Who Do You Call When Police Commit Murder?

In kindergarten, my teacher asked everyone to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up.  The thing was I always wanted to be a lawyer, but I couldn't draw that.  Instead I drew a police officer driving down the road with his flashing lights on.  I remember explaining to the class that I wanted this occupation so that I could protect people, drive in a police car and have people call upon me when they needed help.  Of course, I said this in terms that weren't as complex. The bottom line was that I admired police then and I still do now. Yet the sad part is today many Americans do not.

Over the past few decades the perception of America's law enforcement has changed.  This is due to stories such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice; all of whom were shot and killed by law enforcement.  Other factors that help to create a bad rep for law enforcement are live video recordings and the ever-present media.  Due to technology, the American people are now able to see first hand how men like Eric Garner and so many others are murdered by those who are supposed to "protect them".  Police brutality is at an all time high.  As a matter of fact, the Huffington Post claims that 2015 might have been the most violent year on record when it came to police violence.  Fatal Encounters database found that, "police violence directly caused or played a role in 1,126 deaths in 2015" (US).

The irony of this whole issue is that the police are supposed to be there to help protect us.  Yet according to Gallup.com, recent polls have found that confidence in police is the lowest that it has been in twenty-two years.  Only fifty-five percent of the American people have confidence in law enforcement.  This means that the rest of the American people, nearly 45% which is almost half, are unsure as to how they feel about these men and women (Poll).

It shouldn't be a surprise to many that there is an overwhelming statistic that proves that race is a prevalent factor in those who fear law enforcement.  A poll conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one out of every five African Americans believe that they have been mistreated by police (Poll).  On the other hand, only three percent of whites feel this way ( Poll). Clearly, there is a major discrepancy in the way different races feel about their treatment by law enforcement.  We must stop and ask ourselves, why do we fear those that are there to protect us?  This is a major problem in itself.

There are good cops out there.  Some make it their duty to serve and put their lives on the line for the safety of those in their community.  While others manipulate their power and feel that they are above the law.  So the question becomes how do we stop those officers who feel that they are above the law?

Police are trained to kill and get rid of the threat as quickly as possible.  President of the Police Foundation, Hubert Williams, a 30 year veteran said it best, "if there's a threat to his life, he has to take counter measures against that threat.  So he's going to shoot not to stop him- he's going to shoot for the kill zone"(Ryllie).  Yet, we must take into consideration the high stress situation they are put in.  After all, it really comes down to perception.  Another conflict that adds to this ongoing problem of police brutality is that the laws in the United States favor law enforcement when in trial.  There was a Supreme Court case in 1970, known as Tennessee vs. Gardner that stated that cops can use deadly force on a suspect only if they feel that the suspect is a threat to not only them, but society as well (Scholarship).  So, when an officer feels threatened and uses their gun to shoot at a suspect, technically under U.S. law they didn't do anything wrong.  The question becomes how many shots is too many?

Combating police brutality in the United States is a complex issue; one that will clearly take a significant amount of time to change.  In order to address this issue, we need to change the way that law enforcement officers are trained, the weapons they use and maybe even follow the lead of other countries around the world whose officers do not carry guns.  Lastly, we must look into putting more cameras in patrol cars as well as examining the criminal justice system itself and creating a system that doesn't just favor law enforcement.  Once we change all these things, then just maybe we would be able have confidence in law enforcement in our country once again.


                                                             Works Cited

Us, The Conversation. " U.S Laws Protect Police But Endanger Civilians." The Huffington Post. 
     
     TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d Web 28 Jan. 2016


"Poll: 1 in 5 Blacks Have "unfair" dealings with Police-CNN.com." CNN. Cable New Network n.d 
    
      Web. 28 Jan 2016.


Ryllie Danylko, Northeast Ohio Media Group. " Shooting to Kill: Why Police Are Trained To Fire 


     Fatal Shots." N.p., Web 28 Jan. 2016.

"Scholarships@Cornell Law: A Digital Respository" Site N.p., n.d Web. 29 Jan. 2016

                                                        Images 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement