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Jacoby Muhammad
Sarah Hughes
Essay 3
4/30/15
Police Brutality
Who gives police the right to brutalize vulnerable people? In today's society, when you
bring up Police Brutality, most people refer to the popular slogan Black Lives Matter. There
has been many cases of police taking the lives of innocent black teens. Police brutality is the use
of excessive force by law enforcements. Even though sometimes it's for a good cause, some
people do not recognize the good in it. Some examples of Police brutality are the recent cases of
Laquan McDonald, Ferguson, and Trayvon Martin etc... Even though its a controversial topic,
Police brutality for a long period of time was not spoken about so widely rather than today.
People forget what causes these things. Some people get what they deserve. As the years went
by the topic became more of a priority for the media. Causing riots, marches, and protest. Giving
police the freedom of getting away with brutality all the more gives them the thought of not
having justice. Police brutality should not be overlooked. Of course in some cases it's what's
necessary
Police brutality is caused by misconduct of the victim. According to Think progress, as of
July 1st, 2015 police have killed at least 550 people. 60 of which were ill or unarmed. What
causes these crime to constantly emerge is the fact that police officers are not being held
accountable for their actions. Of course when a person refers to police brutality, they think of
policemen harming an innocent person, using excessive force, and getting away with it. But what
others fail to realize is you have people out there that have no respect for police officers. Having

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no respect for an officer often leads to excessive force either by the officer or the suspect
involved in the altercation. So it is not only the police causing these problems, but the citizens
too.
An example of police brutalizing a victim is the case of Jason Harrison. March 19, 2015
officers john Rodgers and Andrew Hutchins were involved in the killing of Jason Harrison.(39year old schizophrenic man). Jason Harrison was shot 5 times for approaching one of the
officers with a screwdriver in his hand. In the video that caused this issue to go viral, in the
background you can hear Harrison's mom pleading for the officers not to hurt her son. "The
police had been to the Harrison home a hundred times or more without incident, as it was wellknown in the home and community that Jason was nonviolent," the suit says McLaughlin,
CNN. These officers were never charged with the death of Jason Harrison. If nothing is done
soon, more corruptions from riots and protest will become an even bigger problem.

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Other causes of police brutality is the personality trait of the officer. If an officer is an asshole
hell most likely use excessive force because of that trait he carries. There has been many cases
where police brutality was used because of a trait of the officer. The use of excessive forces was
used in the case of Eric Garner. The famous I Can't Breathe slogan. Officers Justin Damico
and Daniel Pantaleo were involved with the death of Eric Garner. July 17th, 2015 Eric Garner
was brutalized and ganged upon by multiple cops. He was eventually put in a chokehold with his
last words being I can't breathe the physical trait of unnecessary roughness was used during
this arrest.
Even though the stories have targeted the police as the source of police brutality, there is
always more to a situation. With that being said police brutality is not just because of police.

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There is always two sides to a story. With research you find out that there is people around the
world who give officers a hard time when they are just trying to do their job.

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