Owhe 1

Police Brutality

John Owhe
Plummer
Comp 101
8 December 2015

Owhe 2
Outline

Thesis: Police brutality today is getting out of hand. Teens dying left and right
and no one is doing anything about it. The officers are getting away with
assault and murder while the families are suffering and losing their loved
ones. Police men need cameras built into their uniform to show what they did
that whole day. This would help increase the chances of a more fair trial of
the police brutality.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.

John Owhe
Plummer
Comp 101

Introduction
A. Re-Design Uniforms
Police Brutality
A. Certain Cases
B. Witnesses
Other Cameras
New Camera
Conclusion

Owhe 3

8 December 2015
Police brutality today is getting out of hand. Teens dying left
and right and no one is doing anything about it. The officers are getting away
with assault and murder while the families are suffering and losing their
loved ones. Police men need cameras built into their uniform to show what
they did that whole day. This would help increase the chances of a more fair
trial of the police brutality. Police men tend to show more emotion when they
are arresting someone. People started recording their actions but still some
officers get away with the brutality. There should be a camera built in the
police regular uniform. This will allow the court to see the full issue in what
led the officer to react the way they did. Not only that, but it would make
people less aggressive when being arrested.
Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by
police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use of force means a force
well beyond what would be necessary in order to handle a situation
(Danalina). Officers that do this should not be officers. They do unnecessary
things to civilians and since they are not being criticized for their actions,
they keep doing it. Police brutality can be present in a number of ways. The
most obvious form of police brutality is a physical form. Police officers can
use nerve gas, batons, pepper spray, and guns in order to physically
intimidate or even intentionally hurt civilians (Danalina). Officers have a
right to use these weapons in which they take advantage of that right. Based
on the weapons that they are equipped with, they can kill or really injure an

Owhe 4

individual. Police brutality can also take the form of false arrests, verbal
abuse, psychological intimidation, sexual abuse, police corruption, racial
profiling, political repression and the improper use of Tasers (Danilina).
Officers are getting out of hand with their gadgets. Instead of using it for
justice, they are using it to hurt civilians. Their way of justice is tainted. Some
Cases have been remembered in history. Robert Davis, a retired elementary
school teacher from New Orleans, was arrested and brutally beaten by police
on suspicion of public intoxication. On the night of Oct. 9, 2005, just a little
over a month after Hurricane Katrina, Davis returned to New Orleans to
check on his familys property and went to the French Quarter to buy
cigarettes. There, he was attacked by four police officers who said he was
belligerent and resisted arrest by not allowing them to handcuff him. The
beatings videotaped by an Associated Press producer, who was also
assaulted that night. The officers were either fired or suspended for their
involvement, but many of the charges against them were cleared
(http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-worst-cases-ofpolice-brutality-in-history.html). This shows how violent officers can be. In
2004, 26 year old Frank Jude was viciously beaten by several off duty
Milwaukee police officers as he was leaving a party. The group of men
attacked Jude and his friend, Lovell Harris, claiming they stole one of the
officers wallets that contained a police badge. Harris face was cut with a
knife, but he was able to get free and run away. Jude was repeatedly
punched and kicked, as well as stabbed in the ears with a pen. Even the on-

Owhe 5

duty officer who was called to stop the fight began stomping on Judes head.
In the state trial, the jury acquitted the three officers charged. There was a
great deal of community outrage and demand for a federal investigation. The
federal grand jury convicted the three officers who were originally acquitted,
but did acquit the fourth officer
(http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-worst-cases-ofpolice-brutality-in-history.html). This shows that not even disarming the
police would change the result of these beatings these poor civilians have
taken. Much has been said about the stop snitching culture, with tales of
witnesses fearing revenge from criminals for speaking up in court, but what
happens when the person saying stop snitching is not a criminal but a
police officer? Thats the reality for some citizens who have recorded
cellphone video of police misconduct. They have expressed the same kind of
fear of revenge from police officers (Danois). Even when the officers are
caught in the act, it is not safe for the civilians because the officers can
harass them.
There is a lot of cameras that the police use. From highways to streets
and alleys. The cameras are used to see what really happened in a situation.
The cameras are used for different situations such as the in-car camera. The
idea of using video cameras in patrol car situations to promote officer safety
and to provide accountability is supported by both citizens and police
officers. Video offer a unique way to get 360 degree accountability, providing
an unbiased, accurate view of what really happened in a situation (Murray).

