Police Crime

A black teenager pedalling fast was fleeing from a crime . A white teenager pedalling at the same speed is feeling the freedom of youth'- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People commenting on the case of a black teenager shot by police after falling off his bicycle in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 1993. Now don't you think something is fishy about that.
William J. Whitfield 3rd, was an unarmed African American man, he was shot dead in a New York supermarket on December 25, 1997 by police who said they mistook the keys he was carrying for a gun. Although the officer who shot him was cleared of wrongdoing, it was revealed that he had been involved in eight prior shootings. The New York Police Department (NYPD) Police Commissioner subsequently set up a monitoring system for officers involved in three or more shootings. Why do you have to wait until three or more shootings occue?, that does not happen if we shoot someone, we are automatically guilty.
All over the USA people are injured and even killed by police using excessive force or deliberately brutal treatment. Police officers punch, kick, beat and shoot people who pose no threat, or are causing serious injuries, and sometimes death, by misusing restraints, chemical sprays or electro-shock weapons. Most reported incidents take place during arrest, searches, traffic stops or in street incidents.
Each year there are thousands of reports of assault and mal-treatment by police officers. Inquiries into some of the largest urban police departments have uncovered systematic brutality. It is very difficult to assess the true extent of police brutality because there is no reliable national data. Since 1994 the federal government has been legally required to collect national data on police excessive use of force, but Congress has not provided the necessary funding.More than 17,000 police agencies operate in the USA, each with its own code of practice and methods of recording and investigating abuses.
A lot of US police departments have strict guidelines on the use of deadly force, and international standards state that force should be used only as a last resort, proportionate to the threat and designed to minimize injury.Although it is clear that these standards are frequently breached and that too often the authorities have turned a blind eye to abuses.Investigations into complaints of police brutality are often subject to delays and there are concerns about the quality and impartiality of internal investigations. Disciplinary action is very rare. Sanctions, when they are imposed, are often lenient.Many police shootings raise serious doubts as to whether the victims posed an immediate threat. Amnesty International detailed more than 30 cases where NYPD officers had shot or injured suspects, including children, in disputed circumstances in its 1996 report. Nearly all the victims were black, Latino or from other minorities - a pattern seen across the country. Members of racial and ethnic minorities bear the brunt of police brutality in many areas. Black officers themselves have complained of the stereotyping of black men as criminal suspects. Caroline Sue Botticher, an unarmed innocent African American woman, died after police from West Charlotte, North Carolina, fired 22 rounds at the car in which she was a passenger when it failed to stop at a police check-point in April 1997. There was no evidence to suggest that anyone in the car was armed. Some police departments have introduced guidelines to bar police from firing at moving vehicles unless they are directly threatened with deadly force, but many have not.
There have been many deaths in custody after police used restraint procedures known to be dangerous. Hogtying - tying suspects' ankles to their wrists behind their backs - has been recognized as highly dangerous for at least the past decade. However, while many departments, including the NYPD, have banned the procedure, others continue to use it. Deaths in custody resulting from hogtying have been reported from various parts of the country, including Athens (Georgia), Jackson (Mississippi) and Memphis (Tennessee).Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, colour, national origin, sex or religion by state and local law enforcement agencies, and allows the Justice Department to withhold grants or make them conditional on compliance

Brutality in Massachusetts

In Compton Sheriff's deputies fired about 120 shots at a vehicle to end a car chase according to sources quoted inThe unarmed man in the SUV was wounded, but will survive.120 shots? That is dangerous to bystanders and nearby houses and residences. The normal operating procedure is for the police department to investigate this. If it is justified it is then dissmissed. As 120 bullets were fired, the justification for the gunfire is a unfair and sort of a stetch ok, lets not sugar coat this, it is a big stretch even given the national success at defenses of this type
Another police incident was a suspected purse snatch run over by police truck
A police truck ran over a fleeing suspect in a purse snatching. The truck ran over the legs of the victim and barely missed running over the man's head. This stuff is crazy, police feel they are fighting crime but they are causing them too, murder and certain kinds of assault are crimes, torts or something like that.

Brutality in Hungary

In Hungary hundreds of thousands were attackedhttp by police going home after a anniversary celebration of the major opposition party Fidesz. Peaceful celebrants, pensioners, families or simple passers-by and tourists were beaten up indiscriminately. Policemen were equipped with ski masks, illegal cobra sticks, rubber bullets and did not have their compulsory identification badges. Populist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, a member of the socialist Party admitted that police in some cases of direct instruction. 52-56% of voters in Hungary are represented by Fidesz. The police had an explanation for the attack. They said a small group of people coming from elsewhere was into the peaceful crowd. Wasn't it their job to seperate them?, to protect innocent people by hurting innocent people, i am not sure, but I do not feel they were right and took the problem into legal matters, because they was not sure of who they were helping/hurting. Police sometimes take control of things too abruptly.

Brutality exists nationwide

One of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the U.S. is abuse by law enforcement officers. The violations occur nationwide, in rural, suburban, and urban areas of the country, committed by various law enforcement personnel like local and state police, sheriff's departments, and federal agents. Police engaged in many unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment. The proportion of repeatedly abusive officers on any force is generally small, responsible authorities, including law enforcement supervisors, as well as local and federal government leadership,often fail to act to rpenalize or restrain such acts.