Police Brutality and Our World

Police brutality is a subject often scrutinized and many times politicized. It is a subject for debate that has perhaps not yet caused a nuclear incursion, but has overwhelmingly outraged communities and caused civil wars among the country’s strong and defiant.

Police brutality not only affects the offenders and victims, it also affects children, the elderly and future social standards. Before deciding on whether police brutality exists, or whether it is an undulation as compared to a rarity, one must take an philosophical look at what defines the phrase, investigate the educational background required of beginning cadets, profoundly analyze the discoveries of what occurred at Stanford University in 1971, and unhurriedly observe examples of brutality that have occurred, but normally are flashed quickly across the evening news.

Defining police brutality takes more than just a dictionary, it requires an in depth look into the actions of law enforcement. “Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers”. This is a good start into defining police brutality, but what about when “Calvin admitted he had sex with a woman in a station break room after she was picked up on a drunk-driving allegation”?

Anyone familiar with this local case can tell you it was an act that occurred while Mr. Calvin was on-duty. This is where police brutality is not defined by the previous statement. This part of police brutality involves a sexual occurrence in which an officer used the power he possessed while on-duty in order to seduce and/or force a victim into committing a sexual act. Police brutality is
When police use excessive or otherwise unwarranted force against an often innocent person…Often times the police department will investigate (oftentimes part of a cover-up) just enough to say they did with no real effort to punish the officers involved, letting them off with a reprimand or a months suspension for what would be a felony for the rest of us.

This is somewhat of a more detailed look into defining police brutality, but offers a biased opinion by suggesting a police department investigation is a ‘cover-up.’ One’s purpose in defining police brutality cannot be to express his/her own opinion, but rather to inform and then allow others to develop their own definition. “This [police brutality] is when police hurt an innocent person for no reason at all”. This is a broad definition, but might actually be the most appropriate. Let us first examine the constant noun of the subject. The word ‘brutality’ means “the state or quality of being ruthless, cruel, harsh, or unrelenting”.