Patricia Mendoza

Thesis Paper

UWRT 1100-1104

April 28th, 2017

Us vs. Them: Police Brutality and Misconduct

Many high-ranking police in America say in private that police themselves have brought

on such criticisms. The history of policing in America does include disregard for the limits of

discretion, violation of civil rights, brutality, and arrogance. Some police know of the problems

of sadism among their fellows as well ( Delattre 46). The following quote by professor Edwin

Delattre from his book, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing written in 2011, describes

some of the problems police departments face. Police brutality and misuse of power has been a

problem that unfortunately has been increasing in our societies leading to tension between the

police force and civilians. Police may view their authority as an excuse to be excessively

aggressive or unjust towards civilians; we see this happening more and more everyday, whether

we have personally experienced it or have seen it happening in some form of media. But in the

end, this is an issue that affects all of us.

Essentially, the purpose of the police force is to serve and protect. They are the ones we

trust to protect us and are the ones that we call when there is trouble, but when police take

advantage of their authority, who do we call? Who do we call for help when the ones that are

meant to protect us are the ones we are scared of? One of the biggest impacts of police

misconduct in our societies is the lack of trust that forms between the police and the civilians

they are meant to protect. Officers might approach civilians with predetermined misconceptions
and wrongly act based upon them, while on the other hand civilians might feel tension or have

their own assumptions as well. When there is no trust and everyone simply assumes the worst of

each other, this leads to certain situations escalating and having the potential to turn aggressive

and violent. But what exactly leads police to abuse their authority? The answer to this is

discretion. Discretion means that cops often rely on their own judgment in particular situations,

as professor of philosophy and education emeritus at Boston University, Edwin Delattre,

emphasizes in a chapter of his book titled Discretion: Judgement and Rules, discretion is a

special kind of liberty-the freedom to make decisions that affect the lives of others, which other

citizens are not empowered to make.

Although officers have been trained and have a particular set of rules to follow, there are

no procedures for every possible scenario a cop may experience daily while on the job, therefore

they tend to rely on their own judgement to make certain decisions and this is what leads to them

exceeding their legal authority. Not only do they rely on their own discretion but most of the

time, patrol cops work shifts by themselves meaning that there is no one else there to supervise

them and watch what they are doing so when it comes down to it, if a civilian claims that an

officer used excessive force against them, how will they be able to prove it? Discretion is an

aspect of policing that will not go away because there is no way to know exactly how police

handle their everyday routines but this is an issue that police departments need to address more

often to their officers.

Throughout my research I was able to find many sources on police use of discretion. I

came across a 2016 documentary titled Policing the Police in which Jelani Cobb, a professor of

journalism at Columbia University, joins Newarks gang unit in ride alongs to observe their

methods and forms of action. At the time, the officers of the gang unit went out five times per
week in unmarked cars, making traffic stops, searching pedestrians, and conducting drug raids.

Cobb experiences the way the officers interacted with civilians on a daily basis in a city that

obtains a reputation for drug trafficking, gang violence, and a homicide rate nine times than that

of New York City. In the documentary, Cobb witnesses these officers use excessive force towards

civilians but the officers claim they do not use excessive force and are simply doing their job the

way they are supposed to. When Cobb asked one officer how he makes the decision to stop

someone, he described a set of criteria that constitute a gut instinct, not reasonable suspicion. The

officers response shows how he uses personal discretion in deciding who to stop and who not to

stop rather than actual suspicion that a person may have a weapon or drugs. Cobb also asks the

officers if it is possible to keep communities safe while still respecting people's rights, to which

the officer's reply with absolutely. But Cobb later states, is this really possible when police

come to conclusions before even having fully approached a person? Ultimately discretion

depends on the individual and although of course not all cops are corrupt, there is no way to

know what cops actually are corrupt and that is why police departments must start being more

strict with their procedures and let these officers know that misconduct will not go unpunished.

Frankly, it is sad to say that nowadays a person could simply be walking down the street and be

stopped by an officer because they have a gut instinct.

Another important factor I wanted touch on when speaking about police brutality is the

matter of race. Its no shocker that for the most part when we hear about police brutality, it is

normally between caucasian officers and a minority, particularly African American males.

Examples include the cases of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Alton Sterling, and many more.

Once again, I know this is not always the case and that not every cop is racist or biased towards a
single race. But when statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to get

killed by police than Caucasians, it kind of makes you wonder why.

