Patricia Mendoza

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1104

03/01/2017

How does police brutality and abuse of authority affect our society?

I am a criminal justice major so this topic is one that has always been interesting to me.

Police brutality and abuse of authority occur when police use their power not only in a negative

way but also unethically, whether this be by excessive use of force, physically or verbally

abusing civilians, and using the given authority of their badges to excuse any misconduct. Police

brutality and abuse of authority has a been a major problem in our societies for a very long time

now and only seems to be increasing. So how exactly does this affect our society? In my inquiry

paper I will be speaking of some of the ways that police brutality and abuse of force affects our

society as well as some of the reasons that lead us to these problems.

The first way police brutality affects our society is the major distrust that occurs between

civilians and the force. The purpose of the police force is essentially to serve and protect. They

are the ones that are supposed to keep us safe and they are the ones that we are supposed to trust.

So, when police take advantage of their power, who do we call? Who do we call when the ones

that are meant to protect us are the ones we are scared of? This sort of mistrust between us and

the police force is sometimes why some crimes may go unreported as some may feel like theyd

rather deal with their problems themselves than to get the police involved.
 Another factor that comes from police brutality is the concept of criminal profiling.

Criminal profiling, is an investigative tool used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely

suspects (descriptive offender profiling) and analyze patterns that may predict future offenses

and/or victims. Criminal profiling is a serious issue as police are taught to tie certain criminal

acts with certain people. This leads to a race issue as it has been statistically proven that black

individuals are targeted more often than other races. Famous cases of police shootings and police

brutality such as the Rodney King case, the Trayvon Martin shooting, and the Keith Scott case

are only a few examples out of hundreds of police shootings cases. Whats worse when it comes

to cases like these is that most of these cops never get convicted for these wrongful killing, their

cases become acquitted by excuses of self defense and no real justice is ever found. This leads

to anger from the public, it leads to protests and riots which in turn also leads to more police

force being used.

It is a cycle of misused authority that has lead to many tragic and unnecessary deaths

among a public that is scared of the police and tired of being treated like criminals. It is up to the

police departments to properly train their officers to use the correct tactics when coming across

civilians, to treat us like humans and not assumed criminals.

Patricia Mendoza

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1104
03/03/2017

How does police brutality and abuse of authority affect our society?

When I wrote the first draft of my inquiry proposal, I was not all that happy with

it. I knew what kind of content I wanted to add to my paper but couldnt figure out a way to make

it all flow together without making it sound like a very unorganized mess. Also, I actually forgot

to look at the prompt and add in some of the aspects from there and because of that, my paper

just didnt seem like it was going in the right direction. After the peer review, I definitely do think

that I got a lot of great feedback from my classmates; they gave me great ideas on how to expand

my paper and how to make some of those ideas flow a lot better in order to make it more

coherent. Right now, I think I have some pretty strong points, such as speaking about how this

issue affects our society and also, I like that I am not just speaking about how bad this issue is

but what can also be done to improve it. At the same time, I am still not so sure about where

exactly to add in some of the details that I want in order to make my paper flow nicely.

I am currently a criminal justice major so the topic of police brutality is something that

speaks out to me because although I dont actually want to be a cop, I will be learning pretty

much everything about the criminal justice system. Police misconduct is something that most of

us have some kind of knowledge in, whether weve personally experienced it, have heard about

it happening to others, or have seen it in social media, this is a topic that definitely causes much

controversy among the public, as in one way or another, it affects all of us. In my inquiry paper I

will be speaking about the way police brutality affects our society, what leads to police

misconduct, and what kinds of actions are taking place to better improve our police force.
 The main purpose of the police force is to serve and protect the public. They are the ones

that are meant to keep us safe and they are the ones we are supposed to trust. So, when the police

take advantage of their power, who do we call? (ghost busters?)Who do we ask help for when the

ones that are meant to protect us are the ones we are scared of? This leads to the first effect of

police brutality on society: the lack of trust between the force and civilians. The more scared or

intimidated we become by the police, the less trust we begin to have in them. This could cause

for crimes to go unreported as some may want to handle their problems themselves instead of

involving the police.

Another factor that comes from police brutality is the rise of protests and riots from the

public. Famous cases of police shootings and police brutality such as the Rodney King case, the

Trayvon Martin shooting, and the Keith Scott case are only a few examples out of hundreds of

police shootings cases. Whats worse when it comes to cases like these is that most of these cops

never get convicted for these wrongful killings, their cases become acquitted by excuses of self

defense and no real justice is ever found. Cases like these enrage the public and only

strengthens the gap of mistrust between us and them.

So what leads to police misconduct, anyway? There are plenty of factors that lead to

police abusing their authority. Criminal profiling is one of these factors. Criminal profiling is an

investigative tool used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects (descriptive

offender profiling) and analyze patterns that may predict future offenses and/or victims. Criminal

profiling is a serious issue as police tend to tie certain criminal acts with certain people. This

issue has lead to police discriminating against certain groups of people and because of this, some

of us may not even feel safe just walking outside of our homes. Another important factor that

leads to police misconduct is the fact that police rely a lot on their own discretion. This means
that although they have been taught to follow certain rules, essentially, police rely on themselves

and their own instincts to make certain decisions. This is a scary thought as one does not really

know when they can come across a corrupt cop.

Currently, there is evidence that some police departments are becoming more militarized;

they are receiving military weapons and gear. This is simply not a good idea as all this does is

make cops believe they have even more authority and in return, we become more scared of them.

This is an issue that should seriously be thought over before it escalates even further. Although

there have been many cases of police abusing their power, this does not mean that every single

cop out there is corrupt, this just means that there is a lot more work to be done within our forces.

Cops are now supposed to wear body cameras, which is a great addition as it may make civilians

feel a lot less uneasy when being around cops in general. Improving our police departments is

tough job but with actual proper training, we can hope that we will hear a lot less about police

abusing their authority.

It is a cycle of misused authority that has lead to many tragic and unnecessary deaths

among a public that is scared of the police and tired of being treated like criminals. It is up to the

police departments to properly train their officers to use the correct tactics when coming across

civilians, to treat us like humans and not assumed criminals. This is a topic that affects all of us,

here in the UNCC community, there have been peaceful protests about police brutality because at

the end of the day, as long as these wrongful actions keep taking place around us, we will

continue to speak our voices until we see real change.