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 determine their true gender. The police also inappropriately place LGBT people in situations that compromise their security. For instance, the police place them in holding cells based on their genitally determined sex rather than their declared gender preferences. Such placement perpetuates the risk of verbal, physical and sexual abuse emanating from other detainees (Amnesty International USA, 2005).
The police also wrongfully target LGBT demonstrators and activists for abuse and arrest. For instance in 2003, a lesbian woman declined to produce her identification during a political protest and the move provoked brutal treatment by the officer. She was manhandled, and she sustained bruises on her chest and her back after the officers dragged her on the pavement. In custody, they pulled profiles of several men and repeatedly asked her whether she was one of them. They then made comments that it was unlikely because she was too ugly. The woman suffered both physical and verbal abuse and the police eventually held her together with other women. There are other dehumanizing incidents against LGBT people that occur in custody such as asking a transgender person before a crowd of other detainees whether they have female or male genitalia. LGBTI persons are also detained for longer periods than other protesters following arrest at a demonstration. Some are strip searched several times and denied access to their hormonal medication during detention (Amnesty International USA, 2005).
There are countless reports of serious physical abuse that cause LGBT individuals to become wary of police. They become fearful because the police are supposed to protect them when they encounter hate crimes. They develop the view that police are the perpetrators not protectors against hate crimes against them. For instance, in 2009, police officers attacked two lesbians Tiffany Jimenez and Jeanette Grey outside a night club in Crown Heights. They beat them with nightsticks and used anti-gay slurs against them. The police later charged them with disorderly conduct and obstructing their work. Another incident occurred in 2002 when the police responded to a call in a home with a transgendered woman. The New York Police Department (NYPD) officers pepper sprayed and pushed her family members against the wall. Stopping transgender women under the pretext of enforcing anti-prostitution laws is common in New York. The police subject transgender people to arbitrary stops on suspicion of prostitution that is often accompanied by physical, sexual and verbal harassment. A 2012 Human Rights watch report describes how police use condoms to label people as sex workers and justify their arrests for prostitution related offences among transgender women (Make the Road New York, 2012).
While in custody, transgender persons suffer heightened levels of brutality. For instance, in 2012, a transgender woman reported that the police mocked her asking her whether she had a penis or a vagina and then put in cell with other men with her hands handcuffed over her head on a chain link fence for twenty eight hours. Another incident of a male transgender that was arrested in the Occupy Wall street protest in 2011 took a similar trend. The man was handcuffed near a toilet with his arms twisted behind his back for eight hours while the police stared and giggled at him. There are also some incidents where the police subject LGBT people to sexual abuse. For instance, an NYPD officer asked a transgender woman to give a sexual favor to avoid being charged. The police are certainly aware that searches and comments regarding gender orientation are expressly prohibited. They are also aware that they ought to make provisions for the housing of transgender and gender non-conforming people while in custody. However, they intentionally violate the guidelines. They continue their frisk stops without basis and subject LGBT people to harassment and brutal acts during arrest and while in custody (Make the Road New York, 2012).
Racial and ethnic profiling
There is rampant discriminatory treatment of members of the black, Hispanic and Asian communities and such treatment is contrary to the US constitution and international laws on elimination of all forms of discrimination. Over the years, racial discrimination of law enforcement has been prevalent. Racial and ethnic minorities across the US are the most common victims of police brutality, unjustified shootings and death in custody. One such case is the Los Angeles incident that began in a police car chase after a motorist-Rodney King in 1991. The police fired at the unarmed black man, and the onslaught resulted in multiple injuries such as a broken cheekbone, ankle, fractures in his skull, brain damage and a burned chest. An eyewitness recorded the incident that was broadcasted on national television. Enraged protesters demanded that the Los Angeles police chief resign. Several officers were arrested in connection to the assault and citizens all over the country engaged in a debate about police brutality (Prud'Homme, 1991).
Certain ethnic minorities in the US are disproportionately the targets of police brutality (Smith & Holmes, 2003). A report by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement indicated that in 2012, a security officer killed one black person every twenty-eight hours. Their report also indicated that 22 percent of the extrajudicial killings consisted of people suffering from mental health issues. The study indicated that many of them would still be alive had the police called organizations dealing with community crisis and mental health treatment. The report also indicates that forty-three percent of the shootings happened after the police racially profiled suspects before detention. Twenty four percent of the killings occurred during criminal investigations (Hudson, 2013).
Hispanics and blacks make up only 53 percent of the New York City population and yet statistics show that they compose eight percent of the people subjected to random stop and frisks. In 2006, the NYC police fired 50 bullets on Sean Bell African American young man as he left his bachelor party on the day before his wedding. In the incident, two of his African American men sustained injuries. The police reported that the reason for firing at their vehicle was that they had reason to believe they had a weapon. The officers were acquitted although no weapons were recovered from the scene. In NYC, almost 90 percent of police shootings on unarmed civilians involved blacks and Latinos (Krupanski & Ritchie, 2008). The statistics clearly indicates that police brutality is rampant on racial lines is a reality and a clear indication of police abuse of authority.
It is common for the police to engage the permissive use of force on fleeing felons. It is the rule that results in the killing of more people of color than whites that are unarmed. There is also rampant use the race profiling criterion as a basis to stop and search citizens particularly in the wake of terrorist threats (American Sociological Association, 2007). Police tactics place minorities in physical danger and there are a number of highly publicized police shootings based on racial profiling. In 1999, the police fired 42 bullets at Amadou Diallo outside his apartment. They mistook his move to reach for his pocket to produce identification for reaching for a weapon. The policemen were acquitted of the charges in 2000. It is likely that he would not have shot at Diallo had he been white (Weich & Angulo, n.d). There is a need to change racist attitudes that drive police’s assumptions about ethnic and racial minorities’ involvement criminal tendencies by default.
Recently a white police officer shot a black teenager Michael Brown, an incident that sparked public protest. Witnesses indicate that Brown held up his hands but the Ferguson police officer –Wilson shot at him several times in the chest nevertheless (Reuters Reporter, 2014). Excessive police brutality against ethnic and racial minorities results from the improper implementation of rules and regulations that guide the use of force. It is also characteristic of inadequate training for the law enforcement officers. Such tragedies are the consequences of a law enforcement culture that encourages suspicion of minorities. Police use the same assumptions to stop minority drivers and pedestrians and assume the worst of minorities (Weich & Angulo, n.d).
Police brutality against racial and ethnic minorities leaves victims feeling humiliated, depressed and engenders reluctance in reporting crimes and cooperating with police officers. Members of minorities bear the brunt of police brutality including racist language, harassment, ill-treatment, unjustified stops and searches, false arrests, unjustified shootings, use of excessive force, and torture. Apart from targeting black and Latino communities, police also profile Native Americans and people of Asian and Middle Eastern descent. Race is a motivating factor in presumption of criminality (Amnesty International USA, 2005).
Targeting the homeless and mentally ill
Police officers in the US engage in numerous brutal acts against homeless people. For instance, in May 2011 in Washington, two police officers spotted a disabled homeless man sitting with an open alcohol container. They approached him grabbing him by the upper arms and threw him out of his wheelchair. He sustained injuries on his face and needed stiches to mend a gash above his eye. In another incident, in Oregon, Scott Hamilton a homeless disabled man was arrested for taking alcohol in public, and the police confiscated his wheelchair. He had to crawl out of the police station upon his release in full view of several officers (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2012).
A preliminary survey in 2007 by the Street health survey indicates that police officers assault twelve perc...