ethics - police brutality

Running Head : Police Brutality

Name

University

Course

Tutor

Date

Introduction

Members of the police are government officials who are charged with responsibility of enforcing law and maintaining (Gee H , 2004 Sometimes , they are engaged in dangerous and stressful circumstances that involve violent situations that must be controlled . In these confrontations with the public , it becomes necessary , at times for the police to administer force to take control of a situation . Police officers have therefore been granted the privilege to use non-negotiable coercive force to control citizen

's behaviour and ensure public (Gee H , 2004 . This force sometimes takes the hand to hand combat with a suspect who resists arrest

While the authority to use force is not a problem , its proper application is the central problem of the contemporary police misconduct (Gee H , 2004 . The police have strict guidelines to follow when using force and this force should , only be used in the minimum amount needed to achieve a legitimate purpose

A significant problem is that the police behaviour is abusive of human rights but it is also considered appropriate (Amnesty International 1996 . The sad fact however is that sometimes even police officers overstep their bounds causing a great deal of physical and emotional pain for innocent victims all over the world

According to a recent amnesty international study , there are thousands of reports each year of assault and ill treatment against officers who use excessive force and violate the human rights of their victims (Amnesty International , 1996 ) police officers are injuring and even killing people through excessive use of force and brutal treatment . All this constitute of what we refer to as police brutality

What is police brutality

Several people have tried to give concise definitions of police brutality but before embarking on these definitions , it is in that the meaning of the world brutality is understood . The term brutality refers to an instance of cruel and violent treatment or behaviour . It originates from a Latin word `brutus ' which translates to brute . With the above in mind then , what is police brutality

Reiss (1971 ) defines it as any practice that degrades citizen status `that restricts their freedom and that annoys or harasses them or that uses unnecessary and unwanted physical force . It is thus a form of police misconduct , which refers to the excessive use of physical force threatening civilians , verbal attacks as well as assault

It then means that police brutality is the citizens ' judgment that they have not been treated with full rights and dignity by police as expected in a democratic society such that if any police officer violates and individual rights it is considered police brutality (Reiss Albert 1971

Police brutality can become a major issue , especially when the police are from a different social group as the police . In such a situation the police are viewed by the general public as oppressors while the police may begin to view them as criminals

It is also important to note that police brutality...