Police brutality in the United States

Slave patrols roots

In the Southern United States, some of the earliest roots of policing can be found in slave patrols. Beginning in the 18th century, white volunteers developed slave patrols (also known as "paddyrollers"), which were squadrons that acted as vigilantes.^[23] In 1704, the first slave patrol was established in South Carolina.^[24] Eventually, all states with legal slavery had slave patrols, and they functioned as the first publicly funded police force in the South.^[25] These patrols focused on enforcing discipline and policing of African-American slaves. They captured and returned fugitive slaves, quashed slave rebellions, terrorized slaves in order to prevent rebellions (including beatings and^[23][26] searches of slave lodges), broke up slave meetings, and kept slaves off of roadways.^[25] The patrols also administered discipline of indentured servants.^[25] The patrols had broad influence and powers; they could forcefully enter any person's house, if they suspected the person of sheltering fugitive slaves.^[23] During the American Civil War, slave patrols remained in place. After the Civil War, in the Reconstruction period, the former slave patrol groups joined with other white militias and groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, early police forces of the South began to take on the role of policing and regulating the movement of African-Americans who had gained their freedom. New laws were put in place to restrict their rights, which were known as Black Codes.^[23] According to some historians, the transition from slave patrols to police forces in the South was a seamless one.^[25]

Texas Rangers

In 1823, the Texas Rangers was established by Stephen F. Austin. The Rangers used violence, harassment, and intimidation to protect the interests of white colonists. They worked in an area that was governed by Mexico, which later became the Republic of Texas, followed by the state of Texas. The Rangers were known to be particularly active across the Mexico-United States border. Their work included capturing indigenous people who were accused of attacking white settlers, investigating crimes such as cattle raiding, and raiding Mexican vaquero cattle ranches. They intimidated Mexican and Mexican-American people into leaving their land and homes, in support of white colonial expansion. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Texas Rangers supported and participated in extrajudicial killings and lynch mobs, such as La Matanza (1910–1920) and Porvenir massacre (1918).^{[2][27][28][29][30]}

Early police departments

In 1838, the United States developed its first formal police department, located in Boston. This was followed by New York City (1845), San Francisco (1849), Chicago (1851), New Orleans (1853), Cincinnati (1853), Philadelphia (1855), Newark, New Jersey (1857), Baltimore (1857). By the 1880s, all major US cities had police departments.^[31] As written by Dr. Garry Potter, "Early American police departments shared two primary characteristics: they were notoriously corrupt and flagrantly brutal. This should come as no surprise in that police were under the control of local politicians."^[32] The local political ward leader, who was often a tavern owner or gang leader, would appoint the chief of police of a neighborhood. The chief would be expected to follow the orders and expectations of the ward leader, which often included intimidating voters, harassing political opponents, and ensuring that the ward's business interests remain intact.^[33] The police officers typically had little qualifications or training as law enforcement officers, and they often took bribes and kickbacks. If conflicts arose, it was common for police officers to use force and brutality.^[32]

In the 19th century, police brutality was often directed at European immigrant communities,^[33] particularly those from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe.^[34] The different cultures of these communities were often framed as "dangerous," which called for the enforcement of law and order.^[33] For example, Irish immigrants were considered a "dangerous" class, and they experienced discrimination by nativists.^[35] Meanwhile, organized crime and political parties were often intertwined, and police typically cast a blind eye toward gambling and prostitution, if managed by politically influential figures.^[36]

Strike breaking

Person beaten by police during the 1912–1913 Little Falls textile strike in Little Falls, New York

After the Civil War, industrialization and urbanization grew rapidly in the United States. This was accompanied by a rising organized labor movement, in which workers formed unions and joined in organized actions, such as strikes. Between 1880 and 1900, New York City had 5,090 strikes and Chicago had 1,737 strikes. The economic elites of the era typically characterized these strikes as "riots," and they encouraged the police to break the strikes. Consequently, the police broke up strikes through two primary methods: extreme violence and making "public order" arrests at a mass scale.^[37] Some state governments authorized privatized police forces to repress strikes, such as the Coal and Iron Police in Pennsylvania. Private detective agencies, such as Pinkerton, often supervised these efforts. Violent confrontations came out of this system, such as the Latimer Massacre (1897), in which 19 unarmed miners were killed, and the Coal Strike of 1902, which involved a pitched battle for five months. Ultimately, state governments decided that it would be easier to police labor with public forces, leading to the establishment of state police forces (such as the Pennsylvania State Police, formed in 1905).^[2]

Jim Crow South

By the late 19th century, local and state governments began to pass Jim Crow laws. These laws enforced strict racial segregation in schools, parks, neighborhoods, restaurants, and other public places.^[38] This era saw a rise in lynchings and mob murders of African-Americans, with the police not arresting the perpetrators.^[23] It was estimated that "at least one-half of the lynchings are carried out with police officers participating, and that in nine-tenths of the others the officers either condone or wink at the mob action," as reported by Arthur F. Rapper in 1933.^[39] Meanwhile, African-Americans suffered police brutality, such as the 1946 beating of Isaac Woodward in Batesburg, South Carolina.^[40] Due to the brutality of Jim Crow laws, many African-Americans fled to Northern and Western cities in the Great Migration, where they experienced police brutality, as well.^[33]

Professionalization of police

In the United States, the passage of the Volstead Act (popularly known as the National Prohibition Act) in 1919 had a long-term negative impact on policing practices. During Prohibition (1919–33), the problem of police corruption was only worsened, as crime was growing dramatically in response to the demand for illegal alcohol. Many law enforcement agencies stepped up the use of unlawful practices. Police officers were commonly bribed so that bootlegging and speakeasies could continue, in addition to the flourishing organized crime underworlds of cities such as Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia.^[41] Some police officers became employed by organized crime syndicates, and they helped perform duties, such as harassment and intimidation of rivals.^[36]

By the time of the Hoover administration (1929–1933), the issue had risen to national concern and a National Committee on Law Observation and Enforcement (popularly known as the Wickersham Commission) was formed to look into the situation.^[42] The resulting "Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement" (1931) concluded that "[t]he third degree—that is, the use of physical brutality, or other forms of cruelty, to obtain involuntary confessions or admissions—is widespread."^[43] In the years following the report, landmark legal judgments such as Brown v. Mississippi helped cement a legal obligation to respect the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[44]

The result was the beginning of a new era in law enforcement in the United States, which aimed to professionalize and reform the industry. It was decided that police should function separately from political wards or leaders, and police precincts were altered to no longer overlap with political wards.^[34] Police departments became more bureaucratic with a clear chain of command. New practices were put into place to recruit, train, and reward police officers. By the 1950s, police officers began to win collective bargaining rights and form unions, after a long period of not being allowed to form unions (particularly after the Boston police strike in 1919).^[45]

