Police Misconduct and Police

¶ … misconduct of police officers and abuse by law enforcement in the United States. In the past few years, there has been an increase in instances of police misconduct and behavior and lack of reprimanding of such law enforcement officers. These are one of the most stringent and acrimonious human rights desecrations in the nation. Police have taken part in baseless and unwarranted shootings, austere beatings, lethal chokings, and rough treatment without cause. Whereas the percentage of continually abusive and delinquent officers on any force is usually minimal, more often than not, responsible authorities fail to undertake decisive action to contain or reprimand such acts (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Police misconduct takes into account unlawful or unethical actions or the violations of people's statutory rights by police officers in the conduct of their day-to-day duties. Instances of police misconduct comprise of police inhumaneness, duplicity, fraud, intimidation, torture to force admissions, abuse of power, and sexual assault. It is imperative to note that these sort of unethical actions can increase the probability of an unjust conviction (California Innocence Project, 2016).

This police misconduct has been prevalent in recent periods in the United States as shown in the numerous news events and online media posts. In turn, such misconduct and delinquent activities have more often than not impelled highly charged protests, and one can be perceived in the online movement of #Blacklivesmatter on Twitter. What is more is that such incidences encompass racial profiling as the minority groups in the United States experience a great deal of police misconduct. For instance, statistics indicate that the likelihood of blacks being killed is three times more compared to whites and other minorities. What is more, statistics show that black men, who encompass about six percent of the population in America, signify 40% of the sixty defenseless people who had been seriously shot by police. Another pertinent statistic is that 98% of these events of police misconduct did not end with an officer being indicted with crime (Wong, 2015).

Description of Current Event

The current event being reported is that authorities in Georgia are charging a police officer with falsifying a story that she was shot at by a black man. The Jackson police officer, Sherry Hall, is being charged with making false statements, tinkering with evidence, as well as interfering with government property and violating the oath of office. On 13 September, Hall made a police radio call claiming that she has been shot. In addition, she purported to have seen a black man proximate to a woodline at the time of making her frequent routine patrol (CBS News, 2016). She went on to claim that she approached him to question him why he was there, that he became confrontational and aggressive and shot her. Police officer, Hall, claimed that she fired two gun shots at the suspected black man with the Glock .22 granted to her by the police department, but also stated that the suspect ran into the woods. However, subsequent to undertaking an independent investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) found police officer Hall's statements to be unreliable and uneven with the recordings together with other evidence (CBS News, 2016). In actual fact, leads and proof show that there was no and never was any suspect shooter. What is more, evidence indicates that officer Hall had another handgun issued by the police department. It is from this Glock .27 that officer Hall planted shell casings and asserted that the suspect had fired it into her bulletproof vest (Salinger, 2016).

Analysis of Current Event

This current event can be analyzed and assessed by use of different sociological concepts. One of these concepts is social stratification. Social stratification is delineated as the categorization done within the society that ranks people into socioeconomic echelons based on their profession and income, affluence and social prominence or derived power. This is apparent in the United States, as there are groups that have greater social status, power and affluence in comparison to other groups (Grusky et al., 2001). Black America is stratified into one of the lowest ranking groups in the United States in terms of power and affluence and therefore constantly faces social inequality. As perceived in this event, Officer Hall makes false allegations that a black man shot at her and goes to the extent of planting shell casings on her bulletproof vest yet there never was any black individual as a suspect on the scene. This signifies the prevailing police brutality and abuse that black individuals are facing in the United States.

Another sociological theory is social constructionism. This is a theory in sociology that takes into account the development of mutually formed understandings of the world that create the foundation for shared suppositions regarding reality. This theory encompasses unraveling the manner in which individuals and groups take part in the construction of perceived reality in the society (Burr, 2015). As outlined by Smedley and Smedley (2005), racism as a social problem is in fact real and there is prevalence in social construction of race. As perceived in the current event, initial claims by officer Hall instigated terror and fear in Georgia, owing to the social construction that black males in America are aggressive and dangerous. In my opinion, it was easier for Officer Hall, for whatever reason, to purport that a black man shot at her since there is a social construction that black males in the nation are violent and therefore would be believable. This goes to the extent that officer Hall's daughter went to a news reporter in a plea for the gunman to turn himself in to the authorities (CBS News, 2016).