An article by former St. Louis police officer Redditt Hudson, titled Being a Cop Showed

Me Just How Racist and Violent the Police Are. There's Only One Fix gives a personal account

in which Hudson describes the kind of injustice his fellow officers showed towards civilians,

stating that he took notice that many of his peers were deeply racist and were very open with

each other about it, even noting that a couple of officers ran a website called St. Louis Coptalk,

in which cops were able to post about their daily experiences on the job but that for the most

part, the website was used as a platform for racist rants, that eventually escalated so much that at

one point it had to be shut down. Hudson explains that a major flaw in police departments is that

cops are not held accountable for their actions, and they know it. They continue to violate rights

because they know they will not get in trouble for it and if they are caught, they know they will

be investigated by their own peers (who commit the same violations) and will be put on a paid

leave, what they refer to as a free vacation rather than a punishment for their wrongdoings.

After reading the article, it was disturbing to know that there truly are officers out there with

badges that really just dont care about the people in their communities and it was especially off

putting to think that some of them may not take their actions seriously, almost as if they are

laughing about it, as if policing is some sort of joke in the first place.
The visual above shows the number of African Americans that were killed by police in America

between January 2013 - September 2016 (mapping police violence). As I did more research on

my topic, specifically when it came to statistics and the amount of white people killed by police

than that of black people, I found plenty of statistics that showed that the same amount, if not,

more white people have been killed by police than that of black people. In an article written by

journalist Wesley Lowery in 2016 for The Washington Post titled Arent more white people than

black people killed by police? Yes, and no stated that police have shot and killed a young black

man (ages 18 to 29) such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. 175 times since January

2015; 24 of them were unarmed. Over that same period, police have shot and killed 172 young

white men, 18 of whom were unarmed but while in raw numbers there were similar totals of

white and black victims, blacks were killed at rates disproportionate to their percentage of the

U.S. population. Because the white population is approximately five times larger than the black

population, that means unarmed black Americans were more likely as unarmed white Americans
to be shot and killed by a police officer. What I took from this is that although white males have

been killed by police just as much as black males, the rate in which blacks are killed is what the

difference is as an unarmed black male is more at risk of being fatally shot by an officer than an

unarmed white male, so although statistics show that more white people have been killed by

police, this is not true when considering other factors, such as the population of each race.

I not only wanted to speak about rates of police shootings but also about how many

officers have actually been charged and convicted of these killings. While in some cases, officers

may face actual threats and need to defend themselves, we have seen over and over cases in

which there shouldnt have been anyone killed at all. For example, the case of Eric Garner who

died July 17, 2014 at the hands of police after an officer placed him in an illegal chokehold after

cigarettes. The case became a high profile case and sparked a public outcry as there was video

having a runin with him on the sidewalk where police claimed that Garner was selling illegal that

showed the officer putting Garner in a chokehold and Garner repeatedly saying I cant breathe.

Although the citys medical examiner ruled Garners death a homicide because of the

compression of his neck and chest, the officer who applied the chokehold as well as a police

sergeant who failed to supervise the incident were not charged with a crime and both were

simply stripped of their guns and badges. This is often the outcome from cases such as these.

In a 2017 article written by investigative reporters Kimberly Kindy and Kimbriell Kelly

titled Thousands Dead Few Prosecuted, the article claims that since 2005, only 54 police

officers have ever been charged and that most have been acquitted in cases that were solved even

though in an overwhelming majority of the cases where an officer was charged, the person killed

was unarmed. The article also states that only in rare cases do prosecutors and grand juries

decide that the killing cannot be justified. This is because an officer can just make the claim that
his/her life was in danger and had no other choice but to shoot. Also, often after these officer

commit these shootings and are acquitted of their charge, they remain serving in their

departments. To make matters worse, those officers who are convicted are sentenced to serve

short sentences. The article then goes to say that race is a huge factor when it comes down to

police shootings and that among the officers charged since 2005 for fatal shootings, more than

three-quarters were white. Two-thirds of their victims were minorities, all but two of them black.

And lastly the article states that most of the time, prosecutors dont press charges against police

even if there are strong suspicions that an officer has committed a crime.

