Police Brutality: The Use Of Excessive Force

Police brutality in the United States has garnered international scrutiny. Cases of police violence regularly appear in the media and attract the attention of international human rights organizations. Research finds that the victims of police violence are disproportionately people of color, low-income, and trans-gendered. Attention to police brutality often peaks during periods of national crisis, such as urban uprisings, leading researchers to look for both the causes and solutions to police violence.

Cases of Police Violence

In the late 1990s, Human Rights Watch studied the excessive use of force in 14 major cities, including New York, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles. Human Rights Watch found police brutality to be a systematic part of police departments across the country. Several cases of police brutality have attracted national attention in the media. In 1997, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, was arrested by New York City police and taken into custody. At the precinct, he was ushered by officers into a bathroom where he was sodomized with a wooden stick. He was left bleeding in a cell for 3 hours before he was taken to the hospital where he stayed for 2 months recovering from massive internal injuries. In the same year, Oliverio Martinez was riding his bike to work in the agricultural fields of Oxnard, California. Police suspected he was involved in drug activity and stopped him for questioning. After a brief scuffle, police found a knife. Martinez was shot 5 times. He survived, but he is now blind and paralyzed from the waist down. He was never charged with a crime. In 2003, according to Amnesty International, a Native American transgendered woman was allegedly stopped by two police officers and taken to an alleyway where she was raped.

The Victims of Police Violence

As the above cases illustrate, the victims of ...