any change to occur. This is due to the fact that police officers will continue

to have immunity in cases involving excessive use of force. If the police officer’s will continue

to face no repercussions for their actions, then they will be under the impression that they do not

have to change the way they operate. The unfortunate part is that this way of thinking will lead to

more and more instances of police brutality, particularly against people of color.

Another police officer agrees with the idea that there needs to be reform to the current

Criminal Justice system. His name is Melvin Russell and he took over as district commander in

one of Baltimore’s toughest neighborhoods. He then instituted a series of reforms which had the

goal of gaining the trust of the community back and lowering the violent crime rate. The issue is

how departments currently train new law enforcement officers does not leave room for them to
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listen to the community. This traditional way of working did not sit right with district

commander Russell, so he decided to change the original thinking. He noticed that, “police have

a problem. Off the top, we want to bring things into the community and come up with these

extravagant strategies and deployments, but we never talk to the community about them”

(Russell). Knowing this issue, he decided to let the community have a voice in what policies they

want to see implemented into their society, and he discovered something interesting. He found

that, “after three years of a four-and-a-half-year stint, we looked back and we looked over and

found out that we were at a 40-year historical low: our crime numbers, our homicides --

everything had dropped down, back to the 1970s” (Russell). He found that when you start to

listen to the community, they were able to lower their crime rate and help mend the trust between

officers and their community. Not only does this reform lead to a rebuild in the trust, it can lead

to people of color facing less fear when being around police officers.

In order to understand how to mend the relationship between people of color and law

enforcement officers, it is important to note and understand why people of color often fear those

in blue. An article from USA Today Newspaper written by Lisa Thurau and Johanna Wald

discusses how police brutality negatively affects minorities across the country. We are even

seeing how if the individual was not directly affected by the incident, they can still be negatively

affected. The high rate of police brutality against black people is causing more reported incidents

of depression, stress, and other mental health issues among African Americans (Thurau and

Wald). They offer a potential solution that involves making sure that police officers are educated

on the effects of trauma, poverty, and violence have on criminal behavior. In addition to this,

they will also have a better understanding on how their potential biases can directly affect their

actions, especially under stress (Thurau and Wald). This reform includes police officer’s being
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offered better training in the police academy and during their probationary period where they are

with a training officer.

The issue with not having consequences for police officers that abuse their power,

particularly against people of color is that it teaches people to be fearful of law enforcement

officers. This actually makes the police officer’s job harder because it creates a tense situation

between the officer and the civilian they are interacting with. It specifically teaches people of

color that based upon the color of their skin, they are more likely to be shot by a police officer,

which gives them a bigger reason to experience fear of law enforcement officials. Not having

consequences for the law enforcement officers involved in killings of unarmed civilians, means

that they are creating a system where the common person’s life is not worth as much as an

officer’s life. It is creating this system because the system is basically allowing these killings to

occur, and not doing anything (in most cases) to protect the lives of the victims and their fellow

community members.

An academic article authored by Johanna Lacoe and Jillian Stein also goes into detail

about how police brutality can negatively affect minorities and the victims. They state in the

article, “minorities are disproportionally more likely to be killed at the hands of police compared

with Whites” (Lacoe and Stein). They go on to say that witnessing an instance of police brutality

can be a stressor for people in the affected neighborhood. In the current state of the United

States, people of color have to be aware that police officers could abuse their power and get

away with it simply because they can claim it was reasonable. When people of color witness

another person of color be affected by police brutality, it affects them negatively. It can cause

their stress levels to rise as well as their fear level.

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Another unexpected result of police brutality is that people tend to be less likely to call

the police for help. If they witnessed someone in their community killed, especially if they were

unarmed, why would they call the police for help? They fear that this same situation could

happen to them, which creates dangerous conditions within the community. It leaves individuals

to have to deal with crimes committed on their own, for example, if someone robbed them, they

would not get compensation for the things they lost because they were afraid to contact the

police. This can lead to an increase in criminal behavior because people will not feel the threat of

getting caught because people are not calling the police for help (Lacoe and Stein).

In order to help rebuild the trust among police officer’s and people of color in particular,

the police officers need to face some sort of punishment for abusing their power. There have

been multiple occasions of instances of officer’s using an excessive amount of force and facing

no consequences for these actions. An academic article written by Jeanelle Angus and Vaughn

Crichlow discusses specific cases which involve police killings of unarmed black males. They

discovered a shocking pattern when researching these cases, each officer involved in all the cases

were acquitted of every single charge (Angus and Crichlow).

