Why Police Brutality?

Social media can influence people in many different ways, highlighting how police officers attack innocent minorities on a daily basis. But not all police officers are the same. It’s weird to see that some police officers abuse their power while others don’t. If that is the case, then there is something going on to make police officers act brutal towards people. There are times where police officers would help give rides for people who are far from their destination all from the kindness of their heart. So where is the disconnection? Police brutality is caused by the improper training that officers receive and also caused by their lack of judgement depending on the situation. 

Speculations of police training being faulty has caused some people to look for the reason why their training is the way it is. Police brutality is not something that these officers just randomly do, it is learned. Smith says that “The academy did not teach us the fundamental difference between power and authority or how to judiciously apply either.” These are words from the mouth of a former police officer who was in the force for about 18 years. This tells us that the training police officers go through doesn’t even include learning how to use their power properly and that is the main part of being a police officer. Not knowing how to use one’s power basically means that person is unqualified to wield that power. Police officers are only mostly taught the basics of their job which are driving, writing reports, using a weapon, and self defense. People on social media want the police programs to train their officers on how to be able to deescalate a situation without the use of unnecessary force. 

Some police officers act brutal just for the fun of it. At a certain point, the former 18 year officer “began to feel less like a cop and more like a member of an occupying army. One summer, I arrested a man on the Fourth of July. I don’t remember why I arrested him, but I can remember taunting him about having his freedom taken away on Independence Day. That was funny to me at the time” as Smith also claims. This is the reason why people want reformations in police training. They don’t want incidents like this to be happening. It isn’t right for a police officer to be making a joke like that towards a victim. Feeling like an occupying army member just shows that the officer’s method of interacting with the public is not acceptable, yet they continue to keep up the act anyway. In Smith’s article it’s proclaimed that “The other members of my unit used the same tactics, and as a group we pretty much just bullied our designated patrol area” (Smith). Police officers would just bully their way to get what they want in life and it’s sad because people aren’t able to do anything about it because they would be threatened with arrest; no one wants to get arrested. People would often speak up about their personal encounters with police but no type of consequence would be given to them.

Social media has been calling for police academy reformations because people believe that there is something wrong with the police training. They believe that their training isn’t thorough enough for them to be out in the real world. “Defund The Police” has been a trending topic that people discuss throughout social media and on the news. When some people hear about defunding the police they think that it means removing the police force altogether, but that isn’t the case. “Defunding the police doesn’t mean that the police force will be entirely gone, points out @Carrujo”  These Instagram Graphics Help Explain What ‘Defund The Police’ Really Means. Defunding the police means to take down the current system that we have and reform it so it is better than how it was before. The training would cover areas of how to handle human interaction and how to make better judgement calls when dealing with victims. Many people are upset with the current system of police because they receive money but they don’t put it towards better training programs and instead waste it on other pointless stuff like coffee makers or video game rooms.  

The type of training that police officers have is really surprising to the world. According to the article The Culture of Policing is Broken by The Atlantic, the recruits are constantly told that the world is threatening, which is basically telling the officers to always stay on guard. It’s brainwashing the officers to treat everything as a threat even during situations where that kind of behavior isn’t needed. This could be the source as to why some police officers are constantly hostile. They are trained to think and behave that way. Police officers are also introduced to new ways of using their power for their own personal needs. Smith introduces how other departments abuse their power as well, “I became an internal affairs detective in 2013 and became privy to other, more nefarious ways cops used and abused their power. It was a common problem for cops to stalk former romantic partners” (Smith). This shows that police brutality is being taught everywhere and not just at the academy. As people climb higher ranks, they gain access to different tactics/methods for abuse on the people. This needs to stop before it gets worse to the point where there’s nothing anyone can do about it. 

 As I said earlier, “Police brutality is not something that these officers just randomly do, it is learned.” In conclusion, police brutality isn’t acceptable and people will not tolerate its continuity. 

References

Miller, K. (2020, June 9). These Instagram Graphics Help Explain What ‘Defund The Police’ Really Means. Women’s Health. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a32803268/defund-the-police-meaning-instagram/.

Smith, L. (2019, August 30). I Was a Cop for 18 Years. I Witnessed and Participated in Abuses of Power. Medium. https://gen.medium.com/i-was-a-cop-for-18-years-i-witnessed-and-participated-in-abuses-of-power-8d057c18f9ee.

Brooks, D. (2020, June 16). The Culture of Policing Is Broken. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/how-police-brutality-gets-made/613030/.