Police Brutality Article Edits:

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Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes but is not limited to beatings, shootings, "improper takedowns, and unwarranted use of tasers."


https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/deadly-force-police-accountability-police-violence/

History

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Today, police brutality continues to affect marginalized communities, which tend to be high poverty areas that are predominantly made up of minority racial groups.

Examples

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UK: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk

Nation Date Description
South Africa August 2020 Nathaniel Julius, aged 16, murdered in Soweto
South Africa February 2020 Adam Isaacs, aged 36, murdered in Cape Town by police and soldiers
Bangladesh May 2017 Shamim Reja murdered
Bangladesh January 2017 Friendship Power Company Protest is broken up with extreme force
India January 2017 Pro-Jallikattu silent protest is broken up with extreme force
India December 2015 Student protest against Citizenship Amendment Act broken up with extreme force
Indonesia June 2012 Journalists for the Tempo magazine
Indonesia August 2013 Police fire into the crowd of a protest against the death of a man in Central Sulawesi
Saudi Arabia October 2018 Jamal Khashoggi murdered at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Turkey by Saudi authorities
Pakistan October 2019 People's National Alliance rally to end Pakistan's rule over Kashmir was broken up by police, 100 people were injured
United Kingdom January 1999 Roger Sylvester, aged 30, murdered by police at a psychiatric unit in North London https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom March 2011 David Emmanuel, a.k.a. Smiley Culture, aged 48, was killed during a police raid at his house in Warlingham https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom July 2016 Mzee Mohammed-Daley, aged 18, died of cardiac arrest after being detained by 18 officershttps://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom July 1993 Joy Gardener, age 40, died from cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest after officers "wrapped tape around her head and face"https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
Jamaica 2014 Nakiea Jackson was shot and killed by police in Kingstonhttps://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/police-brutality/
Kenya 2020 Police use of force to enforce COVID-19 curfews
Hong Kong 2019 Police used extreme force to break up protests for democracy[1]
Hong Kong 2014 Ken Tsang, a prominent political activist, was beaten by police during protests[2]
Phillipines 2016-Present Police have killed over 12,000 people during the drug war waged by Director General Oscar Albayalde
El Salvador 2014-2018 Police brutally killed 116 people, mostly gang members
Hong Kong September 2020 Police tackle a 12-year-old girl, called Pamela by local media, at a protest; 300 people were arrested [3]
Thailand 1976 Police shooting at Thammasat University
Turkey 2013 Excessive use of tear gas to combat protesters
Nation Date Description
South Africa August 2020 Nathaniel Julius, aged 16, murdered in Soweto
South Africa February 2020 Adam Isaacs, aged 36, murdered in Cape Town by police and soldiers
Uganda Idi Amin?
Egypt 2014 Fairmont Hotel rape case
Bangladesh May 2017 Shamim Reja murdered
Bangladesh January 2017 Friendship Power Company Protest is broken up with extreme force
India January 2017 Pro-Jallikattu silent protest is broken up with extreme force
India December 2015 Student protest against Citizenship Amendment Act broken up with extreme force
Indonesia June 2012 Journalists for the Tempo magazine
Indonesia August 2013 Police fire into the crowd of a protest against the death of a man in Central Sulawesi
Malaysia Bersih Protests
Phillipines December 2020 Civilian police officer shoots two neighbors
Singapore
United Arab Emirates Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, tortured prisoners
Saudi Arabia October 2018 Jamal Khashoggi murdered at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Turkey by Saudi authorities
Bahrain Arab Spring Protestors?
Iraq Gulf War?
Iraq Saddam Hussein
Iran Harassment of women for immodesty, harassment of minorities
Iran 1979 Authorities hold the US Embassy workers hostage in Tehran
Pakistan October 2019 People's National Alliance rally to end Pakistan's rule over Kashmir was broken up by police, 100 people were injured
Pakistan Salahuddin Ayabi was tortured and killed by police
United Kingdom January 1999 Roger Sylvester, aged 30, murdered by police at a psychiatric unit in North London https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom March 2011 David Emmanuel, a.k.a. Smiley Culture, aged 48, was killed during a police raid at his house in Warlingham https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom July 2016 Mzee Mohammed-Daley, aged 18, died of cardiac arrest after being detained by 18 officershttps://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
United Kingdom July 1993 Joy Gardener, age 40, died from cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest after officers "wrapped tape around her head and face"https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4j8x/remembering-police-brutality-victims-uk
Jamaica 2014 Nakiea Jackson was shot and killed by police in Kingstonhttps://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/police-brutality/
France Ali Ziri
France Lamine Dieng
France Mohammed Boukrourou
France Abdelhakim Ajimi
United States Oscar Grant
United States Christopher Harris
United States Walter Harvin
United States Robert Davis
United States Angelina Garbarino
United States Rodney King
United States George Floyd
Kenya 2020 Police use of force to enforce COVID-19 curfews
Hong Kong 2019 Police used extreme force to break up protests for democracy[4]
Hong Kong 2014 Ken Tsang, a prominent political activist, was beaten by police during protests[5]
Phillipines 2016-Present Police have killed over 12,000 people during the drug war waged by Director General Oscar Albayalde
El Salvador 2014-2018 Police brutally killed 116 people, mostly gang members
Hong Kong September 2020 Police tackle a 12-year-old girl, called Pamela by local media, at a protest; 300 people were arrested https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54056356
Thailand 1976 Police shooting at Thammasat University
Turkey 2013 Excessive use of tear gas to combat protesters