They studied the following cases, “Davon Mullins, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Anthony

Robinson Jr., and Alfred Olango” (Angus and Crichlow). They found that each officer in the

case was acquitted because when an officer wrongfully kills someone, they still have something

called qualified immunity. This comes from the landmark case Graham v. Connor; this protects

law enforcement officers and exempts them from being prosecuted for “violating constitutional

principles that they could not have reasonably known at the time of the violation” (Angus and

Crichlow). This basically means that as long as the officer is able to prove that at the time of the

incident, he/she thought the use of force was reasonable and necessary, then they will be
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acquitted. This creates an unfortunate situation for victims of police brutality because it is not

likely that they will get justice for the wrongdoing on the officer’s part.

Jeanelle Angus and Vaughn Crichlow give several ways in which we could possibly help

the phenomenon of police brutality. They explain that more research needs to be done in order to

get the root of the issue that causes police brutality to occur. They suggest that, “Future

researchers may consider implementing new and progressive police practices in black

neighborhoods” (Angus and Crichlow). These new and progressive police practices are targeted

at black communities because police officers and people of color need to ease the tension

between them. This is due to the fact that if someone has a darker skin tone that automatically

makes them 5 times more likely to have been affected by police brutality. This mend starts with

reform in the current criminal justice system that allows for unarmed minorities to be shot and

killed by law enforcement officers, and no justice comes from it. They also suggest that

researchers embed themselves in the actual law enforcement agencies in order to conduct studies

on police-citizen interactions (Angus and Crichlow). This is to gain accurate information about

law enforcement agencies interact within the community, they can use this information to better

train future police officers.

It is important to note that police brutality can take on different forms then just physical

abuse, it can involve emotional and sexual abuse by police officers as well. Another important

thing to note is that police brutality must be done with intent, if it is actually a mistake, then it

should not be considered police brutality. On top of the fact that police brutality is more likely to

be faced by people of color, “young black men were nine times more likely than other

Americans to be killed by police officers” (Alang, et. al). This is not to say that if someone is

white, they will never face some form of police brutality, it simply means that individuals of
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color are more likely to experience this. When studying the effects of police brutality, it is

important to understand that being a certain race, gender, sexual orientation can affect your

likelihood of facing it.

An academic article written by Sirry Alang, as well as others, describes how a minority’s

mental health can be negatively affected by police brutality. Not only can witnessing these

events affect someone’s mental health, Alang discusses different ways police brutality can affect

minorities. An obvious way that police brutality can affect minorities is through fatal injuries

which in turn increase mortality rates for that specific population. They can also experience,

“adverse physiological responses that increase morbidity; racist public reactions that cause

stress; arrests, incarcerations, and legal, medical, and funeral bills that cause financial strain; and

integrated oppressive structures that cause systematic disempowerment” (Alang, et. al). One

thing I found important to note is the increase of arrests, incarcerations, legal, medical, and

funeral bills that cause financial strain. This tends to go unrecognized that the victim’s families

have the burden and the responsibility of taking care of the financial aspect of police brutality.

Reform within the Criminal Justice system needs to happen in order for the victim and the

victim’s family to receive some form of justice and closure.

Victims of police brutality and their families often never get closure or justice for the

wrongdoing done against them. An article written by Adam Hudson goes into detail about

several cases of police killings and describes how the families are often forgotten about. After

the hashtag dies down, after the story gets less attention, the family is still left grieving their

loved one. On top of grieving for their loved one they have to also deal with the fact that they

will likely never get justice for the unwarranted killing of their family member. Social media has

led to the ability to share information in seconds, this means that these instances of police
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brutality get more attention. However, this can create hurt for the families of the victim because

often times people record the incident on their phones showing the death of a person. These

families are basically forced to relive the death of their loved one because social media spreads

the information around constantly. For example Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, had

this to say about the death of her father, “They exploit their deaths all over the media and we

have to relive it every day. So how can we, as family, heal if we continue to keep seeing our

loved one die or the next one die or the next one die and ask for questions?” (Hudson). While the

use of social media allows for these cases to get widespread attention, they can actually be quite

harmful for the families of the victims.

