The Failure of Local and Federal Prosecutors to Curb Police Brutality

Although police departments across the country have attempted to ameliorate the hostility between police officers and the cumminity, through careful screening of applicants, minority recruitment, and community policing, police brutality remains a problem within our urban cities. This Essay will first argue that police brutality is largely ignored. Second, it will examine the obstacles facing local and federal prosecutors in obtaining convictions. Then it will compare the advantages and disadvantages of delegating primary responsibility for these cases to the state versus the federal level. Finally, it will argue that, although there are obstacles and advantages for both local and federal prosecutors, ultimately justice is best seved when police brutality is primarily pursued by local prosecutors

The Color and Content of Their Fears: A Short Analysis of Racial Profiling

In response to Zack’s “White Privilege​ and Black Rights”, I consider her account of the hunting schema in light of police violence against black women. I argue that although Zack provides us with a compelling account of racial profiling and police brutality, the emotional aspect she attributes to the hunting schema is too charitable. I then claim that Zack’s hunting schema fails to account for state violence against black women and in doing so she only tells a partial story of comparative injustice as it relates to police brutality of blacks

Understanding Police Brutality: How lack of police accountability leads to the disproportionate abuse of African Americans

Police misconduct, particularly police brutality, is the excessive and unwarranted force that has become a systemic issue. Police brutality is being reported and documented at higher rates due to technology. Black communities are disproportionately affected by police brutality. The African American community is significantly affected by police brutality as the probability and likelihood of being targeted by police is higher for Black communities. However, police brutality is not being addressed even when sufficient evidence is present. The lack of accountability for police brutality has led to death and physical harm to many individuals, especially Black people. Thus, for this research paper, I investigate whether the lack of accountability explains why African Americans disproportionately experience police brutality. During my research, I found three potential reasons, one being that violence against African Americans has become justified due to stereotypes that depict Black people as criminals, violent, and dangerous. Second, prosecutors are enabling police brutality as they protect police officers due to self-interest or fear of retaliation by police. Lastly, law enforcement agencies and police officers have used the code of silence and police immunity to evade accountability. With my findings based on statistical and qualitative analyses, I argue that these three factors may explain why the lack of accountability for police brutality are reasons why African Americans remain disproportionately victimized by law enforcement

Police Brutality

Police brutality is the excessive or unnecessary force used by law enforcement officials towards civilians. It’s a public health issue that impacts both physical and mental health. Although the misconduct of law enforcement officials is highly known to be the cause of racial discrimination, there are actually other elements contributing to such a broad issue. The importance of this issue led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement

Understanding the impact of police brutality on Black sexually minoritized men

Young Black gay, bisexual, and other sexually minoritized men (SMM) face high levels of police brutality and other negative, unwarranted encounters with the police. Such interactions have known health consequences. The purpose of this study was to understand the health, mental health, and social consequences of police brutality experienced by young Black SMM. We conducted in-depth interviews with 31 Black, cisgender men, ages of 16-30 and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Our primary results are summarized in four themes: 1) Police brutality is built into the system and diminishes trust; 2) Videos and social media make visible violence that has long existed; 3) Police brutality contributes to anxiety and other psychosocial effects; and 4) Violence reduces feelings of safety and contributes to avoidance of police. Our results highlight the direct and vicarious police brutality participants are subjected to and sheds light on the effects of such violence on trust, perceived safety, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Results from this study contribute to the needed public health conversation around police brutality against Black men, specifically shedding light on the experiences of Black SMM