However, these changes were not welcomed by all community members. Police departments adopted tactics that often antagonized people, such as aggressive stop and frisk.^[46] Police departments also became increasingly insular and "isolated from public life" as a result of these changes, according to crime historian Samuel Walker. For these reasons, among other reasons, they were particularly unequipped to handle the cultural and social upheaval of the 1960s.^[34]

Civil Rights Movement era

The Civil Rights Movement was the target of numerous incidents of police brutality in its struggle for justice and racial equality, notably during the Birmingham campaign of 1963–64 and during the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. Media coverage of the brutality sparked national outrage, and public sympathy for the movement grew rapidly as a result. Martin Luther King Jr. criticized police brutality in his speeches. Furthermore, the period was marked by riots in response to police violence against African-Americans and Latinos, including the Harlem riot of 1964, 1964 Philadelphia race riot, Watts riots (1965), Division Street riots (1966), and 1967 Detroit riot.^[47] In 1966, the Black Panther Party was formed by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, in order to challenge police brutality against African-Americans from disproportionately white police departments.^[48][49] The conflict between the Black Panther Party and various police departments often resulted in violence with the deaths of 34 members of the Black Panther Party^[50] and 15 police officers.^[51]

In 1968, the American Indian Movement was organized in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in response to widespread police brutality used against urban Native Americans. Founded by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Vernon Bellecourt, and Russell Means, the movement grew while 75 percent of Native Americans had moved to urban areas, becoming Urban Indians as a result of federal Indian Termination Act and other policies. A.I.M. was later accepted by traditional Elders living at Native American reservations.

The Civil Rights Movement and A.I.M. were also targeted by the FBI in a program called COINTELPRO (1956–79, and beyond). Under this program, the FBI would use undercover agents and police to create violence and chaos within political groups, such as the American Indian Movement, Socialist Worker's Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity.^[52] The police and undercover agents would harm organizers and assassinate leaders. Black Panther leaders Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, were killed in a 1969 FBI raid at Hampton's apartment in Chicago.^[53]

In the United States, race and accusations of police brutality continue to be closely linked, and the phenomenon has sparked a string of race riots over the years. Especially notable among these incidents was the uprising caused by the arrest and beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991, by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. The atmosphere was particularly volatile because the brutality had been videotaped by a civilian and widely broadcast afterward. When the four law enforcement officers charged with assault and other violations were acquitted, the 1992 Los Angeles Riots broke out.

Anti-war demonstrations

During the Vietnam War, anti-war demonstrations were sometimes quelled through the use of billy clubs and tear gas. One notorious assault took place during the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Some rogue police officers took off their badges, in order to escape identification, and brutally assaulted protesters. Journalists were assaulted inside the convention hall.^[55] The actions of the police were later described as a "police riot" in the Walker Report to the U.S. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.^[56] On May 15, 1969, police opened fire on protesters in People's Park in Berkeley, California, which resulted in serious injuries for some protesters.^[57] The 1970 Kent State shootings of 13 university students by the National Guard have been described as the culmination of such violent confrontations.^[58]

War on drugs

In June 1971, President Richard M. Nixon declared a War on Drugs. This new "war" brought in stricter policing and criminal laws, including no-knock warrants and mandatory sentencing. As was the case with Prohibition, the War on Drugs was marked by increased police misconduct. War on drugs policing—notably stop and frisk and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams—contributed to police brutality, especially targeting minority communities.^[59] Years later, Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, explained: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people... We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either... but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news."^[60] Throughout a series of court cases, the 4th amendment has been interpreted in differing ways. Terry v. Ohio ruled frisks constitutional if the police officer had "reasonable suspicion". As time progressed, frisks have become more similar to arrests. Stop and frisk used to not involve any handcuffs, weapons, or arrest, now they do. War on drugs has increased the amount of power police officers have.^[61][62]

The war on drugs has been seen as responsible for police misconduct towards African-Americans and Latinos. While white people and African-Americans both use and sell drugs at roughly similar rates, African-Americans are over six times as likely to be incarcerated for drug-related charges, according to 2015 data.^[63][53] Specifically, the use of stop and frisk tactics by police have targeted African-Americans and Latinos. In looking at data from New York in the early 2000s up to 2014, people who had committed no offense made up 82% to 90% of those who were stopped and frisked. Of those people stopped, only 9% to 12% were white. People who were stopped felt that they had experienced psychological violence, and the police sometimes used insults against them. Stop and frisk tactics caused people to experience anxiety about leaving their homes, due to fears of police harassment and abuse.^[59]

With the militarization of the police, SWAT teams have been used more frequently in drug possession situations.^[15] SWAT teams can be armed with weapons like diversionary grenades. In cases where SWAT teams were used, only 35% of the time were drugs found in peoples' homes. African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately the targets of these raids,^[59] and according to the ACLU, "Sending a heavily armed team of officers to perform 'normal' police work can dangerously escalate situations that need never have involved violence."^[64]

Post 9/11

Protest against police brutality in New York City, December 2014

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, human rights observers raised concerns about increased police brutality in the U.S. An extensive report prepared for the United Nations Human Rights Committee, published in 2006, stated that in the U.S. the War on Terror "created a generalized climate of impunity for law enforcement officers, and contributed to the erosion of what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control over law enforcement agencies. As a result, police brutality and abuse persist unabated and undeterred across the country."^[65] The culture of impunity for police is reinforced by law enforcement operations with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which undertakes "disruption" actions against suspects instead of investigations and criminal charges. During the "war on terror," there have been noted increases in enforcement power for officers. By 2007, discussion on the appropriateness of using racial profiling and force against people of color has decreased since 9/11.^[65] Racial profiling specifically increased for those of South Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim origins.^[65] An example of increased use of police use of force has been in the use of tasers. From 2001 to 2007, at least 150 deaths were attributed to tasers and many injuries occurred. People of color have been the main people who have been targeted the most with regards to increased taser use.^[65]

A decision by the House and the Senate in Hawaii was expected in May 2014 after police agreed in March 2014 not to oppose the revision of a law that was implemented in the 1970s, allowing undercover police officers to engage in sexual relations with sex workers during the course of investigations. (A similar program in the United Kingdom resulted in physical and emotional abuse of victims, and children born without fathers when the undercover operation ended; see UK undercover policing relationships scandal). Following initial protest from supporters of the legislation, all objections were retracted on March 25, 2014. A Honolulu police spokeswoman informed Time magazine that, at the time of the court's decision, no reports had been made in regard to the abuse of the exemption by police, while a Hawaiian senator stated to journalists: "I suppose that in retrospect the police probably feel somewhat embarrassed about this whole situation." However, the Pacifica Alliance to Stop Slavery and other advocates affirmed their knowledge of police brutality in this area and explained that the fear of retribution is the main deterrent for sex workers who seek to report offending officers. At a Hawaiian Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, also in March 2014, an attorney testified that his client was raped three times by Hawaiian police before prostitution was cited as the reason for her subsequent arrest.^[66]

