P.W.A

BU English 101 - 2:00 pm - F18

                                                            Police With Attitude 

  

                 

Figure 3 Police Pepper Spraying Civilians

     

         Have you ever seen on the news riots happen because of Police officers hurting or killing civilians? This blog will help you with the history of Police Brutality and a couple of the people who were victims.

 What is Police  Brutality?

Police brutality is a traffic stop of a vehicle and detention of its occupants is a seizure for Fourth Amendment.  A routine traffic stop is justified if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the occupant is unlicensed or the vehicle is unregistered.  The officer does not need a reasonable suspicion of the occupant’s involvement in criminal activities.  The reasonable suspicion of criminal activities discovered during the traffic stop may give rise to a legitimate terry stop.(2).  Police brutality has been around since the 1960's. From getting harassed for just walking or standing there by the color of there skin or where they are from. Some police officers just let the power get to there head.  This the definition of police brutality. 

        

                                                                   The Eye Openers 

  Back in the late 80"s and most of the 90's the start of the rap game has change a lot of peoples point of view. These rappers are mostly from the West Coast. Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Easy-E, and MC Ren. These artists are from Compton which has a lot of gang activity throughout the area. When these artist first starting making there music they made a song that called out all of the violence in the minority community's for the color of there skin and how they make there money. The effect of the song was the group getting a letter from F.B.I. writing them ominous letters to scary them. When Rodney King was beaten by police in 1992 the whole city of L.A. went into riots and there hit song was the anthem when the riots happen. These rappers have change the game and open up many eyes to what was happening in this decade. 

                 

Figure 4 of firers in L.A.

The Affects of the L.A. Riots 

  The riots were over a video of cab driver Rodney King getting assaulted by officers in L.A. He was getting kicked and clubbed at least over 50 times. None of the officers were faced with criminal charges. Los Angeles below up in rage. The city went into a state of emergency. The city had to call 9,800 national guards and 12,000 people were arrested. 1,000 buildings were burned down like in figure 4. The totally cost of the damage done was 1 billion dollars which is crazy for just one person assaulted by law enforcement.(1) But still tensions has risen after the riots. There have been other cases that are notable to like Freddie Gray who was dragged with a broken leg into a police van and he later died from his injuries the same affect happen like in Los Angeles. Fire started in the streets and lots of looting of stores. But it happen in Baltimore. This will happen if the police don't change there ways. Look back on all the history if a innocent person gets hurt by law enforcement riots will keep happening. 

                                               How Law Enforcement Should Change There Tactics? 

Figure 5 N.W.A Rap Group

      How law enforcement should change there traffic stops? Officers have a lot of different tools compared to their fire arm. Police officers have pepper spray which blinds their eyes and burns them while the officer could put the cuffs on the criminal or can use if the criminal is charging the officer. Another tool is a taser which stuns the offender if he try's to run from law enforcement. But if you ever get pull over by a officer you should stay calm and be respectful. If the police officer is loud just stay calm the officer may not be able to hear you because of oncoming traffic.  Hopefully officers of the law can protect more instances like Rodney King and Freddie Gray. These tactics hopefully will help law enforcement not to hurt anyone innocent. 



                                         
References
(1)  Botelho, G., & Yan, H. (2013, July 14). George Zimmerman found not guilty of murder in Trayvon Martin's death. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial/index.html

(2)Jnm223. (2015, June 08). Traffic Stop. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/traffic_stop

(3) Los Angeles Riots Fast Facts. (2018, March 27). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/18/us/los-angeles-riots-fast-facts/index.html

(4) How to protect yourself from Police Brutality? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.stephenaking.info/how-to-protect-yourself-from-police-brutality/

(5) Mike, & Pizzo. (2015, August 14). The N.W.A Flowchart – Cuepoint – Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-n-w-a-flowchart-477b8a6e241b