In addition to these victim’s families having the burden of financial costs, they often get

no support from the police department or the local government. Collette Flanagan, mother of

Clinton Allen who was fatally shot by a Dallas police officer, described how victim’s do not get

support from law enforcement officials. Her son, Clinton Allen was fatally shot seven times by

Dallas Police Officer Clark Staller. Officer Staller claimed that Allen was choking him at the

time of the incident, where they found no scratches or signs of struggle. They even had

conflicting reports by an eyewitness that stated Allen showed no signs of aggression and had his

hands in the air when she was shot 7 times by the officer (Hudson). In October of 2013, a Dallas

grand jury decided not to indict Staller (Hudson). Flanagan describes that, “after a police

shooting, no assistance is provided for burial. The police department wouldn’t even talk to her

family, narrowing opportunities for closure” (Hudson). This is far more likely than it should be,

police brutality victims and their families should at the very least be given some form of

financial help to pay for the trouble caused by law enforcement officers.
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An interesting effect that police brutality has had on the victim’s families, is that the

families are now more likely to speak up for what they believe in. Experiencing the death of a

family member makes you more aware that anything can happen at any time and they tend to use

this understanding to try to make positive change. Collette Flanagan is an example of using this

instance to better her community, “So rather than focus solely on getting justice for her son, she

decided to challenge the system itself” (Hudson). She founded a group called Mothers Against

Police Brutality with the goal of combatting systemic police violence against people of color in

particular. She believes that radical change to the current judicial system is necessary for the

families of the victims and to help combat the instances of police brutality.

Initial responses on police brutality can lead to people to believe that police officers are

simply using the necessary amount of force against someone. Individuals will say that if

someone listen to a police officer’s commands then they will not take any drastic measures to

protect themselves. These are valid points and, in some situations, this might be the truth,

however, police brutality should never be normalized. Community members should be

advocating for the victims of police brutality and making sure that when officer’s go over the

necessary use of force that they be punished accordingly for this. We need to make sure that

within the judicial system, victims of police brutality have an opportunity to defend themselves

without an officer getting acquitted right away. These officer’s need to be checked because they

are given a great deal of discretionary powers, and they should use it responsibly and

respectfully. The community need to make sure that police officers are held accountable for their

actions and the judicial system fights for the victim’s rights.
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An individual affected by police brutality is unable to get compensation for being a victim because he has
to take the complain the officer’s themselves.

This image showcases that if someone is a victim of police brutality it is unlikely that

they will be compensation for being a victim. It shows the tendency for officers to have other

officer’s backs which is understandable, however, when an officer is defending another officer

for abusing their power, they have become a part of the problem. This image shows a clearly

injured man having to complain to officers about police brutality, to which the officer responds

with, "bring your assailants and prove it", which the man is not going to be able to prove because

it is unlikely the officers would be punished. This image is appealing to a person’s emotional

side because this man is not going to get any justice for being a victim because his abusers are

protected by other law enforcement officers. This image is appealing to everyone that

understands that police brutality exists and is an issue, it is trying to persuade people to combat

police brutality. The image is logical because it shows that this has happened on more than one

occasion, it is proving to people that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

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Reform needs to happen to decrease the instances of police brutality that will in turn help

the relationship between police and the public, people of color experiencing less fear when in the

presence of law enforcement officers, and for victims and their families to receive justice and

closure. A minority is more likely to be affected by police brutality than someone who is

Caucasian, something needs to be done within the Criminal Justice system to help solve this

issue. If police officer’s and the community start to work together, perhaps we could see a

decrease in the instances of police brutality, as well as a decrease in the crime rate. I hope to

have a direct effect on changing the policies to end police brutality when I become a law

enforcement officer.
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Works Cited

Alang, Sirry, et al. “Police Brutality and Black Health: Setting the Agenda for Public Health

Scholars.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 662–

665. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303691.

Angus, Jeanelle, and Vaughn Crichlow. “A Race and Power Perspective on Police Brutality in

America.” FAU Undergraduate Research Journal, 15 May 2018,

journals.fcla.edu/faurj/article/view/106404.

Hudson, Adam, “Families of Police Violence Victims Face Trauma Without Support.” Truthout,

truthout.org/articles/families-of-murdered-black-men-deal-with-trauma-channel-anger/.

Keesee, Tracie. “How Police and the Public Can Create Safer Neighborhoods Together.” TED,

June 2018.

www.ted.com/talks/tracie_keesee_how_police_and_the_public_can_create_safer_neighb

orhoods_together?language=en.

Lacoe, Johanna, and Jillian Stein. “Exploring the Policy Implications of High‐Profile Police

Violence.” Criminology & Public Policy, vol. 17, no. 4, Nov. 2018, pp. 859–

863. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12410.

Russell, Melvin. “I Love Being a Police Officer, but We Need Reform.” TED,

www.ted.com/talks/melvin_russell_i_love_being_a_police_officer_but_we_need_reform

?language=en.

Thurau, Lisa H., and Johanna Wald. “Police Killings, Brutality Damaging Mental Health of

Black Community.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 Sept. 2018,
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www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/09/14/police-brutality-

damaging-black-communitys-mental-health/1218566002/.