Ashley Pelaez Professor Payte English 114A 14 December 2013 Police Brutality from Then to Now

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As young children we are taught to look up to police officers and grow up wanting to be heroes just like them. Being so young we dont understand the news casters reporting about how a police has just shot an unarmed man or how they have committed a crime when they are supposed to be the ones stopping it. Corruption in the justice system has been heard of for years now but still goes unnoticed or ignored by society. The problem is what officers are doing has been going on for too long and it needs to stop. Police brutality started centuries ago and although time has passed these men have yet to succeed in their title as our heroes. From the early 1900s to this year police are still committing crimes that consist of beatings, manipulation and even murder, leaving their cities embarrassed and disappointed. Our justice system consists of men who have been trained to keep their people safe from any harm. We entrust police ofcers with the right to use coercive force when needed, and we expect them to enforce the law. Yet some ofcers abuse this trust and become notorious law violators themselves: They steal. They accept bribes. They rob drug dealers. They sell drugs. They turn a blind eye when they see other police ofcers stealing or otherwise violating the laws.( vkovi Page 3) These men take on titles without giving any care to their meaning. Whether its a military officer or a cop their harmfulness to others is not what they should be doing.

Pelaez Page 2 n the early 1900s officers of different kinds took pride in their name and unfortunately used it to their advantage. These men most likely got pleasure out of what they were pulling off and the sad part is no one was stopping them. Anthony Burgess book A Clockwork Orange a young boy is thrown into jail for committing rape, gang related crimes and etc. After being there he is offered a chance to leave with the agreement to go through a medical project. Youve nothing to worry about. Next film coming up That perhaps meant to be a joke, for I heard a like smeck coming from the dark. And then I was forced to viddy a most nasty film about Japanese torture. This quote from Burgess book shows how these prison officers and doctors manipulated a boy and forced him to watch horrifying films leaving him sick to his stomach. These people work in their field and become aware of the secrets to getting away with such tragic crimes. Officers use strategies such as manipulation, and brainwashing to get into these criminals minds. Does the idea of taking away someones dignity without them even knowing sound fair? They think that with their name comes power that allows them to disobey the law and become the criminals themselves. Not only do these officers emotionally attack their prisoners but they physically hurt them as well. There have been times where officers have beaten men just to the point that they can sit there and suffer and also to the point of death. n the 1950s it was said that during the Vietnam War prisoners were beaten by officers and pushed around to follow the rules. There have also been times where prisoners have been tazed and electrically shocked in order to be under the commanders control. When being put into jail prisoners are expected to be dealt with

in a matter to make them a better individual not to physically harm them or mentally break them down. Police brutality started so long ago that you would think it would be over, but it still continues today. You dont hear about it as often as you most likely would have in the past, but Pelaez Page 3 that still does not leave these men with an excuse to justify their wrongdoings. When thinking of a police officer, you think about how they caught the robber, found the missing girl, or stopped a major drug deal; the last thing you expect is to hear a story about them getting arrested. Committing crimes when you are part of the justice system is easier to do considering that you know how to work around the rules. This access that cops have offer opportunities to them that they could only imagine to pursue. With modernization and time to change you would hope this access wasnt accessible. Just last year in December 2013 a middle-aged woman named Torreya Hamilton was thrown brutally into a jail cell by a cop and his excuse was she was disobeying the law. Months later a video was released showing the actual footage of Ms.Hamilton being pushed into a cement bench by the officer. Video of the shoving was released earlier this month by Feuerstein's attorney, Torreya Hamilton, after Feuerstein filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officer. The video prompted an outcry and over 1,000 people signed a Change.org petition calling for Hart's arrest. t took an action so small as this to get over 1,000 people to realize the men serving for them arent who they were expected to be. Even in the movie The Place beyond the Pines you see how officers use manipulation and the power of their control to their advantage. Actor Ray Liotta plays the role of a Police Officer who is head of a case that is

based on a robbery. After intruding a home of a mother and her baby the group of cops find the stolen money and leave the family of 2 to suffer. The worse part is that the leading cop insists that they keep the money and split it between them. Because they have the authority to disrupt a household and have a leading man in their group keeping this lost money was easy for the cops to do.

Pelaez Page 4 Some might disagree that my reasoning for cops committing crimes is off but what they dont understand is that if anyone finds something to do thats beneficial to them theyre going to do it and thats exactly what these men are doing. They find pleasure and achieve individual fulfillment in them. This isnt how our protectors are supposed to be watching over us. While there are bad cops out there, there are also some who enjoy their job for what it truly is and succeed greatly at it. Some are also winning awards and saving lives so why worry about those who are doing the complete opposite? This problem has been around for generations now, causing more people to be upset with the way their heroes are supposed to be treating them. The idea of police brutality is shocking and alarming. These men need to take a step back from their high chair and see that harming people whether its emotionally or physically, is not their job under any circumstance.