Ms. Tommaso
AP Lang & Comp: 5B
1. The central claim of this article was that police brutality has become overbearing to racial minorities throughout our country. The author questions whether or not the federal government, which has has a clear responsibility to enforce civil right laws, should be taking the lead in these police investigations instead of local authorities. He strongly believes that racial prejudice has become a major problem in our country and that federal investigations and interactions are necessary in order to recreate trust between racial minorities and the police.
2. One significant piece of evidence used is a recent Cleveland Police Department investigation in which the police officer charged with shooting 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was holding a toy gun, was found to be mentally unstable. The Department had not done a background check before hiring him, therefore giving him life or death power over thousands of people. At this same police department, police officers were seen to have a casual view of deadly force. Back in 2013, some officers actually shot at a victim who had been held captive in a house as he escaped. Because of incidences like these, the author mentions of how riots have been erupting all over the country to protest police abuse and the need for federal intervention.
3. My opinion is that police brutality has gotten out of hand. Police brutality is gaining more attention than ever, and I believe that police departments need to be investigated by federal authorities to do background checks on their officers as well as to enforce stricter discipline. Stricter laws need to be written about what police officers can and cannot do. For example, when a police officer strangles a man to death for selling cigarettes on live video, the police officer should be able to be charged for that offense. In the Eric Garner case, the police officer was found as not guilty because of the laws surrounding protecting police officers. With laws that say that police have the right to kill people, police officers can get away with anything. Something needs to be done about the vagueness of these laws in order to protect the citizens that the police are supposedly protecting. Police officers who use their power in hazardous ways need to be put in their place. However, the media has began to just publicize these stories because they sell, so in a way many of these stories have been blown out of proportion with readers' opinions previously being swayed prior to the trials.
Works Cited:
Staples, Brent. "Hope and Anger at the Garner Protests." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Dec. 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2014.
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