Police Brutality as Torture

If racial justice is the most pressing issue in America today, police brutality is the flashpoint. Incident after incident of police brutality during searches and seizures, and within jails and prisons reinforces the conviction within many communities that police harm with impunity those whom they have a duty to protect. Existing criminal statutes are filled with discretionary standards that give deference to officers while civil remedies require victims to surmount the doctrine of qualified immunity. To increase accountability for police brutality, legislatures and courts have so far focused on reducing or eliminating these procedural hurdles. But their changes have not significantly affected the status quo. Police impunity continues to represent a peculiar gap in our otherwise over-inclusive legal system.This article proposes a new way of increasing accountability for police brutality by highlighting its particularly heinous conduct. Existing criminal law misses the cumulative levels of violence inflicted through police brutality by addressing it under existing offenses such as assault, battery, or homicide. Instead, I propose a model criminal statute specific to this violence, classified as torture committed by public officials. The statute bans acts committed with the intent to cause severe physical or mental pain or suffering during searches and seizures as well as within jails and prisons. This statute combines the deterrent effects of criminal law with the social signaling of a collective condemnation of police brutality, and punishes a crime particularized to those who enact violence while cloaked with state authority.Using the proposed statute to overcome resistance to police accountability offers significant benefits. First, the statute establishes an objective standard for prosecution in place of existing laws that defer to officer and departmental discretion and their attendant presumption that officer conduct falls within the scope of regular police duty or permissible use of force. Second, by redefining police brutality as torture, legislatures will highlight the intensity of the mistreatment a victim suffers, and the distinctive harm of violence when the state agents enact it. If the limits of our language are the limits of our world, our legal system has failed to understand the full horror of police brutality in part because we lack the proper language to describe it. The proposed statute provides a name for a particular kind of terror and cruelty police brutality inflicts without creating yet another offense that can be deployed against private individuals

The Benefits of a Grant for Police Worn Body Cameras

Police monitoring and accountability are important moral and economic issues within our nation. The problems that surround police accountability serve as the cause of issues regarding high rates of court cases having to deal with police misconduct, the issue of a nature of hostility surrounding police officers, and the social issue of police brutality. In order to help mitigate several of these problems, policy must be constructed in order to increase the rates at which we monitor police officers and hold them accountable. Monetarily, the courts have a problem of having to deal with cases involving police misconduct. Due to there being a lack of accountability and monitoring of officers, there is a large influx of court cases having to deal with these issues of alleged police misconduct and costing the nation millions of dollars. There is also the social cost of a nature of hostility being fostered towards police officers due to this problem of accountability. Lastly, there is an additional social cost of an increase in police use of force and instances of police brutality because of a lack of police monitoring and accountability. In order to properly ascertain what should be done in order to mitigate these problems, a review of the underpinnings of this policy problem as a whole will first be conducted, followed by a discussion of a policy prescription for this problem of a lack of accountability and monitoring, leading into an analysis of how to implement a policy for this problem along with the possible costs. These analyses will ultimately culminate into the conclusion of what policy should be followed that will produce the most benefits to society

Unscheduled Departures: The Circumvention of Just Sentencing for Police Brutality

This Article examines the problems presented when courts depart downward from the federal sentencing guidelines in police brutality cases. Sentences for police officers increased following the enactment of the sentencing guidelines, which this Article attributes to two factors: the elimination of sentencing disparities between police and civilian crimes, and the assignment of additional penalties for the civil rights dimension of the crime. The author contends that, without sentencing guidelines, police brutality is not sentenced commensurate with the harm committed; judges were often constrained by community attitudes and norms, even when they recognized the problem and wanted to impose adequate terms of imprisonment. The author places police brutality and its causes in the larger context of race and ethnicity in the United States, especially the African-American relationship to the criminal justice system. However, the policy of fair punishment for police brutality achieved by the use of civil rights sentencing guidelines may be short-lived. In January 1995, the Sentencing Commission staff proposed that the Commission reduce the offense level for civil rights crimes committed under color of law and correspondingly reduce the sentence to be applied. In the June 1996 decision of Koon v. United States the Supreme Court upheld most of the departure grounds applied by the trial court in sentencing the two police officers convicted in the Rodney King beating. The Supreme Court\u27s decision is troubling because it paves the way for downward departures from the sentencing guidelines in future police brutality cases. This action effectively sends a message to the police, and the nation, that police are above the law. This Article argues that the Sentencing Commission must act again to ensure that just sentencing for police brutality is maintained. The author recommends that the Commission act promptly, amending the guidelines to make clear that the departure grounds approved by the Supreme Court in Koon are not applicable in police brutality cases