What is police brutality? Here are some examples to give you an idea of what police brutality is. As stated by Zabrina, “In Queens, a strip club goer at a bachelor party who was preparing to get married the next day died after a chaotic confrontation characterized very differently by each party. Police said he ignored their commands to stop and believed he was going to get a gun; his friends who were with him insisted that they didn't even say a word, they simply started firing 31 shots, 11 shots and 4 shots between each of the three police officers. The officers were acquitted of all charges (Zabrina).” Another case stated by Zabrina involving police brutality would be: "In 2006, a pizza chef returning home after a nice evening at a nightclub in Modesto was stopped because they thought he might be a suspect in another incident that had just occurred downtown." . . The officers yelled at him in English and Spanish to get out of the car, but because the man was deaf he did not hear the orders. Not even a minute later, they fired beanbag rifles, breaking the back window of the truck, hitting the man in the stomach, torso and legs as he ducked for cover. Meanwhile he was screaming that he was deaf” (Zabrina). The examples above are very concrete examples of police brutality. The real question is: what actually counts as police brutality? Many people think that police brutality only happens when a police officer injures a civilian while being arrested. However it is more complex than that, police brutality is the use of excessive physical force or can come in the form of verbal abuse/intimidation by a member of the police force. Police brutality began to become more noticed after a major riot that completely changed the situation every time” (White). Police brutality is becoming more and more of a serious case in the United States as the years go by. The Rodney King riots of 1992 were the starting point for people starting to notice the brutality that the police force used against the public. This opened many people's eyes and showed them that something needs to be done to solve this problem. As crimes continue to occur, the officers involved must be punished more severely for their actions. A police officer should not be able to circumvent laws and not be punished for things that a normal civilian would do to get arrested. From the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles to the present day, police corruption and brutality have increased dramatically and must be addressed.
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