Violence Research Assignment Paper: Police Brutality

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Violence: Police Brutality
Police brutality is a kind of human rights violation that occurs in every community due to the use of excessive force. Many people have witnessed or have become victims of police brutality. In their line of duty, police officers are sometimes faced with threatening circumstances that enable them to make haste decisions when expecting the worst at the same time hope for the best outcome. The police officers are given the powers to maintain law and order as well as to take away any right of a citizen as well as their lives. Thus, they have the responsibility to apply the forces in a recommended way. Therefore, police are trained to use the least amount of force necessary to make an arrest by using escalations of force. However, sometimes police exceed the minimum amount required to diffuse an incident or protect them, which leads to misconduct or undue violence when not warranted.
Theories on Police Brutality
Police brutality and their behaviors can be explained based on different theories. For example, the social dominance theory asserts that the white people are the dominant group in the American society. Thus, they are not succumbed to the police brutality compared to other races (Chaney and Robertson 480). This social dominance theory is then used by the whites to justify the police behaviors of the use of excessive force on blacks by mentioning that the blacks indeed deserve brutality by the police officers since they normally resist arrests, they engage in thug activities as well as taking prohibited drugs. Based on the theory, it is noted that about 38% of the Whites and 90% of the blacks view police brutality to be targeting the blacks ((Chaney and Robertson 480). Consequently, the officers who participate in such acts are usually promoted to higher ranks rather than facing interdiction or charges. These are normally done by the justice system even if there is a strong evidence which includes camera footage, testimonies from witnesses as well as analysis from the experts. For example, Eric Garner's case portrayed a scene whereby a police officer was acquitted of murder charges despite numerous evidences that was odd with the acquittal (Chaney and Robertson 480).
Current Statistics of Police Brutality
Incidences of police brutality have been recorded in the year 2015 having led to the loss of 1300 lives compared to 2017 that stands at 407. The year 2015 was marked by many high-profile incidences of such brutalities especially against the minorities such as Samuel Dubose in Ohio, Walter Scott in South Carolina, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore (Miller, et al. 27). The most recent police violence has resulted into protests, including riots linked to social groups such as the riots in Baltimore, #Black Lives Matter on Twitter community among others. However, the numerous impacts of such brutalities are normally difficult to comprehend without proper research. Therefore, getting a fact and proving of an incident of police brutality sometimes become difficult due to the absence of evidence (Miller, et al. 27).
Henceforth, some of the statistics on police brutality include a Washington Post that presented an analysis of 385 fatal shootings by police of...