Recent incidents

The prevalence of police brutality in the United States is not comprehensively documented, and the statistics on police brutality are much less available. The few statistics that exist include a 2006 Department of Justice report, which showed that out of 26,556 citizen complaints made in 2002 about excessive use of police force among large U.S. agencies (representing 5% of agencies and 59% of officers), about 2,000 were found to have merit.^[67]

Other studies have shown that most police brutality goes unreported. In 1982, the federal government funded a "Police Services Study," in which over 12,000 randomly selected civilians were interviewed in three metropolitan areas. The study found that 13.6 percent of those surveyed claimed to have had cause to complain about police service (including verbal abuse, discourtesy and physical abuse) in the previous year. Yet only 30 percent of those filed formal complaints.^[68] A 1998 Human Rights Watch report stated that in all 14 precincts it examined, the process of filing a complaint was "unnecessarily difficult and often intimidating."^[69]

Statistics on the use of physical force by law enforcement are available. For example, an extensive U.S. Department of Justice report on police use of force released in 2001 indicated that in 1999, "approximately 422,000 people 16 years old and older were estimated to have had contact with police in which force or the threat of force was used."^[70] Research shows that measures of the presence of black and Hispanic people and majority/minority income inequality are related positively to average annual civil rights criminal complaints.^[71]

Police brutality can be associated with racial profiling. Differences in race, religion, politics, or socioeconomic status often exist between police and the citizenry. Some police officers may view the population (or a particular subset thereof) as generally deserving of punishment. Portions of the population may perceive the police to be oppressors. In addition, there is a perception that victims of police brutality often belong to relatively powerless groups, such as minorities, the disabled, and the poor.^[72] According to a 2015 and 2016 project by The Guardian, more white people are killed by police in raw numbers than black people are, but after adjusting this finding based on the fact that the black population is smaller than the white population, twice as many black people are killed by police per capita than white people are.^[73][74] A 2019 study showed that people of color face a higher likelihood of being killed by police than white men and women do, that risk peaks in young adulthood, and men of color face a nontrivial lifetime risk of being killed by police.^[75][76]

Race was suspected to play a role in the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. Brown was an unarmed 18-year-old African American who was shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The predominately black city erupted after the shooting. Riots following the shooting generated much debate about the treatment of African-Americans by law enforcement.

A 2006 Human Rights Watch report revealed that five state prison systems permit the use of aggressive, unmuzzled dogs on prisoners as part of cell removal procedures.^[77]

On 23 August 2020, a Black man in Kenosha, identified as Jacob Blake, was shot by police multiple times in the back. He was shot in front of his three young sons and suffered critical injuries. Later, he was reported by Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump to be in stable condition but remained in an intensive care unit. The shooting came as demonstrators continued to decry police violence in the American cities.^[78] It was later determined that Kenosha police officers were responding to a domestic violence call concerning Blake made by his girlfriend, and at the time of the shooting, “Blake was armed with a knife and had resisted arrest despite multiple Taser shots” and commands by police to drop the weapon.^[79][80] In a report published on January 5, 2021, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley declined to issue criminal charges against the three officers involved in the shooting, concluding that their “use of force… was justified, in keeping with Wisconsin Law, in keeping with the Kenosha Police Department’s use of force training and policy, and widely accepted law enforcement use of force standards.”^[80]

Kisela v. Hughes

In May 2010, police responded to a call of a woman, Amy Hughes, erratically hacking a tree with a large kitchen knife. Hughes began advancing on a civilian, later identified to be Hughes' roommate. Officer Kisela decided to fire four shots toward Hughes and she was later treated for non-life-threatening injuries. It was later discovered that Hughes had a history of mental illness. Hughes filed a lawsuit against Officer Kisela, claiming excessive use of force and a violation of her Fourth Amendment right. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the officer, stating that the officer had probable cause to believe that the suspect posed a serious threat to the public and to other officers. The Court ruled that Officer Kisela is entitled to immunity.^[81]

Water protectors

Water protectors have faced police brutality at the hands of militarized law enforcement. Notable cases include the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2016 when the Morton County sheriff's department (supplemented by officers from six states) attacked hundreds of water protectors with concussion grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons in sub-freezing temperatures.^[82] They subjected water protectors to strip searches after arrest.^[83] Energy Transfer Partners (the pipeline company) also employed a private security firm who used attack dogs and pepper spray against water protectors who were attempting to defend sacred burial sites from being bulldozed. Several water protectors were treated for dog bites. Police observed but did not intervene.^[84][85]

At the Stop Line 3 pipeline protests in Minnesota, militarized police have subjected water protectors to pepper spray and rubber bullets during a series of arrests, and protesters who've been jailed have reported mistreatment from officers such as lack of proper food, solitary confinement, and denial of medications. Over 600 people were arrested between January and August 2021.^[86] Enbridge (the pipeline company) enables increased police militarization by funding an escrow account that law enforcement uses to buy equipment and to train and pay officers. Enbridge had paid $2 million to law enforcement agencies through escrow by August 2021.^[87]

George Floyd protests

A memorial for George Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer

George Floyd protests in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 30, 2020

Protesters in Minneapolis on 26 May 2020, the day after the murder of George Floyd

In May 2020, the issue of police brutality saw a surge in public response following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Related protests occurred nationwide and internationally beginning in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 26, 2020. In 2016, Tony Timpa was killed in the same way in Dallas. These protests were attended by thousands of people across the United States and had a worldwide impact on the outlook of police brutality.^[88]

#SayHerName movement

The campaign #SayHerName was created in December 2014 by Kimberlé Crenshaw. This movement was brought about to raise awareness for the victims of police brutality that were black women.^[89][90] The #SayHerName movement is a social movement inside the Black Lives Matter movement. As Crenshaw told NPR, "Say Her Name is trying to raise awareness by insisting that we say their names because if we can say their names we can know more about their stories."^[90]

The name of Breonna Taylor was part of the Say Her Name movement. Taylor was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2020. Police officers forced entry into her apartment, and Taylor was shot six times after her boyfriend Kenneth Walker shot officer Jonathan Mattingly. Breonna Taylor's death lead to worldwide protests and outrage.^[91][90]

Discover more about History related topics

Slave patrol

Slave patrol

Slave patrols—also known as patrollers, patterrollers, pattyrollers or paddy rollers—were organized groups of armed men who monitored and enforced discipline upon slaves in the antebellum U.S. southern states. The slave patrols' function was to police slaves, especially those who escaped or were viewed as defiant. They also formed river patrols to prevent escape by boat.

