Ethical Issues Involving Police Brutality

Police Brutality Is it Wright or Wrong on Ethical Issues In spite of the advancement that society has experienced over the centuries, there still are a great number of ethical issues that produce arguments. Police brutality, for example, is something which people fail to categorize, as there are individuals that consider the act to be beneficial and individuals that consider it to be a human rights violation.

It is of no importance if the people being brutalized deserve it or not, since the performance is against all that our society stands for. Even with the fact that the whole world is struggling to prevent police brutality, it is still a present issue, with numerous reports of the occurrence being constantly released. Police forces from around the globe often resort to various methods of intimidating people. The public has diverse opinions on the matter, and, while some are against it, others are supportive.

A Civil War appears to be going on as the common citizens do not know which side to take consequent to observing that they are being abused both by criminals and by the state. The U.S. is currently one of the countries dealing with controversies regarding police officers and their misdemeanor. There are many accounts involving police officers behaving badly in the pages of history. While the U.S.

has had a number of accounts relating to the police and to people having received an improper treatment from the authorities in the nineteenth century, it had not been until the twentieth century that such abuses became common. The passing of the Volstead Act prohibiting the presence of alcohol in the U.S. virtually triggered a nation-wide episode of illegalities. As a result, certain police officers took advantage of their position to impose their power on various people, regardless if the respective people had been criminals or not.

Public demonstrations are scenes that favor police brutality, with policemen being able to justify their behavior. The African-American Civil Rights Movement has had several divergences with the police, as even Martin Luther King Jr. harshly criticized police brutality in his speeches. Apparently, reports of police brutality have become more frequent consequent to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the WTC. The attack most probably influenced the police in taking unnecessarily measures, such as brutalizing people when there had been no need for them to do so.

However, it would appear that police has a history in mistreating Muslims. The night of 27th April, 1962, has been a horrible one for a community of Muslims in Los Angeles. Police officers had broken into the Nation of Islam Mosque in Los Angeles and injured a group of people, leaving one paralyzed and one dead. This event does not only relate to police brutality, as it also concerns matters such as discrimination and racial prejudice.

Even with that, this is an important example of police officers taking advantage of their power. The Government gave police officers a lot of power, and, with it, a lot of responsibility. Part of the general public believes that police officers are nothing else than arrogant people waiting for them to make a wrong step. However, they fail to realize that those that join the police normally do so because they want to bring security to all people, without having the slightest intention of harming society.

One is normally inclined to be supportive towards the authorities when the actions that they perform advantage him or her. Also, it is likely for people to accept unconventional behavior from the police when it is directed at certain groups that are against them.

According to Tobias Winright, "police officers kill about 600 criminal suspects yearly, shoot and wound an additional 1,200, and fire at and miss another 1,800." (Wainright, 1995) Surely, most of the actions above are being performed with a good motive, as the police officers are left with no choice other than to use any available mean to put down criminals. Even with that, considering the large numbers mentioned, one can be suppose that not every individual that is being fired at deserves to be shot.

Of course, it is logical to believe that police officers receive proper instruction in order to know when it is right to fire a shot. However, considering the fact that police officers are also human, it is possible for them to fail to detect when it is right to use excessive force. An exceptional account of police brutality is the case of Rodney King vs. The LAPD. King was pulled over by the police on the 3rd of March, 1991, as he was driving his car.

Consequent to a disagreement between the police officers and the man, the former started to cruelly beat him. After the confrontation the man was arrested, accused that he had performed several illegalities. The situation became public because of an eyewitness that had the inspiration to film the whole event. As a result, the media began to broadcast images of Rodney King being sadistically beaten by fifteen police officers, without the man appearing to provoke any of the policemen.

What is more disturbing is that such offenses might happen more often than people think, with the case of Rodney King having became public only thanks to the passerby that had the courage to tape the whole thing. It is not surprising that police brutality continues to happen all around the world, considering the fact that police officers manage to go undetected. People are constantly being abused by the police with no one intervening, and, furthermore, those that report police officers have little credibility.

On the other side of the camp, police officers are under extreme stress, as they are being prejudiced. Policemen generally have to behave differently in comparison to simple people, as the slightest mistake can bring a great deal of trouble for them. Policemen have to abstain from talking back at the criminals that they arrest, in spite of the fact that delinquents go through great efforts to provoke the officers. A policeman constantly has to remain calm and respectful, even in the situations when such a behavior is almost impossible.

All in all, it is difficult to.