Its not a surprise when the public forms protests and riots in situations like these

because at the end of the day, a life was taken and no justice was given in return. Some people

may say well, maybe if the person wasnt doing something bad in the first place, then maybe

nothing would have happened, my response to comments like these is that officers need to try to

deescalate a situation before automatically reaching for their guns. In 2014, Michael Davidson

was shot by officer Phillip Hancock after he mistakenly assumed that Davidson was holding a

gun when in reality he was holding his wallet. In the dashcam, you can see Davidson get out of

his car and in less than 6 seconds, he was shot. In 6 seconds, Hancock made the decision to fire

his weapon and potentially end Davidsons life based on an assumption and when he was

brought to trial, the three-judge panel cleared Hancock of any wrongdoing as they claimed that

any other officer in his position would have also feared for their life. Actions like these make it

seem like an officer can just shoot a civilian and claim self defense and be able to walk away scot

free. It is this sort of injustice that makes people believe that the criminal justice system is

corrupt and will not fight for our rights, at least when it comes down to protecting one of their

own.
 The last factor I definitely wanted to touch on about this topic is a more recent issue that

is happening more in police departments, this issue is militarization. Militarizing police forces

means that police departments are receiving military-type equipment from our federal

organizations. Heavy firepower, meaning bigger guns and other weapons such as tear gas, are

becoming additions to police departments. This sort of equipment is not necessary for police

officers to have as the work that they are perform does not require them. In an academic journal

written by assistant professor at the Seattle School of Law, Karena Rahall begins by describing

the disturbing events that took place in Ferguson, Missouri on August 2014, after the death of

Michael Brown. The police force, who was armed with military-like weapons such as tear gas,

wooden bullets from armored cars, tanks, and snipers with ballistic helmets were fighting against

mostly peaceful protesters. This event was a big phenomenon in the media after the images

prompted the public to question why a police department in a city of 20,000 residents looked like

an invading army engaged in urban warfare against its own citizens.

Rahall claims that as disturbing the images from Ferguson were, it is noted that police

departments in towns with a mere 700 civilian population have also acquired this type of gear,

which is not only excessive and threatening but also costs the federal government millions of

dollars. Although the public is becoming more aware of the presence of military equipment and

tactics in its police force, what is really striking is that this militarization in both tactics and

equipment has led to an escalation in violent encounters between citizens and police. This might

stem from research done by Peter Kraska, who has done some of the most extensive empirical

studies of SWAT teams available, among others, has demonstrated that when police have access

to weapons and armament, they tend to use them, even if not for their intended purpose. As

Rahall claims: the consequences of both military training and the use of weapons designed for
war have created an atmosphere in which police-citizen encounters too often escalate and

become violent. Police departments should not be getting militarized, this will only increase the

possibility for more violence and further escalate tension between police and communities.

Police brutality and abuse of power is an issue that affects everyone in the community.

Police officers must know their boundaries and realize that violence only leads to more violence,

if one knows (not just assumes) that their life is in danger, they must shoot to injure not to kill

unless there is no other way. Unfortunately there is no way to truly know what will happen with

our police departments. Although there have been some improvements such as the addition of

body cameras that officers now wear, ultimately the outcome of any scenario depends on the

officer themselves; they must know and remember their purpose for being on the force: to serve

and protect.

Works Cited

Delattre, Edwin J. "Discretion: Judgement and Rules." Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

3rd ed. Washington, DC: AEI, 2011. 45-50. Print.

Policing the Police. Dir. James Jacoby. By Jelani Cobb and James Jacoby. Prod. Anya Bourg

and James Jacoby.pbs.org Frontline, 28 June 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.

Hudson, Redditt. "Being a Cop Showed Me Just How Racist and Violent the Police Are.
 There's Only One Fix." The Washington Post. N.p., 6 Dec. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

Deray Mckesson, Samuel Sinyangwe, and Brittany Packnett. Police Are Killing Black People at

Persistently High Rates. Digital image. Mapping Police Violence. N.p., 09 Aug. 2016. Web. 07

Apr. 2017.

Kelly, Kimberly Kindy Kimbriell. "Thousands Dead Few Prosecuted."

The Washington Post. N.p., 12 Apr. 2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2017.

Rahall, Karena. "The Green to Blue Pipeline: Defense Contractors and the Police

Industrial Complex." Cardozo Law Review, vol. 36, no. 5, June 2015, pp. 1785-1835.

Lowery, Wesley. "Aren't More White People than Black People Killed by Police?

Yes, but No."The Washington Post. WP Company, 11 July 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.