Slavery in the United States

Slavery in the United States

The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was established throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during early colonial days, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.

Fugitive slaves in the United States

Fugitive slaves in the United States

In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called freedom seekers to avoid implying that the enslaved person had committed a crime and that the slaveholder was the injured party.

Slave rebellion

Slave rebellion

A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by enslaved people, as a way of fighting for their freedom. Rebellions of enslaved people have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery or have practiced slavery in the past. A desire for freedom and the dream of successful rebellion is often the greatest object of song, art, and culture amongst the enslaved population. Many of the events, however, are often violently opposed and suppressed by slaveholders.

Indentured servitude

Indentured servitude

Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, or it may be imposed as a judicial punishment. Historically, it has been used to pay for apprenticeships, typically when an apprentice agreed to work for free for a master tradesman to learn a trade. Later it was also used as a way for a person to pay the cost of transportation to colonies in the Americas.

American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

Reconstruction era

Reconstruction era

The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloody Civil War, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and to counteract the political, social, and economic legacies of slavery.

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Catholics, as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, atheists, and abortion providers.

Black Codes (United States)

Black Codes (United States)

The Black Codes, sometimes called the Black Laws, were laws which governed the conduct of African Americans. In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free colored persons of African blood; and in no part of the country do the latter, in point of fact, participate equally with the whites, in the exercise of civil and political rights." Although Black Codes existed before the Civil War and although many Northern states had them, it was the Democrat-led Southern U.S. states that codified such laws in everyday practice. The best known of these laws were passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War, in order to restrict African Americans' freedom, and in order to compel them to work for either low or no wages.

Mexico

Mexico

Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico covers 1,972,550 km2, making it the world's 13th-largest country by area; with a population of over 126 million, it is the 10th-most-populous country and has the most Spanish-speakers. Mexico is organized as a federal republic comprising 31 states and Mexico City, its capital. Other major urban areas include Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León.

Republic of Texas

Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840, and the United States of America, although Mexico considered it a rebellious province during its entire existence despite the Treaties of Velasco of May 1836. It was bordered by Mexico to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, the two U.S. states of Louisiana and Arkansas to the east and northeast, and United States territories encompassing parts of the current U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico to the north and west. The Anglo residents of the area and of the republic became known as Texians.

Mexico–United States border

Mexico–United States border

The Mexico–United States border is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from urban areas to deserts. The Mexico–United States border is the most frequently crossed border in the world, with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. It is the tenth-longest border between two countries in the world.

In the United States, investigation of cases of police brutality has often been left to internal police commissions and/or district attorneys (DAs). Internal police commissions have often been criticized for a lack of accountability and for bias favoring officers, as they frequently declare upon review that the officer(s) acted within the department's rules, or according to their training. For instance, an April 2007 study of the Chicago Police Department found that out of more than 10,000 police abuse complaints filed between 2002 and 2003, only 19 (0.19%) resulted in meaningful disciplinary action. The study charges that the police department's oversight body allows officers with "criminal tendencies to operate with impunity," and argues that the Chicago Police Department should not be allowed to police itself.^[92]

Investigations can be conducted by civilian complaint review board (CCRB), which act as an independent agency that can investigate, conduct hearings, and make recommendations in response to complaints of police brutality.^[93] However, only 19% of large municipal police forces have a CCRB, such as the Civilian Complaint Review Board (New York City), Civilian Office of Police Accountability (Chicago), Citizen Police Review Board (Pittsburgh), and Police Review Commission (Berkeley).^[94] Law enforcement jurisdictions that have a CCRB have an excessive force complaint rate against their officers of 11.9% verses 6.6% complaint rate for those without a CCRB. Of those forces without a CCRB, only 8% of the complaints were sustained.^[95] Thus, for the year 2002, the rate at which police brutality complaints were sustained was 0.53% for the larger police municipalities nationwide.

The ability of district attorneys to investigate police brutality has also been called into question, as DAs depend on help from police departments to bring cases to trial. It was only in the 1990s that serious efforts began to transcend the difficulties of dealing with systemic patterns of police misconduct.

Logo on T-shirts sold at Daytona Beach Police Department headquarters in Florida, cited in a lawsuit against the DBPD alleging police brutality, is said to show the DBPD condones violence.^[96][97]

Beyond police departments and DAs, mechanisms of government oversight have gradually evolved. The Rodney King case triggered the creation of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, in 1991. The commission, mandated to investigate the practices of the LAPD, uncovered disturbing patterns of misconduct and abuse, but the reforms it recommended were put on hold. Meanwhile, media reports revealed a frustration in dealing with systemic abuse in other jurisdictions as well, such as New York and Pittsburgh. Selwyn Raab of The New York Times wrote about how the "Blue Code of Silence among police officers helped to conceal even the most outrageous examples of misconduct."^[98]

Within this climate, the police misconduct provision of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was created, which authorized the Attorney General to "file lawsuits seeking court orders to reform police departments engaging in a pattern or practice of violating citizens' federal rights."^[99] As of January 31, 2003, the Department of Justice had used this provision to negotiate reforms in twelve jurisdictions across the U.S. (Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, Steubenville Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Los Angeles Police Department, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, Highland Park, Illinois Police Department, Cincinnati Police Department, Columbus Police Department, Buffalo Police Department, Mount Prospect, Illinois Police Department, Seattle Police Department, and the Montgomery County, Maryland Police Department).^[100]

Data obtained by the Associated Press in 2016 showed a racial disparity in officers' use of stun guns.^[101]

On 15 May 2020, Amnesty International suggested that American authorities should avoid repressive measures that unduly restrict human rights in the name of "protecting" people from COVID-19. The videos verified by researchers and Amnesty's Crisis Evidence Lab claimed the use of detention as a first resort; excessive and unnecessary use of force in the enforcement of COVID-19 lockdowns; and the imposition of mandatory quarantines in inhumane conditions.^[102]

On 22 June 2020, the University of Chicago reported that the police departments in the 20 largest American cities were failing to meet even the most basic international human rights standards governing the use of lethal force. The study revealed that America's biggest police forces lack legality, as they are not answerable to human rights compliant laws authorizing the use of lethal force.^[103]

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District attorney

District attorney

In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, state attorney or solicitor is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a local government area, typically a county or a group of counties. The exact name and scope of the office varies by state. Alternative titles for the office include county attorney, solicitor, or county prosecutor. Generally the prosecutor represents the people of the jurisdiction and in many states their authority stems from the state constitution. Unlike similar roles in other common law judicial systems, these are appointed through partisan political processes, and their holders usually have an allegiance to a political party or faction, rather than being held by a career civil servant appointed on merit in an independent process.