Causes:

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The persistence of police brutality in many nations can be linked to a collective failure of the criminal justice system. Governments enacting "hard on crime" policies, poor police training, and a lack of legal repercussions for officers who use excessive force against civilians all increase the likelihood of police brutality occurring. Additionally, social issues like racial discrimination and poverty can exacerbate the brutality and its effects on marginalized communities.

Hard on Drugs Campaigns
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In nations with a reputation for having a high number of drug-related issues, including gang violence, drug trafficking, and overdose deaths, one common solution that government will enact is a collective campaign against drugs that spans the entirety of the state's establishment. Changes to address these issues encompass education, bureaucracy, and, most notably, law enforcement policy and tactics. Law enforcement agencies expand and receive more funding to attack the drug problems in communities. Acceptance of harsher policing tactics grows as well, as an "any means necessary" philosophy develops within the law enforcement community and the militarization of local police forces.[6] However, many studies have concluded that these efforts are in vain, as the drug market has grown in such nations despite anti-drug policies. For example, in the United States, critics of the War on Drugs waged by the American government have been very vocal about the ineffectiveness of the policy, citing an increase in drug-related crimes and overdoses since President Nixon first introduced this policy.[7] Rather than decreasing drug crime, the influx of law enforcement officers and the enabling of violence have increased police brutality in many nations, like in Brazil, where President Bolsonaro's police have killed an average of 5 people per day in Rio de Janeiro between 1998 and 2019.[8]

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A type of government failure that can result in the normalization of police brutality is a lack of accountability and repercussions for officers mistreating civilians. While it is currently commonplace for civilians to hold officers accountable by recording them, the actual responsibility of police oversight rests heavily on the criminal justice system of a given nation, as police represent the enforcement of the law. One method of increasing police accountability that has become more common is the employment of body cameras as a part of police uniforms.[9] However, the effectiveness of body cameras has been called into question due to the lack of transparency shown in police brutality cases where the footage is withheld from the public. In many cases of police brutality, the criminal justice system has no policy in place to condemn or prohibit police brutality. Certain nations have laws that permit lawful, violent treatment of civilians, like qualified immunity, which protects officers from being sued for their use of violence if their actions can be justified under the law.[10]

Authoritarian Leaders
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Racial Discrimination
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  • Bias
  • Crime Narratives
  • Increased Crime/Violent Crime Due to high poverty rates
Civil Unrest
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  • Protests/Marches
  • Black Lives Matter

Police Brutality Critique:

