The Issue of Police Brutality

The Issue of Police Brutality

Valentina Velarde

       To begin police brutality has been an issue throughout American history since the beginning of policing. Police brutality, the unwarranted or excessive and often illegal use of force against US civilians. The use of excessive force has its forms ranging from murder, assault, battery, and the list can go on. Throughout history something that is also a huge issue is being harassed by a cop this can include a lot of things for example making a false arrest, trying to intimidate, verbal abuse, ect. In 1943 there was an issue with police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department who were complicit in attacks on Mexican Americans. 

 

        December 25th 1951 five hispanic men and two white men were severely beaten by policemen of the Los Angeles Police department. This was called bloody christmas and 8 officers were indicted for assault and five were found guilty. But it was almost like in the 90s police brutality was at its all time high it seemed. And sometimes cases like these are very disturbing on March 2nd, 1991 Rodney King, 47 was beaten by batons and kicked by four other officers of the LAPD. The officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon but were not found guilty. Then there were cases throughout the 2000s leading up to now. And most of today’s society is aware of the issue of police brutality, people are also familiar with the names of the victims. We think of names like Elijah Mccalin and George Floyd and all of the protests that sparked afterwards. The Police have killed 1,127 people alone in 2020 13% of those victims were of the american population and 28% were African Americans.

 

        With all of the protests that had gone on we look at our police force today and notice that these protests were frequently met with militarized police. Meaning these police officers had everything from pepper spray, rubber bullets, batons, and oh they used their equipment very frequently, which isn’t okay. We tend to look at issues like this and wonder what may be something that can fix Police brutality? People have suggested Police reform beginning with  training which mainly focuses on more mental than physical training for certain situations that the police officer may be in and also extending police training in order to do so. To learn more about History Of Police Violence In America read the source: A History of Police Violence in America