Chicago Police Department

Chicago Police Department

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind the New York City Police Department. CPD currently has 11,710 sworn officers on duty, and over 1,925 other employees. Tracing its roots back to the year of 1835, the Chicago Police Department is one of the oldest modern police departments in the world.

Civilian Complaint Review Board

Civilian Complaint Review Board

The NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is the oversight agency of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the United States. A board of the Government of New York City, the CCRB is tasked with investigating, mediating and prosecuting complaints of misconduct on the part of the NYPD. Its regulations are compiled in Title 38-A of the New York City Rules.

Daytona Beach Police Department

Daytona Beach Police Department

The Daytona Beach Police Department (DBPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for Daytona Beach, Florida. There are 241 sworn full-time police officers, 105 sworn part-time officers and 81 civilians on the force which is headed by Jakari Young who serves as Chief.

Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico; Alabama to the northwest; Georgia to the north; the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean to the east; and the Straits of Florida and Cuba to the south. It is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. With a population exceeding 21 million, it is the third-most populous state in the nation as of 2020. It spans 65,758 square miles (170,310 km2), ranking 22nd in area among the 50 states. The Miami metropolitan area, anchored by the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, is the state's largest metropolitan area with a population of 6.138 million, and the state's most-populous city is Jacksonville with a population of 949,611. Florida's other major population centers include Tampa Bay, Orlando, Cape Coral, and the state capital of Tallahassee.

Rodney King

Rodney King

Rodney Glen King was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving while intoxicated on the I-210. An uninvolved individual, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor.

Christopher Commission

Christopher Commission

The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, was formed by then-mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley in April 1991, in the wake of the Rodney King beating.

Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 9,974 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

Pittsburgh Police

Pittsburgh Police

The Pittsburgh Police (PBP), officially the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, is the largest law enforcement agency in Western Pennsylvania and the third largest in Pennsylvania. The modern force of salaried and professional officers was founded in 1857 but dates back to the night watchmen beginning in 1794, and the subsequent day patrols in the early 19th century, in the then borough of Pittsburgh. By 1952 the Bureau had a strength of 1,400 sworn officers in July 1985, 1,200 and by November 1989, 1,040.

New Jersey State Police

New Jersey State Police

The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) is the official state police force of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a general-powers police agency with statewide jurisdiction, designated by troop sectors.

Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia

Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia

The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC), more commonly known as the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the DC Police, and, colloquially, the DCPD, is the primary law enforcement agency for the District of Columbia, in the United States. With approximately 3,400 officers and 600 civilian staff, it is the sixth-largest municipal police department in the United States. The department serves an area of 68 square miles (180 km2) and a population of over 700,000 people. Established on August 6, 1861, the MPD is one of the oldest police departments in the United States. The MPD headquarters is at the Henry J. Daly Building, located on Indiana Avenue in Judiciary Square across the street from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The department's mission is to "safeguard the District of Columbia and protect its residents and visitors with the highest regard for the sanctity of human life". The MPD's regulations are compiled in title 5, chapter 1 of the District of Columbia Code.

Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park is a suburban city located in the southeastern part of Lake County, Illinois, United States, about 25 miles (40 km) north of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,176. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Numerous doctrines, such as federalism, separation of powers, causation, deference, discretion, and burden of proof have been cited as partial explanations for the judiciaries' fragmented pursuit of police misconduct. However, there is also evidence that courts cannot or choose not to see systemic patterns in police brutality.^[104] Other factors that have been cited as encouraging police brutality include institutionalized systems of police training, management, and culture; a criminal-justice system that discourages prosecutors from pursuing police misconduct vigorously; a political system that responds more readily to police than to the residents of inner-city and minority communities; and a political culture that fears crime and values tough policing more than it values due process for all its citizens.^[105] Around 1998, it was believed that without substantial social change, the control of police deviance was improbable at best.^[106]

Legal protections

Police officers often still hold significant advantages in legal proceedings and in courts. Records of officer performance and misconduct are sometimes hidden from public view through laws, such as 50-a in New York (repealed in 2020).^[107][108] The law of qualified immunity often shields police officers from prosecution, since it only permits lawsuits against government officials when they have violated a "clearly established" constitutional or statutory right.^[109] When cases of police are investigated for crimes, the collection of evidence is typically conducted by police officers, including witness statements, and police may have been the only witnesses. Prosecutors tend to have a close working relationship with police officers, which creates another conflict of interest, and they are often reluctant to aggressively pursue cases against law enforcement.^[2] Furthermore, courts tend to sympathize with police officers over civilians, who are often viewed as the "good party" in the case.^[110] In 2015, The Washington Post reported that 54 officers had been charged with fatally shooting someone while on duty over the preceding decade. In the 35 cases that had been resolved, a total of 21 officers were acquitted or their charges were dropped.^[111]

Police unions

There is a direction on or around correlation between rates of police union membership and number of people killed by police.^[112] Collective bargaining rights introduced by police unions from the 1950s onward (which are negotiated largely in secret) led to a substantial increase of police killings and other abuses especially towards people from racial minorities.^[113][114] Unions have negotiated labor contracts that stop law enforcement agencies firing officers after egregious acts of misconduct.^[115] A University of Oxford study of the 100 largest US cities found that increased protections for officers directly correlated with increased levels of violence and other abuses against citizens by police officers.^[114] A study by the University of Chicago found that after deputies gained collective bargaining rights in Florida sheriff's offices incidents of violent misconduct increased by around 40%.^{[116][113][117]} Researchers at the University of Victoria also found a 40% increase of killing when collective bargaining rights we enacted, with the overwhelming majority of people being killed being non white, the authors of the study described unions as "protection of the right to discriminate".^[112] A systemic pattern of "serious violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal law," was found by a Justice Department investigation of Baltimore's police department.^[114] A Minneapolis councilperson described the Minneapolis Police Union as a "protection racket".^[118]

Blue wall of silence

Police departments in the United States typically follow an unofficial cultural code, known as the "blue wall of silence." This can also be referred to as the "curtain of silence", "cocoon of silence", "blue code", or "blue shield." According to this rule, police officers do not report misconduct or abuse committed by other officers, and they will not step in when their colleagues are engaging in illegal or abusive behavior. This is because police officers typically consider themselves as part of a larger "brotherhood" or family among other officers.^{[119][120][121][122]} However, when neglected, officers are influenced to further speak out against the police officer that made the offense. On the other hand, if an officer does decide to speak out against another police officer, that same police officer may be subjected to harassment and in some cases, be ostracized.^[123] The Blue Wall of Silence is ultimately held together by fear of exile, and when the police force is often treated as a "brotherhood," speaking against "brothers" gives a perceived reality of betrayal and infidelity. This perception often steers officers away from breaking The Wall, leading into a spiral that ends in the wall remaining amidst.^[124][123]

