Senior Paper; Reducing Police Violence Isn't A DreamReducing Police Violence isn’t a Dream
By Daniel James Boatwright Police violence resulting in death is plaguing the United States like leprosy. How do we solve this problem and reduce violent and deadly police contact? 100,000 people clashed with police in Brussels and in every picture taken of the demonstration you see Brussels police poised with batons and shields, fire water canons. There are no automatic weapons, bean bag guns or rock salt, guns no protesters are being pelted by rubber bullets or being maced. Our American riot control officers are dressed to kill; pictures from the Ferguson riots show unarmed civilians, hands raised, looking down the barrel of a gun. They show college students sitting peacefully in defiance being sprayed in the face with bear mace point blank. Is that really what a fully developed modern country does? This is obviously why American riots are so few and far between; In European cities citizens are not permitted to protest yet they do it more than any American city. Here in the states protesting is one of our written unalienable rights. The difference is Europeans know they won't get shot down they know the police will not open fire on a crowd because the police don’t have the means to use deadly force with a firearm. Truly if American riot police only carried a baton shield and teargas there would be a major demonstration in every city in our fifty states. The solution to this epidemic is just not that simple a combination of reduced accessibility to deadly weapons and police body cameras may be part of the key to reducing violent and deadly police contact but only restored trust in our authorities by the people can help quell this epidemic. European police are not perfect. There is still violence and death in European cities only their riots usually end with casualties on both sides. In any case when both sides split the bill you know there’s equality, some would look at that as police being incompetent that they can’t control the masses of people. They were never suppose to. If really no one looks at the people as a driving force and just a demographic then their would be no United States of America only the British Colony of America. There would still be lynchings and state religious services. People can change politics through protest and public demonstration when has anyone ever been told otherwise, It is still written law we can still impeach. Why don’t we use our freedoms to their full extent? This is the deeper issues with Americans; that we wont fight our own government and we expect other countries to do it . We need to stand up like our brothers before us and instill change into our countries veins because that’s what we are, the very blood of the nation whether we know it or not, we just need a place to start. One small change coming out of European cities and our own states and counties is body cameras. The U.K is one of the leading countries in use of body cameras and the results speak for themselves, but is it enough to trust police when they can turn off their cameras as long as they write a written report, Alexandra Smith, legal director at ACLU of New Mexico, said that Albuquerque cops use body cameras “when it suits them, and they don’t when it doesn’t.” This only puts doubt in between our fragile system of trust that we have left for our public defenders. Even with excessive use of force with batons in countries with unarmed police forces confrontations ending in death are hard to come by like the Netherlands where police makeup .09% of population and police related deaths are so infrequent that nation masters website of crime statistics show no category for what is called an anomaly in the Netherlands, and what is called death by cop in the cities we live in. Europe is still very different from the states. Not many countries in Europe have any grand constitution granting inalienable rights to all citizens, despite. Most have no right to be defiant and protest their government, Americans on the other hand have every right to stand defiant and impeach all politicians even the president given they try to sully our constitution. Still we don’t exercise those rights unlike the city of Brussels and others. The scene of the Brussels demonstration was brutal but also citizens were not the only casualties and police were not the only ones armed and protected. Pictures taken by local and global broadcasting stations as well as some off duty reporters and civilians show the two sided clashes between the police and the people and the casualties of police and people bleeding from their heads and surrounded by fire.There is only honor and real DEMONSTRATION that comes from the people standing up in full masses to put the authorities in their place, the place of public servants paid by and sent to protect and serve the people. Some things will never change. The mere uniforms of riot police insist hostility and I’m sure they will never truly make them look any friendlier but at the very least and on any occasion should they never be pointing assault rifles into the faces of unarmed civilians. Do they try and insist riot police are not people that there robocops set to kill protesters, this is not what civil disobedience should be met with.There is nothing civil about maceing unarmed civilians who are only sitting. To say otherwise or to stand by as the police which is a movement as well, is killing more people. If not the police, who is there to protect the people? If you want to be the police grab a bag of sticks and protect your rights. For any change the authorities must know we are one mass ready to fight as one. For all the praise Europe has been given for reducing violent police contact takedown strategies remain the same as any police institution in let's say a city like Baltimore. E.J.M.A.S short for Electronic journal of Martial Arts and Sciences is what almost all police institutions base their training on and use take down strategies from The Journal of Non-Lethal combatives. This is an excerpt under this journal of non lethal combative and a research paper looking into violent police altercations in the L.A.P.D. In short this excerpt or paper shows the force used by police in situations. The information I found was shocking, "http://ejmas.com/jnc/2007jnc/jncart_Leblanc_0701.html" This is only a small example of the excessive use of force as you can see none of them add up completely. The whole report is on the link with much more shocking and interesting information. In a recent event of violence resulting in death by cop a Baltimore man by the name of Freddie Gray had his spine severed along with multiple other injuries.This reportedly after being arrested for running while black. Upon arrest Freddie Gray was put into a paddy wagon,and after asking the officers for an inhaler, the officers reported he was being irate so they stopped and shackled him and continued to drive around with freddie in no seat restraint. which cause the initial head injury related to his severed spine.Matched by a bolt imprint in his skull the autopsy was released by the state medical examiner “the medical examiner will list the cause of death as trauma to the neck and spine. Sources also indicate authorities now believe the trauma was suffered inside the police van Gray was being transported in.”