The role of a police officer is to protect and serve. With the help of a generation fueled by cell-phones and online media, incidents of police brutality tend to go viral instantly. The troubling issue of police brutality is emerging onto the forefront of the national political discourse. Videos of our trusted public servants using excessive force upon our fellow citizens tarnishes the moral authority of law enforcement across the nation.
Of the 3,814 reported incidences of police brutality in 2010, 25 percent of the reports included officers using excessive force on citizens, according to the CATO Institute’s National Police Misconduct Statistical Report.
In 2014, the American public has witnessed countless controversial incidences of force used on citizens by law enforcement. One example is the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, for which Missouri received widespread coverage.
The reality is that these incidences occur on a daily basis throughout our country. A Cal State Long Beach student recently captured a video on his phone of an arrest made by the Long Beach Police Department in his backyard.
The video shows that the suspect was unarmed and sitting in a fetal position on the ground; however, he was not obeying officer commands to put his hands behind his back, perhaps due to an inability to process this sensory data from the police officers. In an impressive show of force to apprehend only one individual, five officers arrived on scene and deployed a Taser on his face; thankfully, the individual was taken in for a mental evaluation after he was arrested and treated for minor injuries.
The man in the video previously visited the Starbucks that I work at on numerous occasions, and even though I am not even remotely anything close to a clinical psychologist, it was immediately apparent that the he has severe mental health issues.
So my question is this: why couldn’t the five police officers who were called to the scene pick up on this easily identifiable fact and respond accordingly?
I understand that in the line of police work, officer safety is paramount. If an officer feels threatened or at risk, he is authorized to use the appropriate levels of violence on the continuum of force as long as they are appropriate for the situation. Citizens with mental issues are severely at risk for police brutality due to their lessened ability to respond appropriately to police commands; as such, police officers must properly recognize individuals with said mental deficiencies and respond accordingly.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 2008, around 74 percent of people who had police force used against them thought that the force was excessive. Around 84 percent thought that the police acted improperly. This is not a new issue. Only now, online media helps all these people share their experiences for the rest of us to see; consequently, police officers are now subject to an intense public backlash as more and more of these incidents are going viral.
We need to make it known that, as citizens, we are entitled to protection from excessive use of force by law enforcement.
This article is blatantly misleading in actual cases of uses of force. Most (if not all) uses of force are not planned actions meticulously carried out, they are rapidly evolving decisions made by a person who is charged with protecting the safety of the community and themselves. How would you expect a police officer to respond to an incident involving a “severe mental health issue”? I notice that you (the writer) did not describe exactly what the response should be, or produced any research on the reason why the police were called in the first place. Typically a subject with a “severe mental issue” does not, whether by inability or wanton disregard, follow police commands and can become a greater danger to themselves or others around them. I agree with the writer that officers should (and most are) be trained in the recognition of subjects with mental health issues. However, time constraints and other factors such as drug use (which can mimic severe mental catatonic states) can alter that perception.
The Bureau of Justice statistics that you state in your article are misleading and disingenuous. Of course people who are subject to police arrest and use of force are going to believe that it is unjustified and excessive.
Cameras and social media are more prevalent than ever. But often times videos and photographs don’t tell the whole story, and without the whole story how can one make an informed opinion. A picture of an officer striking a subject with a baton looks bad, but does the picture tell the story of how the subject approached the officer in a fighting stance while threatening him or her? Does a video cropped for population on social media include the moments leading up to an incident, where key factors during that time could have influenced the officer’s decision to use force?
Two recent news stories in CA have shown that video and sound evidence have worked in favor of officers against people who were too quick to blame racism and excessive force: the Oakland Firefighter and the Django actress. In both cases the officers involved were exonerated.
The statistical data in this article are skewed. I see no mention of total statistics of uses of force and how many are justified versus unjustified. According to the Bureau of Justice (and the same website I believe the writer used) it states “Among persons who had contact with police in 2008, an estimated 1.4% had force used or threatened against them during their most recent contact, which was not statistically different from the percentages in 2002 (1.5%) and 2005 (1.6%).”
I believe that the writer of this article is just as guilty as main stream media in trying to ride the coat tails of popular news propaganda for readership. If you’re going to do research to support your opinion, than include all of the information in your argument, not cherry pick the facts. I understand that this piece was to justify your own view point of law enforcement, but I challenge you to do “ride-alongs” (and not just one 4 hour stint) but several full shifts so that you can see the other side of the fence.
The point is, the “rapidly evolving decisions” that you refer to are, more often than not, completely unnecessary for the situation. Yes, the video this piece refers to shows only the engagement in the student’s backyard. The statement obtained the police regarding the incident describes that the man was throwing trash into oncoming traffic on Redondo, police were called and officers arrived to the scene and chased the man into the backyard. Of the six officers responding to the one suspect, two of them deployed tasers on to the man.
The issue I am presenting is not the use of force by police officers in order to carry out their obligation to the safety of society, but the OVERUSE of force. I was hoping that the video would be posted with the article, as to give a more concrete view to the actual incident rather than a mental image painted by newsprint, but the man is unable to move, laying in a corner of the house, when one of the officers use the second taser charge on him.
As a journalist, taking bias in a news story is not recommended. This is an opinions column, however, and in the wake of current events like Ferguson, the video I received from this student tied a current issue to our local area of Long Beach.
Not every cop that uses force uses it excessively. I do not mean to make any generalizations of law enforcement. They have just as much of a right to be safe as normal citizens do. But when they are the ones with the weapons, both lethal and non-lethal, and the authority to use such weapons, there is a fine line that can be crossed in using these weapons.
You mention some factors that could affect the perception of the officers.Time constraint? Officers are required to make split-second decisions in close situations. The video from this specific situation shows the officers standing around the man, with plenty of time to make a different decision, again in my opinion.
Drugs? Officers should be able to identify the symptoms of drug use. PCP and meth are the two main drugs that cause schizophrenic symptoms, and again, the man shows no other symptoms of these drugs. PCP use usually comes with bouts of intense anger, and methamphetamine produces increasingly aggressive behavior. The only aggression the man shows is after he is hit with the second taser.
Again, it is difficult to understand my point of view of this specific situation without the actual video evidence of the incidence. The most unusual thing I found about this topic is that there are no statistics for use of police force after 2008. So, in light of this, all we citizens have is what we can observe and understand with our own eyes.