Police Brutality and Abuse in Our Society

Police Brutality and Abuse in Our Society:

Contributing Factors and the Victims Who are Targeted

Abstract

Police brutality is one of the most serious human rights violations in the U.S and it continues to be underreported because of barriers to accountability. Factors that protect police officers include, flaws in the system of reporting, the lack of testimonial evidence available from fellow police officers, and a corrupted system of punishment for such offenses. In fact, those agencies responsible for investigating the claims are not taking the problem seriously enough which leads many police officers not to be held accountable for their actions and accordingly victims find no purpose in continuing with the filing of charges because they will be eventually dropped. Unfortunately, the most common victims are minorities and poor citizens who do not have the monetary capabilities or credibility to pursue with further actions against their police abusers. Specifically, during recent years gay and lesbians and immigrants have become special targets of police abuse, which includes anything from beatings to sexual harassment. 

 
Introduction

Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of force by police officers and covers a wide range of abuses which include anything from the excessive use of force, different types of assaults, verbal attacks and both verbal and physical threat. Police misconduct can also extent into a variety of subsections which consist of false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse, and police corruption (“Police Brutality” 2001). According to data from the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, between 1996 and 2000, civilians annually registered between 3269 and 5174 allegations of officers’ improper use of force and between 6564 and 8919 allegations of abuse of authority or of offensive or discourteous language or behavior (Cooper, 2004). Regardless of these figures, however, abuse or over use of power by police officers has always been underreported and today the problem has escalated in part due to high crime rates across the United Sates. A series of factors (explained in the following paragraphs) are responsible for the lack of accountability that allow officers to abuse their power.