.Six officers are being charged in the homicide of freddie gray. These are several news sources with videos stating the reason of his arrest and the discovery of his injuries in the police van also the list of police officers charged. http://www.democracynow.org/2015/4/23/running_while_black_protests_swell_over http://abcnews.go.com/US/freddie-gray-details-fill-journey-baltimore-police/story?id=30704154 From what i’ve seen in the Electronic Journal of Martial Arts and Sciences website, police takedown strategies do not account for people with chronic or even non chronic conditions. While arresting victim Freddie Gray, the officers immediately as seen in the video evidence broke Gray’s leg, someone with barely any chronic medical history. In a circumstance of a person with a previous broken neck or any chronic spinal condition the police would unknowingly kill the person. Just with initial and secondary takedown methods such as a joint lock and a to the ground tactic, as shown on the e.j.m.a.s report this is the most frequented option when a suspect shows a combative posture. In order to start making solutions, I need to start listing solutions, police riot police in specific look like merchants of death skull crushers. Instead of batons they have hand guards which are used as brass knuckles.What right minded person would stand in defiance when you know a stormtrooper is ready to break your face with a metal baton. That’s not even what people are afraid of, no one wants to get shot in the chest and that shouldn’t be a fear let alone a reality, how are the people gonna trust the authorities if they all have the means and the minds to pull a weapon. Whether it be an assault rifle a side arm or a canister gun with rubber bullets people die and they shouldn’t. Just recently in a Polish Riot, a civilian died after being stricken by a rubber bullet, so we must take action, real political action. An answer that has never been tested in the states only because there has never been so many shooting deaths before in relation to the authorities,limiting access to deadly weapons is an answer. Many european countries have taken steps by taking away firearms all together. Only now their officers are asking for them back due to more recent terrorist activity. In the states, we have the same fears and our police should not be disarmed, that would be asking for domestic terrorism. If we made the small step of limited access to deadly weapons such as lock boxes in patrol cars coded holsters for regular street officers. It is the same concept as a safe in your home sure it takes longer to access but that's what they expect citizens to do. And that wasted time might just save a victim who met a quick to judge officer. In a recent case a man by the name of Walter Scott from Charleston N.C. was shot in the back after trying to flee in fear of returning to jail over child support payments. The officer was charged with the full extent of the law in first degree murder. If in this case the officer had a lock box for his weapon walter scott would have had a chance to be either taken down, tazed, or a couple more seconds to escape judge and executioner, officer Michael Slager. To talk about the history of the sport of officer shootings I go back to the Journal of Non Lethal Combatives. In this report it shows percentages of police involved shootings from 1988-1991. To bad this information has nothing to do with the recent flurries of death by cop, in the report it shows police involved shootings rising 6.3% in the time period. this may seem insignificant but in a city as large as L.A. with how much jurisdiction the L.A.P.D. has in southern california it is a pretty major number of citizens and a pretty large percentage of all L.A.P.D. arrests. NDAA or National Defence authorization act as of december 26 2013, authorities can out of suspicion only indefinitely detain any person they chose. Similar to Bush's’ enactments of authorized defence granting himself more power in times of war, Obama has granted his authorities their quest for power. He may have put Guantanamo on Ice but only because the headlines demanded it. NDAA was barely in the news. Here are some pure facts put together in an internal investigation between journal of non lethal combatives and E.J.M.A.S. itself; “1997 ASLET “Use of Force Training Seminar: Future of Non-Lethal Force Training--Reality Based and Integrating Techniques for Non-Lethal Force Training” during 1988, there were 316,525 arrests made by L.A.P.D. -- 5,617 (1.7%) of these arrests required completion of a use of force report. -- 2,031 (0.6%) altercations developed from these arrests “ Of the 5,617 reports examined only 2,031 incidents contained a sufficient level of aggressive resistance by the suspect toward the officer to qualify as an altercation.”Thus, the study confirms what every police officer knows: Most arrest situations involve little or no use of force, and minor resistance does not qualify as a “fight” (or in this case, altercation). Semi-compliant persons are often stopped by a mere order to comply or with a firm control of an arm or wrist for handcuffing. Nonetheless, even these low level uses of force may require use of force reports in many agencies, as does the pointing of a firearm at a subject who may not resist physically in any way. This study has accounted for these facts. 