Are the police officers just doing their jobs, or are their actions considered police brutality? There have been many situations that have happened that shocked the nation, due to police brutality. Racism is the topic of discussion all around America.
The Eric Garner case is the most recent incident that has the nation talking and protesting. On July 17, a Staten Island police officer placed Garner in a chokehold while trying to arrest him. In the video, witnesses say Garner was trying to break up a fight. According to the New York post, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo was arresting him for selling untaxed, loose cigarettes.
Do you think the reason behind the arrest was worth his death?
Are police officers taking it too far ? Should they handle situations in more reasonable ways? The video is posted on theguardian.com for those who will like to take a look for themselves and see how unnecessary his death was.
A senior staff writer of ,NBC news,Tony Dokoupil, reported that there are no hard national standards, nor binding state policies not even a national database that tracks how often, where, and under what circumstances police use deadly force. According to the current police policy, there is nothing telling them what they cannot do.
All that officers need in order to not be held responsible is to say that it was necessary and it was reasonable.
The question is, do these police officers even feel any remorse for their so-called “necessary” actions?
Does it make killing another human being right because a police officer did it? This makes you wonder what kind of training these officers go through before getting their badge.
I believe officers should not be allowed to shoot the suspect in any place on their body that would instantly kill them.
Also, if the suspect repeatedly says he cannot breathe and is not fighting back in any way, then the officers should calm the situation down. The training aspect for officers do not include teaching them how to handle a situation verbally.
Officers are educated to handle situations that previous cops were in before. However, they do not know how to handle new situations. If a cop comes across a situation that they do not know how to handle they are just going to use their instincts.
If they were not educated on how to verbally handle the intense situation or use anything other than a deadly approach then, of course, their first instinct is going to be pulling out their gun.
The Washington Times posted an article on Jan. 13 about the police training and community relations.
There have been public meetings discussing the concern of police training and what they need to do to better it. According to the Washington Post, the Mayor of Baltimore believes giving police officers comprehensive training is a “good start.” “As budgets have been cut, training has dwindled down to focus on the life or death self- defense skills police might need in the direst scenarios,” the president of the National Latino Peace Officers Association, Andrew Peralta, said. “When you’re training is all about shooting, handcuffing, the physical part and not about the verbal part it can create an imbalance.”
U.S citizens just want to feel safe in their own country. Ensuring a solution to this problem will put positive outlooks back into America. After all of the protests across the nation, there should be a resolution to it all.
Action will be taken by March according to the Washington Post to improve community and police relations. Citizens have all been coming together within the past months to get justice. Now, let’s put actions into our own hands and put peace back on our streets.
