Police Brutality, are the police abusing their authority

Police Brutality, are the police abusing their authority
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Abuse of police authority entails any motive, intent or malice propagated to injure, insult, crush human dignity, and inflict feelings of inferiority in violation of the constitution. Police are widely recognized as conduits of distribution of non-negotiable coercive force. They use more force than is reasonable resulting in both physical and psychological damage (Harris, 2009). Physical abuse is commonly classified as police brutality and it is justified among officers that pursue people involved in putatively violent behavior such a suspects that make an attempt to evade police when commended to surrender. There are two main forms of police brutality namely external brutality and custodial coercion. External brutality occurs before arrest while custodial coercion occurs during interrogation. The police also use excessive force on people of certain racial minorities. Against vulnerable groups such as mentally disturbed persons, homeless people, lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual people (LGBT). There is also rising concern about the inappropriate use of pepper spray against non-violent demonstrators and other alarming incidents of death and torture perpetrated in custodial restraint holds (Amnesty International, 1999). This paper will outline brutality against LGBT people, ethnic and racial minorities, peaceful protestors and suspects in detention.
When police overextend their legal authority through use of excessive force to affect an arrest or to coerce information in the course of their duty, it unsettles the public to a great extent. The National Institute of Justice 2005 study indicated that approximately 2.3 per cent of all 43.5 million people that had come into contact with the police experienced force or the threat of force by police. Fifty five per cent of those who reported experiencing force or threat of force indicated that the police pointed a gun, pushed and used chemical sprays. Ten per cent reported that the police shouted and curse but did not apply force and 28 per cent reported that the police issued threats but did not apply actual force. These example and statistic suggests that police brutality is a persistent and widespread phenomenon across the US.
Targeting LGBT individuals
A 2005 Amnesty international report indicated that LGBT people particularly those of color, youth, immigrants, and homeless have heightened risk of police abuse. It also indicated that low income transgender people face the most egregious police brutality. The police target people that fail to conform to gender stereotypes that govern mainstream ideas on femininity and masculinity. They observe and profile LGBT people as suspicious while obliviously going about their daily activities such as shopping, waiting for the bus or walking dogs (Amnesty International USA, 2005).The police accompany sexual abuse and physical abuse of LGBT people with homophobic and trans-phobic slurs. Cruelty, degrading and inhuman practices are rampant during arrest, searches and detention against LGBT people and verbal abuse against them is commonly sexualized. There are cases where police officers search transgender individuals to...