Owhe 6

This camera alone limits police brutality on high speed chases. The problem
is, even though there is cameras for the high speed situations, the on foot
situations remain a blur. Even when an officer reports to a situation and he
has an in-car camera, if the suspect is on foot, the officer would have to
move away from the car where the camera is and then the situation remains
uncaptured. This is why we cant rely on police in-car cameras to capture
every situation. We need on-body cameras to capture the situations on foot.
Even with the in-car cameras, citizens still end up being brutally beaten or
even shot to death for no reason.
Body cameras can at least slow down police brutality in the upmost
form. "On-officer recording systems" (also called "body cams" or "cop cams")
are small, pager-sized cameras that clip on to an officer's uniform or are worn
as a headset, and record audio and video of the officer's interactions with the
public. Recent surveys suggest that about 25% of the nations 17,000 police
agencies were using them, with fully 80% of agencies evaluating the
technology (Stanley). This shows that the body cameras are in effect and is
wanted by the people. Much interest in the technology stems from a
growing recognition that the United States has a real problem with police
violence. In 2011, police killed six people in Australia, two in England, six in
Germany and, according to an FBI count, 404 in the United States(Stanley).
This also shows that it is really needed on officers daily. A lot of officers are
getting away with murder and are still officers when they shouldnt be
because of lack of knowing what happened during the situation.

Owhe 7

Though on-camera on officers is a good plan, there is a slight cost. At

the same time, body cameras have more of a potential to invade privacy
than those deployments. Police officers enter people's homes and encounter
bystanders, suspects, and victims in a wide variety of sometimes stressful
and extreme situations (Stanley). Privacy will be harmed and it will affect
people globally. For the ACLU, the challenge of on-officer cameras is the
tension between their potential to invade privacy and their strong benefit in
promoting police accountability. Overall, we think they can be a win-win
but only if they are deployed within a framework of strong policies to ensure
they protect the public without becoming yet another system for routine
surveillance of the public, and maintain public confidence in the integrity of
those privacy protections. Without such a framework, their accountability
benefits would not exceed their privacy risks (Stanley). Privacy is critical
when it comes to cameras, it may limit police brutality, but in the end it still
affects privacy. The problem is that continuous recording raises many
thorny privacy issues, for the public as well as for officers. For example, as
the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) pointed out in their September
2014 report on body cameras, crime victims (especially victims of rape,
abuse, and other sensitive crimes), as well as witnesses who are concerned
about retaliation if seen cooperating with police, may have very good
reasons for not wanting police to record their interactions. We agree, and
support body camera policies designed to offer special privacy protections
for these individuals (Murray). Not everyone wants their privacy taken away

Owhe 8

from them because of the brutality. Cops are active and that will mean that
their cameras would capture a lot of activities. Continuous recording would
also mean a lot of mass surveillance of citizens ordinary activities. That
would be less problematic in a typical automobile-centered town where
officers rarely leave their cars except to engage in enforcement and
investigation, but in a place like New York City it would mean unleashing
30,000 camera-equipped officers on the public streets, where an officer on a
busy sidewalk might encounter thousands of people an hour. Thats a lot of
surveillance. That would be true of many denser urban neighborhoodsand
of course, the most heavily policed neighborhoods, poor and minority areas,
would be the most surveilled in this way(Stanley). This shows that the
officers are really engaging in the community and that the cameras on them
will capture a lot of things. Some civilians dont want their privacy to be
taken away.
Officers shouldnt be able to edit the videos or be able to off it.
Perhaps most importantly, policies and technology must be designed to
ensure that police cannot "edit on the fly" i.e., choose which encounters to
record with limitless discretion. If police are free to turn the cameras on and
off as they please, the cameras' role in providing a check and balance
against police power will shrink and they will no longer become a net
benefit(Murray). This is crucial because if the officers can on and off as
they please, they would just off it when they feel like it. Purely from an
accountability perspective, the ideal policy for body-worn cameras would be

Owhe 9

for continuous recording throughout a police officer's shift, eliminating any

possibility that an officer could evade the recording of abuses committed on
duty(Murray). This shows how the new camera would be worn and used
through an officer.
Police brutality today is getting out of hand. Teens are dying left and
right and no one is doing anything about it. The officers are getting away
with assault and murder while the families are suffering and losing their
loved ones. Police men need cameras built into their uniform to show what
they did that whole day. This would help increase the chances of a more fair
trial of the police brutality. Officers that are a part of the brutality should not
be officers. They do unnecessary things to civilians and since they are not
being criticized for their actions, they keep doing it. Based on the cases of
Frank Jude, and Robert Davis, it is safe to say we need these personal
cameras. A lot of officers are getting away with murder and are still officers
when they shouldnt be because of lack of knowing what happened during
the situation. But with the new camera, police brutality would tremendously
decrease.

Works Cited
https://www.aclu.org/police-body-mounted-cameras-right-policies-place-winall

Owhe 10

http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-worst-cases-ofpolice-brutality-in-history.html
http://www.seattle.gov/police/technology/patrol_cameras.htm
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/07/witnesses_of_police_brutalit
y_often_face_harassment_retaliation.html
http://thelawdictionary.org/article/what-is-police-brutality/