Jaycee Maduro

Cindy Casper
English 101
10/26/16
Argumentative Essay
What is your opinion about police brutality in the United States, do you think its a
problem or not? After conducting a survey, I found that 88 percent of the participants thought it
was. Police Brutality is a problem and is becoming an issue in United States and it needs to stop.
Police brutality is claiming many lives across the country, its defying the purpose of police
officers, and it can be avoided.
If you look at the cases in police brutality a majority of the victims tend to be black
males. In a survey that I created I went and asked the participants which ethnic group they
thought was targeted in police brutality 88% percent stated that blacks were targeted which I
thought was interesting. While researching I did find that a lot of the cases did involve black
males. For example Michael Brown an unarmed black male who was only 18 years old.(Schiff,
Body Cameras) Another shooting of an unarmed black male who was 19 years old in Cincinnati
just four days before Michael Brown.(Baptiste, Urban Policing) In my opinion its just wrong to
take the lives of two young men who were unarmed is just wrong. There is a case of a U.S. army
veteran who was killed in front of his five-year-old son, by police and their justification for the
killing was that army veteran reached for an officers gun. But when questioned the police
officers stories contradicted each other which didnt add up.(Ochs, Police Brutality) The police
are killing a lot of people, just in 2014 1,103 people were killed by police officers.

The actions that police officers are taking is defying the purpose of their job. As
described are to ensure the safety of citizens, their lives, and property.(Police Officer Job
Description) But the way the police officers have been they are not ensuring safety, but instead
being seen as threat to citizens. And due to recent events a lot of African Americans see the

police as the enemy due to the amount of African Americans killed by police officers. In my
opinion some of these police officers are not properly trained. In description I read it mentions
that are trained to act quickly, decisively, and appropriately to situations.( Police Officer Job
Description) Some police officers should be better trained, because if they are trained to use
appropriately deal with a situation, they wouldnt be killing unarmed people.
Police brutality can be avoided and lower the amount of deaths by police shootings.
While researching I found that the use of body cameras could help to fight against police
brutality. Using body cameras on police officers would record interactions with police officers
and the public. There have been experiments in police departments with body cameras and they
have shown some positive impacts. A police department in Rialto, California used body cameras,
and it experienced an 88 percent reduction in complaints against police officers. It also found
that there were twice as many use-of-force incidents for shifts that didnt have body cameras than
shifts that did use cameras.(Schiff, Body Cameras) The use of body cameras is good idea
because it will deter officers from using excessive force and will help as evidence to stop bad
police officers.(Schiff, Body Cameras)

There are people who would go against me and say that police brutality isnt a problem.
They would go on to mention how being a police officer is dangerous. This is true, law
enforcement in the United States is dangerous, and the U.S. has a higher homicide rate than other

developed nations as well as more guns per capita.(Wihbey,There is Conflicting) This indeed
makes being a police officer more stressful and dangerous. And in 2013 there were 49,851 police
officers who were assaulted on duty, with an injury rate of 29.2 percent, and 27 murdered.
(Wihbey,There is Conflicting)

This does make being police officer seem a like a risk, but it

doesnt take away from police officers killing unarmed people. If the people were armed and
were attacking the police officers then it wouldnt cause so much controversy, but since there is
case that the victims are unarmed there should used non lethal gadgets instead of using their
guns.
Police brutality is a problem in the United States. It is claiming a lot of people lives as
much as 1,103 people in a single year. Police brutality is defying the purpose for police officers
because they are supposed to protect the people but instead they are killing. Police Brutality
could be lowered with body cameras on police to record encounters between police and public.

Works Cited
Baptiste, Nathalie. "Urban policing without brutality: Cincinnati has emerged as a role
model of policing reform--but even the best-in-show has a long way to go." The American
Prospect 26.3 (2015): 62+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
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disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Journals&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId
=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&displayquery=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE
%7CA422059873&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&sourc
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Denis. N.d. Innocent Down.org. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

http://www.innocentdown.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/denis.jpg
Michael Brown. 2013. Abc News. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/HT_michael_brown_sk_140813_16x9_992.jpg

Ochs, Colin. "Police Brutality Is a Growing American Epidemic." Police Brutality. Ed.
Michael Ruth. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"The Police Brutality Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Nation." gsccompass.org. 2015. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?
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dId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&displayquery=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE
%7CEJ3010156264&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&sou
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Police Body Cameras. N.d. International Business times. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.
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ce-body-cameras.jpg?itok=rRQNZqvQ

"Police Officer Job Description." Criminal Justice School Info.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03
Nov. 2016.

Schiff, Adam. "Body Cameras Will Stop Police Brutality." Police Brutality. Ed. Michael
Ruth. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"Crescenta Valley Weekly Op-Ed: Department of Justice Should Play a Role in Funding Body
Cameras for Local Police Departments." 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Oct.
2016.

URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?
disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&currPage=&scanId=&query=&pro
dId=OVIC&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&displayquery=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE
%7CEJ3010156268&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&sou
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Wihbey, John. "There Is Conflicting Information on Police Brutality." Police Brutality.

Ed. Michael Ruth. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt.
from "Excessive or Reasonable Force by Police? Research on Law Enforcement and Racial
Conflict." 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

Wikipedia contributors. "Police brutality in the United States." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Oct. 2016. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.