Racial profiling

Police brutality can be associated with racial profiling. Differences in race, religion, politics, ability, or socioeconomic status sometimes exist between police and the citizenry.^[125] For example, in 2016, about 27% of sworn in police officers were people of color.^[126] The leadership of police department and police unions tend to be primarily white, as well.^[127] Meanwhile, police officers often work in non-white communities.^[128] Portions of the population may perceive the police to be oppressors.^[125] In addition, there is a perception that victims of police brutality often belong to relatively powerless groups, such as racial or cultural minorities, the disabled, and the poor.^[72]

Beginning in the 1960s, police departments began to offer cultural sensitivity and diversity trainings.^[129] However, these trainings are generally found to be ineffective and removed from the everyday reality of policing.^[2]

Since the 1970s, police departments have increasingly hired more non-white officers, following a court order to diversify police departments.^[128] The percentage of non-white officers doubled (14% to 27%) between 1987 and 2016.^[126] However, according to studies, there is no evidence that non-white officers are less aggressive to non-white civilians.^[126] Furthermore, there is no correlation between non-white officers and lower rates of police brutality or community satisfaction with policing. For example, police forces in New York and Philadelphia have comparatively diverse police forces, but they have been criticized for their aggressive tactics and racial profiling. This is explained by the fact that police department priorities are set by politicians^[2] and the larger systematic issues of police culture and racism are still prevalent.^[126]

Militarization of police

Police brutality is often linked to the "warrior mentality" and militarization of police departments.^[2] Under this system, new recruits enter police academies, where they may be instructed in a manner similar to paramilitary training^[130] or what is called a "warrior training." Some police academies even employ independent training companies, such as Close Quarters Battle, which has trained the United States Marine Corps, Navy Seals, and the special forces of other countries.^[2] These trainings focus on fear and defensive tactics, rather than community interaction and outreach. The recruits will focus on learning how to kill and aggressively manage crisis situations, as well as engaging in drill formations and standing at attention.^[130] Recruits will learn that any situation, including seemingly routine ones (such as traffic stops) can turn deadly, and they receive minimal training in how to manage complex social situations.^[2] As noted by Rosa Brooks, "Many police recruits enter the academy as idealists, but this kind of training turns them into cynics."^[130]

Once they are trained and working, police often think of crime as a war, in which they are "warriors," and some people are their enemies.^[131][2] The police are provided with military equipment, such as tanks, and some work in militarized units, such as Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. Their equipment partially comes from the Department of Defense, due to the 1033 program. Established in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, the program allows the DoD to give law enforcement their excess equipment (local authorities only pay for shipping costs), with an estimated $7.4 billion of property transferred since the program began.^[132] Furthermore, an estimated 19% of police officers are military veterans,^[133] documenting a "revolving door" between the military and the police, a phenomenon also found among FBI agents.^[134] Police who have been exposed to war have more than a 50% higher rate of excessive force complaints than non-veterans, according to internal Boston PD documents.^[135]

Broken windows theory

Since the 1980s, police departments have adopted the broken windows theory, as advocated by criminologists like George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson. This theory posits that signs of disorder or decay in neighborhoods (such as broken windows, graffiti, loitering, drug use, prostitution, etc.) create an impression that the area is neglected, thereby leading to further chaos and crime. Therefore, if police departments directly respond to smaller neighborhood issues, they can help prevent larger issues.^{[136][137][138]} By the 1990s, police departments had increasingly adopted this philosophy, and they adopted policing methods inspired by it, such as stop-and-frisk in New York City (adopted in 2001).^[136] Police departments were empowered to intervene in civilian life and act as moral authorities. Meanwhile, the problems associated with poor living standards were blamed on civilians, rather than political or economic forces. Consequently, police were given the ability to increase arrests, aggressive policing, and harassment of civilians, which further contributed to police brutality and racial profiling.^[2]

Threat hypothesis

Academic theories such as the threat hypothesis and the community violence hypothesis have been used to explain police brutality. The threat hypothesis implies that "police use force in direct response to a perceived threat from racial and/or economic groups viewed as threatening to the existing social order."^[139] According to the community violence hypothesis, "police use force in direct response to levels of violence in the community."^[139] This theory explains that force is used to control groups that threaten the community or police themselves with violence. This theory is applied mostly to shield non minorities from competition, fear, and perceived inconveniences. This is usually exercised on a minority, usually of African descent, without evidence or reasonable doubt. The strain minorities feel, weaken their mental health and discourages them.^[140] This ultimately caters to a white community as they no longer must worry about an African potentially winning over their economic position.^[141] Additionally, Threat Hypothesis also enables a "safer" environment for whites, as whites generally don't feel safe when around people of color. Usually, when around people of color, whites tend to police them. This makes the environment unsafe for nonwhites.^[142]

This style of policing is a less grotesque way of wrongly punishing people of color, the far more intense example would be the act of lynching, which would display a person of color be murdered and tortured in front of an audience.^[143]

Police dogs

A 2020 investigation coordinated by the Marshall Project found evidence of widespread deployment of police dogs in the U.S. as disproportionate force and disproportionately against people of color. A series of 13 linked reports, found more than 150 cases from 2015 to 2020 of K-9 officers improperly using dogs as weapons to catch, bite and injure people.^[144] The rate of police K-9 bites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a majority-Black city of 220,000 residents, averages more than double that of the next-ranked city, Indianapolis, and nearly one-third of the police dog bites are inflicted on teenage men, most of whom are Black. medical researchers found that police dog attacks are "more like shark attacks than nips from a family pet” due to the aggressive training police dogs undergo. Many people bitten were not violent and were not suspected of crimes. Police officers are often shielded from liability, and federal civil rights laws don’t typically cover bystanders who are bitten by mistake. Even when victims can bring cases, lawyers say they struggle because jurors tend to love police dogs.^[145]

Discover more about Causes related topics

Federalism

Federalism

Federalism is a combined and compound mode of government that combines a general government with regional governments in a single political system, dividing the powers between the two. Federalism in the modern era was first adopted in the unions of states during the Old Swiss Confederacy.

Separation of powers

Separation of powers

Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into "branches", each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typical division into three branches of government, sometimes called the trias politica model, includes a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. It can be contrasted with the fusion of powers in parliamentary and semi-presidential systems where there can be overlap in membership and functions between different branches, especially the executive and legislative. In most non-authoritarian jurisdictions, however, the judiciary almost never overlaps with the other branches, whether powers in the jurisdiction are separated or fused.

Prosecutor

Prosecutor

A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.

Due process

Due process

Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law.

50-a

50-a

New York Civil Rights Law § 50-a was a section of the New York Civil Rights Law, enacted in 1976, which required the concealment of disciplinary records of police officers, firefighters, and prison officers from the public. Under the former law, any "personnel records” were “confidential and not subject to inspection or review," unless the officer granted permission for their release.

