Police corruption and citizen complaints in public accountability

Police Corruption and Citizen Complaints Relative to Ethnicity

Police has a rather crucial role to play in the society. However, at more than one occasions, people have lodged complaints against police officers. Rather than maintaining justice and equality, police offers are discriminating against people. This problem should be addressed as priority since the role of the police can be tainted if such events keep on taking place.

A contemporary event

The case of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin is a classic example of police corruption regarding ethnicity. Even though George Zimmerman was charged as "not guilty," many people are against this decision. This shooting took place on the night of February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon Martin was a seventeen-year-old high school student who was heading back from a local store to his house. George Zimmerman, who is 28 and was of mixed race, was the coordinating officer of the neighbor hood watch in the area Martin was residing in. It was reported that Zimmerman shot the seventeen-year-old Martin only because he looked 'suspicious.' There was evidence of recordings that revealed that Zimmerman thought he looked suspicious and only minutes later, there were sounds of gun shots and Zimmerman had shot the boy to death. Zimmerman was taken into custody and his wounds and bruises were examined in great detail. A post mortem done on Martin's body also showed bruises and injury on his scalp.

Even if we overlook the hard core facts, it is very unlikely that a teen would start beating up an officer so badly that the officer would need his gun for self-defense. In his hands Trayvon had iced tea and a bag of candy. This clearly showed that he did not leave the story intending to get in a physical fight with Zimmerman. (Abulhawa, 2013)

It has been reported that the cuts and bruises that Zimmermann shows later in photos are not visible in the footage of him walking into the police station. (Abulhawa, 2013) In one of the recordings, there are also sounds of someone crying for help and the police never investigated that in great detail. It appears that the police only attained Zimmerman's pictures as evidence. They did not take any other evidence such as dust, gun powder residue, fingerprint or anything. A very smart thing to do in this case would have been to take DNA evidence from hands and nails. This would go on to prove that there was a physical assault episode before the shooting took place.

Since the beginning of times, governments are always finding ways to reduce the level of corruption that found within the police and other law enforcement agencies. In the United States, 24% of the black men from ages 18 to 34 state they have been treated unfairly by the police. (Newport, 2013) This clearly shows that a significant number of people do think wrong of the way police handles their matters.

Teiger (1971) states that the problem lays at the structural level that ultimately causes police officers to abuse their powers. The fourteenth amendment in the Constitution of the United States stresses on equal protection of all the people of the country. The Supreme Court also stressed on the fact that discriminatory law enforcement goes on to violate this law. Teiger (1971) therefore stresses that the law enforcement system is flawed. He states that this problem is not because of some racist policemen who can be made to act better only by increasing their salaries.

He states that the police work to make lives easier for those people who are in power. In other words, they work in such a way that the people who have power and money, the law enforcement system works in their favor.

Many people are not aware of the different categories of police corruption that exist in our society. Many police officers agree to accept gifts from people so that they are allowed to do illegal acts. In other words, they work in favor of people who are rich of influential. Even if we take the aforementioned example, it appears that Zimmerman's father was a retired Virginia Supreme Court Magistrate. Apart from this, it is also true that many police officers and other law enforcement agencies are involved in direct criminal activities. They murder people, steal money and are also involved in drug dealing but.

Although, it is not going to be an easy job since corruption is way too deep rooted among the police officers than we think, but it should be taken as priority by the government because many people have started to feel insecure in the present situation (Walker et. al, 2001). First of all, the government needs to highlight the areas where police corruption is at its peak. After doing that, it should closely scrutinize the police and also deploy other law enforcement agencies to make sure that the rights of every citizen are being protected.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that many people who are subjected to ethnic discrimination by the police are not even aware that they are being ill-treated (Livingston, 2011). Therefore, there is a need to educate the people about their rights. This is crucial because if any police officer tries to harass them financially or otherwise, they can stand up against these illegal acts. Likewise, many people are not aware of the countless categories of police corruption. It is the need of time to create awareness among these people so that they can help the government to eradicate this problem of police corruption from the country (Walker, 2007). Government should also form a cell in which the people can lodge their complaints against the police. This cell should be an independent entity and the complaints should directly be reviewed by the leader of the House or the President so that the issues do not become controversial.