This article does not reflect the views of HCUK.
There are some police officers who are heroes. There are many who do the right thing, who actually want to help their communities, and who truly protect and serve. There are also many who do not. There are those who do good deeds and are persecuted by their departments for it, and there are those who commit egregious wrongs and are legally protected. Here are five ways by which cops are besmirching their own good names.
1. Cops Murder People
It’s nearly impossible to pin down the exact number of people killed every year in the United States by police officers. There are various organizations, including news outlets, that attempt to track that number through news stories because law enforcement is notorious for underreporting these statistics. One such watchdog group killedbypolice.net, reports that 1,112 people were killed by police in 2014, 1,207 were killed in 2015, and 385 were killed from January 1st-May 1st 2016. The Washington Post reported that the number for 2015 was 986. In either case, an estimated one thousand people is one thousand too many.
The mentally ill are the most likely to be targeted by the police. These statistics are usually based on representation in general population vs. representation in police shootings. Only 4% of Americans suffer from severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia; however, 25% of all fatal police shooting victims are mentally ill, and the vast majority of those suffer these severe illnesses. Some police deparments, like Miami-Dade, are making efforts to train their officers to better handle a mental health crisis situation, rather than saying, “We don’t have time for this,” (actual quote) ) and executing someone who needs help. However, major forces like the LAPD, where that 25% jumps to over 33%, are showing no improvement.
As this idea of overrepresentation in killings applies to racial minorities, Native Americans are most likely to be killed by police. According to the Free Thought Project, “Native Americans only make up 0.8 percent of the population, [but] they make up 1.9 percent of all police killings.” An analysis by al-Jazeera showed that Latinos are actually underrepresented (17% of population, 14% of police shootings). That does not, however, mean that those killings are acceptable.
2. Disproportionate tactical responses
The militarization of police departments has been a hot topic for the past few years. These departments are being gifted military grade weapons and defense materiel like MRAPs and M-16s by the Department of Defense. This creates one of those situations in which they wield a hammer, so every problem looks like a nail. SWAT teams are deployed for what should be routine police work, military-like responses are shown in standoffs, and innocent people are killed or injured. Police officers are rarely held accountable for these actions and offer downright ridiculous defenses for them. I know that a lot of people don’t click the hyperlinks, so I want to recount the story told in that last one. Police officers raided the home of a family because meth was sold by former tenants in the home, and during the raid they threw a flash-bang grenade into the crib of a sleeping nineteen-month-old boy. The child was seriously injured and eventually recovered, but here is the defense that the police department in Georgia offered: By being present in the home, the toddler was guilty of “deliberate, criminal conduct.”
3. Civil Asset Forfeiture
Civil asset forfeiture has also been in the news quite a bit in recent years, and with good reason. The basic idea is that police officers can seize property (houses, vehicles, cash and more) and charge the property itself with involvement in a crime regardless of the innocence of the owner of that property. Those assets are then used by the police departments for whatever they please, like selling them and using the money to further militarize their departments. Again, police are not exactly forthcoming with information regarding how much has been seized in this kind of forfeiture, but an estimated $4.2 billion in assets were seized in 2012 alone. Please bear in mind that a large number of people whose assets are “forfeited” are either not charged with a crime or are found not guilty and are still unable to reclaim their property. Nebraska is the only state in the country that has banned this practice, and they only did so in late April 2016. John Oliver did an amusing and thorough piece on this topic, which I encourage you to watch here.
4. Cops lie
This is where it becomes incredibly important for people to understand their rights; for example, the 4th Amendment protects you from unreasonable search and seizure, while the 5th Amendment protects you from self-incrimination. Cops know that most people do not understand these rights and will not invoke them, and so they will lie and bully people into providing false confessions and will unlawfully search a person or their property. Remember, cops are allowed to lie in interrogation; they can tell you they’ll be easier on you if you cooperate (they don’t get to make that decision), they can tell you they have someone who will testify against you, and they will tell you that keeping silent (as is your right) makes you look guilty. Young people are especially prone to being bullied into false confessions,
5. Cops Kill Pets Too
You may have noticed in my other articles that I have a thing for the welfare of animals, so I find this particular point incredibly upsetting. Once again, exact numbers are generally buried for this information, but it is estimated that several thousand pets are killed every year by police officers. This includes docile animals and animals that are chained up and therefore pose no threat. In fact, the ASPCA has concluded that half of all weapon discharges by police officers involve shooting dogs. Sometimes, police officers are responding to calls that the dogs in question are violent; that in no way means they should be gunned down. Instead, Animal Control ought to be brought into the situations to tranquilize and isolate the animal while an investigation is conducted. Officers should no more be allowed to execute pets than humans.
Transparency is an important part of oversight, as is accountability. These wrongs can only be prevented by accurately reported numbers, convictions for police officers who are found guilty of wrongdoing as a result of accurate and thorough investigations, and through a change of scenery. What I mean by that last point is reducing the militarization of police, both in materiel and uniform and through public outreach and actual community involvement, not just arrests and citations.
On a happier note, here’s a video of a cop stopping to play catch with a lonely kid:
Author’s note: As this is my final weekly contribution to Her Campus, I would like to thank my brother Patrick for being my sounding board and supporter through the writing of each of these articles.
Picture links:
http://cdn-webpagesthatsuck.com/police-line.jpg
http://www.mwcnews.net/images/stories/americas/us/c/deespolice.jpg
https://coxrare.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/swat-2.jpg?w=843&h=489&crop=1
http://www.aclu-wi.org/sites/default/files/GOOD-Cops-Main.jpg
https://bgoodscience.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/interrogation4.jpg