New York (state)

New York (state)

New York, often called New York state to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City, is a state in the Northeastern United States. With 20.2 million people enumerated at the 2020 United States census, its highest decennial count ever, it is the fourth-most populous state in the United States as of 2021, approximately 44% of the state's population lives in New York City, including 25% in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens; and 15% of the state's population is on the remainder of Long Island, the most populous island in the United States. With a total area of 54,556 square miles (141,300 km2), New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state by area. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to its east; it shares a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island; and an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to its north and Ontario to its northwest.

Police unions in the United States

Police unions in the United States

Police unions in the United States include a large number and patchwork variety of organizations. Of those unions which conduct labor negotiations on behalf of its police members, 80% are independent and have no affiliation to any larger organized labor groups. There were a reported 800,000 sworn officers in the United States as of 2017, and an estimated 75-80% of them belonged to a union.

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.

Blue wall of silence

Blue wall of silence

The blue wall of silence, also blue code and blue shield, are terms used to denote the supposed informal code of silence among police officers in the United States not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes, especially as related to police brutality in the United States. If questioned about an incident of alleged misconduct involving another officer, while following the code, the officer being questioned would perjure themselves by feigning ignorance of another officer's wrongdoing.

Racial profiling in the United States

Racial profiling in the United States

Racial profiling by law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels, leads to discrimination against people in the African American, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino, Arab, and Muslim communities of the United States. Examples of racial profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations, or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband. Besides such disproportionate searching of African Americans, and members of other minority groups, other examples of racial profiling by law enforcement in the U.S. include the targeting of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the investigation of illegal immigration; and the focus on Middle Eastern and South Asians present in the country in screenings for ties to Islamic terrorism. These suspicions may be held on the basis of belief that members of a target racial group commit crimes at a higher rate than that of other racial groups.

Race and crime in the United States

Race and crime in the United States

In the United States, the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century. Crime rates vary significantly between racial groups. Academic research indicates that the over-representation of some racial minorities in the criminal justice system can in part be explained by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, exposure to poor neighborhoods, poor access to public and early education, and exposure to harmful chemicals and pollution. Racial housing segregation has also been linked to racial disparities in crime rates, as Blacks have historically and to the present been prevented from moving into prosperous low-crime areas through actions of the government and private actors. Various explanations within criminology have been proposed for racial disparities in crime rates, including conflict theory, strain theory, general strain theory, social disorganization theory, macrostructural opportunity theory, social control theory, and subcultural theory.

Racial profiling

Racial profiling

Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involves discrimination against minority populations and often builds on negative stereotypes of the targeted demographic. Racial profiling can involve disproportionate stop searches, traffic stops, and the use of surveillance technology for facial identification.

Body cameras

Many policies have been offered for how to prevent police brutality. One proposed solution is body worn cameras. The theory of using body cameras is that police officers will be less likely to commit misconduct if they understand that their actions are being recorded.^[146] The United States Department of Justice under Obama's administration supplied $20 million for body cameras to be implemented in police departments.^[147] During a case study attempting to test the effects that body cameras had on police actions, researchers found evidence that suggested that police used less force with civilians when they had body cameras.^[146]

Police are supposed to have the cameras on from the time they receive a call of an incident to when the entire encounter is over.^[148] However, there is controversy regarding police using the equipment properly.^[149] The issue regarding an officer's ability to turn on and off the record button is if the police officer is trustworthy. In 2017, Baltimore Police Officer Richard A. Pinheiro Jr. was caught planting evidence. The officer did not realize 30 seconds of footage was available even before switching the camera on.^[150] To solve this problem, it has been proposed to record police officers' entire shift and not allowing access for police officers to turn on and off the record button. This can cause technical and cost issues due to the large amount of data the camera would accumulate, for which various solutions have been proposed.^{[151][152][153][154]}

Another possible issue that can occur is the public's inability to access the body camera footage.^{[155][156][157]}

According to a survey done by Vocativ in 2014, "41 cities use body cams on some of their officers, 25 have plans to implement body cams and 30 cities do not use or plan to use cams at this time."^[149] There are other issues that can occur from the use of body cameras as well. This includes downloading and maintenance of the data which can be expensive. There is also some worry that if video testimony becomes more relied upon in court cases, not having video evidence from body cameras would decrease the likelihood that the court system believes credible testimony from police officers and witnesses^[146]

Civilian review boards

Civilian review boards have been proposed as another solution to decreasing police brutality. Benefits of civilian review boards can include making sure police are doing their jobs and increasing the relationship the police have with the public.^[158] Civilian review boards have gotten criticism though. They can be staffed with police who can weaken the effectiveness of the boards. Some boards do not have the authority to order investigations into police departments. They can also lack the funding to be an effective tool.^[158] The origins of the Civilian Review Boards date back as far as 1950, when "18 organizations formed the "Permanent Coordination Committee on Police and Minority Groups" to lobby the city to deal with police misconduct in general."^[159] Due to the political climate of the time, the Civilians Boards were used as a false solution to help the public feel as if they were heard. Unbeknownst to the public, the Civilian Review Boards would ultimately house Officers among its staff, decreasing the effectiveness.^[159]

Lawsuits and qualified immunity

Excessive use of force is a tort, and police officers may be held liable for damages should they take unconstitutional actions.^[160] The ability to sue in federal court was first introduced as a remedy for police brutality and misconduct in 1871 during the Reconstruction era as the Third Enforcement Act. The act allowed plaintiffs to sue directly in federal courts which were important as it allowed plaintiffs to bypass state courts during the Jim Crow era. The theory behind this solution to police brutality is that by taking the civil action to a federal court level, the case will be heard fairly and the financial judgments are intended to have a deterrent effect on future police misconduct in that department.^[161]

Since 1967, this remedy has been restricted by Supreme Court precedents through qualified immunity which grants police officers immunity from lawsuits unless their actions violated "clearly established" law.^[162] In practice, most jurisdictions rely on court precedent to define clearly established law, so to be successful plaintiffs often must show that a previous court case found the particular act at hand unlawful.^{[163]: 45–4} For example, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted immunity to an officer who shot a 14-year-old who dropped a BB gun as he raised his hands, because unlike a 2011 case where an officer was held liable for shooting a man who lowered a shotgun, the boy had pulled the BB gun from his waistband.^[164][165] This is often a stringent requirement, and in a majority of cases since 2005, police officer have been granted immunity for their actions.^[164] Lawsuits are sometimes successful, however. For example, in a 2001 settlement, New York City was required to pay a plaintiff $7.125 million in damages and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was required to pay $1.625 million. At that time, it was the most money the city had ever paid to settle a police brutality lawsuit and is considered the first time that a police union has paid a claim to settle a brutality suit.^[166]

Redirecting funds to other departments (defund the police)

Marchers holding "Defund The Police" during George Floyd protests, June 5, 2020

After the murder of George Floyd, there have been widespread calls to defund the police.^[167][168] The idea behind this is that money is diverted from policing to the areas needed to prevent crime, for example, housing, employment, welfare, etc.^[167] There have been calls for this since society has seen a lack of reform in policing around police brutality and discrimination.