1988 there were an average of 867 arrests and 5.6 altercations per day 856 officers reported injuries from such altercations. these officers missed a total of 2,095 days from work… altercations were most likely to develop from the following field activities: disturbances of the peace (33.8%) traffic stops (18.5%) and observed narcotics activity (14.8%) Five scenario patterns accounted for 95% of the altercations: “Within each of these five patterns, a description of the most frequent first, second, and final combative action was generated by the computer… Four combative actions by suspects accounted for almost two thirds (65.8%) of these I.O.D. injuries; the officer was kicked 23.4 percent, punched 16 percent, thrown/tripped 15 percent, or was bitten 11.4 percent. In 1988 the average officer in uniform and assigned to the field was in less than 3 altercations.” The thrown/tripped statistic includes injuries sustained from wrestling on the ground.” These are the facts from this internal investigation into the use of force used by L.A.P.D. officers. Police in America and anywhere else will never truly be nice. It will never be mandatory to be kind courteous and respectful. Police training will never include sensitivity training, trust should be an officer's best asset how will we be able to trust their majority if majority rules says let the killer of an unarmed teen go free on multiple occasions. Has too much time gone by for justice to relate to peace. As far as Baltimore is concerned. there must be a lot more justices before peace can come. Only after these justices can a long road of rebuilding trust begins. Authorities have to show the people that they can compromise, and that we are the people and that we are the size of a nation our own. For now small change must occur such as the body cameras the states and counties paid millions for, limited access to deadly weapons and harsh penalties for turning off cameras will strengthen our trust in our authorities. If we give them time give them money we can give them an inch in return for a mile. only if they bring justice to our fallen and indict and impeach those in power who instill this violent behavior then we can give the respect they crave it is a simple give and take relationship that must be counseled. Use of Army Reserve and National Guard in american cities is historic and should have been left that way. How people in the position of power came to that conclusion is beyond me and sends chills down the spines of true patriots, much like the actions taken after the Boston bombing. Marshall law was never supposed to be instilled unless in times war on domestic soil. If two brothers hate the world enough to kill innocent civilians with no real terrorist affiliation that should not be called war that should be called what it is; insignificant extremists mixed into the masses, not god and country soldiers who would be hidden by our own citizens in one of our country's first thirteen colonies now the city of patriots. Really does our government trust us less than we do them, because the last thing I heard was civilians were part of controlling the riots in midtown baltimore before they sent in the army dogs. There should be nothing strange about that, before police have training they faced the same society as we do everyday. They breath the same air and if our government can't trust the people then they can't trust the police. Some change must be seen. We can start by changing the textbooks that institutions use to train their officers. E.J.M.A.S. is a main source of blood in relation to the flow of information going into our officers heads. If the information they get speaks sensitivity, and a prior base knowledge of chronic conditions and opening their minds into the idea of lock boxes and less access to weapons so they can prepare for that time that's missed in that process then no one can say they wouldn’t be better police. Basically police should be some of the most knowledgeable people, if they want a gun and a badge they should be properly trained not in the most minimal way but the most extreme because they are in a position of extreme trust and sensitivity and should be equipped both mentally and physically for the most bizarre circumstances you would see as a street or any positioned officer. Body cameras are one of the biggest progressions ,period, in the fight to retain public trust. Violent actions made by police in this experimental study in Rialto California states “The findings suggest more than a 50% reduction in the total number of incidents of use-of-force compared to controlled-conditions, and nearly ten times more citizens’ complaints in the 12 months prior to the experiment.” This shows how well body cameras do when it comes to complaints and officer civilian contact. http://www.policefoundation.org/content/body-worn-cameras-police-use-force Less access to deadly weapons is a touchy subject to police their lives are on the line if you take away their defense. The truth is they are still equipped without a deadly weapon and still I'm not saying take their guns away. Maybe now more than ever they need weapons to combat domestic terrorists. But if they are trained correctly they should have plenty of time to access their weapon and or subdue any suspect in a actually non lethal way. The authorities will always be there to watch what we do, we can replace them diversify, do anything that's cosmetic, and that's all it will be is cosmetic. If we don’t change the basis of what a police officer is then we will always have violent police contact. what being a police officer is and what it is preserved as are different. We create dirty, violent ,and ignorant cops but that does not mean they have no fault. Most cops are grossly under qualified to deal with all the issues an officer deals with. Most are also over trained in the wrong aspects simply because institutions teach too much offensive nature and not enough defensive theory. The Sheriff of St.Louis county in missouri said “ We need officers that do not second guess orders given to them…. the less our officers question the experienced commands of our superiors the safer we will be as a community.” That according to Sheriff Barry Greere of St. Louis county is what it takes to be a police officer. With all the ideas stated; we can create, become and level with our authorities and reduce and eliminate violent police contact. http://nationalreport.net/missouri-police-department-drastically-reduces-iq-requirements-new-officers/ |
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