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  • History Section:
    • It is unclear what The Puppet Show is in the first sentence. Referring to The Puppet Show as a magazine, would give the reader better context. But describing it's usual subject matter lightly would be additionally helpful.
    • "The origin of modern policing (based on the authority of the nation-state) can be traced back to the 18th century France, with modern police departments being established in many nations by the 19th and early 20th centuries." Broad and unnecessary section, would be better if directly related to police brutality, not policing in general.
    • The Hubert Locke quote would be best included in the lead section, as it speaks more to the colloquial understanding of police brutality than it does to any historical information.
    • The Rodney King section is confusingly worded, and details like the race of the person who recorded his assault should not be included as they are irrelevant. Reorganizing the information would assist with concision and comprehension of the impact of the 1992 Rodney King riots.
  • Examples Section
    • This section takes up the bulk of the article and would likely be better spent going in depth on the issue itself, sharing the most infamous example along the way to enhance the explanations.
    • The Uganda entry is sparse and does not specifically mention the use of exorbitant police force under Idi Amin
    • The India section should separate individual events rather than group them into the same paragraph to help with structure and clarity.
    • The Malaysia section contains no dates for the incident it discusses(the Bersih protests), which could confuse the reader
    • For the Philippines section, including "the discussions of police brutality" is irrelevant to the example. Only the facts of the incident itself should be include in the example section.
    • The Hong Kong SAR Section breaks the previously established structure of separating the information by nation. There is also a portion of uncited information, and the Amnesty International report is irrelevant to the example.
    • The "Examples" section that seems to be intended as a subsection to the Austria section is not properly organized and is redundant, as this portion falls under the Examples section in the article and would be assumed to include examples.
    • The Austria sections labelled "Police accountability" and "Actions to combat police officers brutality" should not be included in the Examples section, but instead be included in separate portions that go in depth on each of these aspects of the article's issue of focus.
    • Many of the Europe sections are very long and would be improved by focusing on listing individual events(the Germany section does best at this)rather than writing paragraphs of back story on each event. While the political and social dynamics of a nation are important to understanding the origins of these conflicts, explaining such dynamics is a task that should be relegated to a distinct, focused section on this topic.
    • The United States section focuses on a very small window of time with its examples and thus gives a very limited view of the history of police brutality in this nation.
    • While the Brazil section contains good examples, it also contains plenty of extra information that only serves to clutter the well-organized bits of information.
  • Causes section
    • This portion of the article heavily focuses on the United States, which is uncharacteristic of the topic, which should aim to explain the concept in an international view. Doing research and collecting sources that describe internationally understood causes of police brutality would better suit the nature of this article.
  • Global Prevalence Section
    • This section is redundant, as it gives many examples that either are or should be included in the dedicated "Examples" section of the article. However, this is a better format for what the prior section was trying to achieve and should be adopted instead of the current "Examples" section.
  • Investigation Section
    • While this is an important section for understanding the police brutality, the way it is currently written is too narrow and sparse to ensure the reader gains a comprehensive understanding of investigating police brutality.
  • Measurement section
    • The 1985 and 2008 studies are not specific about where the study was done, but it appears that this section is also focused on just the United States, rather than the international landscape. This could be improved by using measurement examples from several other countries.
  • Independent Oversight
    • This section is sparse and lacks support(citations) for the claims it makes about "groups...criticiz[ing] police brutality" and "umbrella organizations and justice committees" and their support of "independent oversight."


Police Brutality Examples Content

  1. ^ CNN, James Griffiths, Helen Regan and Eric Cheung. "Hong Kong extradition bill: Hundreds of thousands join third huge protest in a week". CNN. Retrieved 2022-05-19. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Police Brutality Shocks Hong Kong". Time. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  3. ^ "Hong Kong protests: Police tackle 12-year-old girl to the ground". BBC News. 2020-09-07. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  4. ^ CNN, James Griffiths, Helen Regan and Eric Cheung. "Hong Kong extradition bill: Hundreds of thousands join third huge protest in a week". CNN. Retrieved 2022-05-19. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Police Brutality Shocks Hong Kong". Time. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  6. ^ www.cato.org https://www.cato.org/blog/police-violence-racist-drug-war. Retrieved 2022-05-17. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ^ Cooper, Hannah LF (2015). "War on Drugs Policing and Police Brutality". Substance use & misuse. 50 (8–9): 1188–1194. doi:10.3109/10826084.2015.1007669. ISSN 1082-6084. PMC 4800748. PMID 25775311.
  8. ^ "Rio violence: Police killings reach record high in 2019". BBC News. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  9. ^ Zepcam. "Growing Number of European Police Forces use Bodycam". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  10. ^ "Qualified Immunity". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved 2022-05-19.