Police abolition

The police abolition movement is a political movement that advocates replacing policing with other systems of public safety.^[169] Police abolitionists believe that policing, as a system, is inherently flawed and cannot be reformed—a view that rejects the ideology of police reformists.^[170][171] While reformists seek to address the ways in which policing occurs, abolitionists seek to transform policing altogether through a process of disbanding, disempowering, and disarming the police.^[172] Abolitionists argue that the institution of policing is deeply rooted in a history of white supremacy and settler colonialism and that it is inseparable from a pre-existing racial capitalist order, and thus believe a reformist approach to policing will always fail.^{[173][174][175][170]}

Police abolition is a process that requires communities to create alternatives to policing. This process involves the deconstruction of the preconceived understandings of policing and resisting co-option by reformists. It also involves engaging in and supporting practices that reduce police power and legitimacy, such as defunding the police.^{[172][176][177]}

New York anti-restraint law

Protesters holding "We Can't Breathe" during Eric Garner protests, December 7, 2014

On June 8, 2020, both houses of the New York state assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which makes it so any police officer in the state of New York who injures or kills somebody through the use of "a chokehold or similar restraint" can be charged with a Class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.^[178] New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the "long overdue" police reforms into law on June 12, 2020.^[179][178]

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Open access

Open access

Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. Under some models of open access publishing, barriers to copying or reuse are also reduced or removed by applying an open license for copyright.

Civilian police oversight agency

Civilian police oversight agency

A civilian police oversight agency, also known as citizen review board or civilian review board, is a body of civilians that is tasked with reviewing and improving police conduct.

Qualified immunity

Qualified immunity

In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known". It is a form of sovereign immunity less strict than absolute immunity that is intended to protect officials who "make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions", extending to "all [officials] but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law". Qualified immunity applies only to government officials in civil litigation, and does not protect the government itself from suits arising from officials' actions.

Tort

Tort

A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable by the state. While criminal law aims to punish individuals who commit crimes, tort law aims to compensate individuals who suffer harm as a result of the actions of others. Some wrongful acts, such as assault and battery, can result in both a civil lawsuit and a criminal prosecution in countries where the civil and criminal legal systems are separate. Tort law may also be contrasted with contract law, which provides civil remedies after breach of a duty that arises from a contract. Obligations in both tort and criminal law are more fundamental and are imposed regardless of whether the parties have a contract.

Reconstruction era

Reconstruction era

The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloody Civil War, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and to counteract the political, social, and economic legacies of slavery.

Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York

Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) is the largest police union representing police officers of the New York City Police Department. It represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers.

Defund the police

Defund the police

"Defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing social issues, like poverty, homelessness, and mental disorders. Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment, community health, education, and other programs.

Murder of George Floyd

Murder of George Floyd

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that Floyd made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head prior to Floyd being put in handcuffs. A fourth police officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from intervening.

Police abolition movement

Police abolition movement

The police abolition movement is a political movement, mostly active in the United States, that advocates replacing policing with other systems of public safety. Police abolitionists believe that policing, as a system, is inherently flawed and cannot be reformed—a view that rejects the ideology of police reformists. While reformists seek to address the ways in which policing occurs, abolitionists seek to transform policing altogether through a process of disbanding, disempowering, and disarming the police. Abolitionists argue that the institution of policing is deeply rooted in a history of white supremacy and settler colonialism and that it is inseparable from a pre-existing racial capitalist order, and thus believe a reformist approach to policing will always fail.

Political movement

Political movement

A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances, and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.

Police

Police

The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

Police reform in the United States

Police reform in the United States

Police reform in the United States is an ongoing left-wing political movement that seeks to reform systems of law enforcement throughout the United States. Many goals of the police reform movement center on police accountability. Specific goals may include: lowering the criminal intent standard, limiting or abolishing qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, sensitivity training, conflict prevention and mediation training, updating legal frameworks, and granting administrative subpoena power to the U.S. Department of Justice for "pattern or practice" investigations into police misconduct and police brutality.

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Police brutality is the misuse of power by the police force to intentionally harm individuals. The excessive force imposed by police officers has increased^[180] over the past decade and caused social misinterpretations of the role that police officers play in the community.

In 2015, the percentage of people who have confidence in the police hit its lowest since 1993 at 52 percent.^[181] Of this 52 percent, Democrats saw the biggest drop in confidence. Democrats' confidence in police dropped to 42% from 2017 to 2018 compared with 2012–2013, a larger change than for any other subgroup. Over the same period, Independents' (51%) and Republicans' (69%) confidence in the police has not changed.^[181] The number of black people that trust the police in 2017–2018 averaged 30 percent, well below the national average of 53% and much lower than for any other subgroup.

Firearms usage

Individual state statutes and police department policies generally say that police officers are legally allowed to shoot in the instance that they feel the need to protect their lives or an innocent life or to prevent the suspect from escaping and posing a dangerous threat to bystanders in society. The Supreme Court Decision of Tennessee v. Garner made it possible to shoot a fleeing suspect only if they may cause harm to innocent people to prevent officers from shooting every suspect that tries to escape.

Stereotypes

Lorie Fridell, Associate Professor of Criminology at University of South Florida, states that "racial profiling was the number one issue facing police [in the 1990s]", which led her to two conclusions: "bias in policing was not just a few officers in a few departments and, overwhelmingly, the police in this country are well-intentioned." According to a Department of Justice report, "Officers, like the rest of us, have an implicit bias linking blacks to crime. So the black crime implicit bias might be implicated in some of the use of deadly force against African-Americans in our country".^[182]

A 2014 experiment conducted on white undergraduate female students showed that there was a higher degree of fear of racial minorities. The paper concluded that people with a higher fear of racial minorities and dehumanization had "a lower threshold for shooting Black relative to White and East Asian targets".^[183]

Protest march in response to the Jamar Clark shooting, Minneapolis, Minnesota

High-profile police deaths of black men like Eric Garner in New York City, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore have increased distrust in the black community towards the police. High-profile police killings have led to the creation of social organizations, such as the Black Lives Matter movement founded in 2013.

While the Justice Department reported that Cleveland police officers used "excessive deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons; unnecessary, excessive, and retaliatory force, including Tasers, chemical sprays, and their fists" on the victim, there was no real repercussions from their actions.^[184]

Black Americans and the US police

In a report released concerning the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Justice Department admitted to the Ferguson's police department's pattern of racial bias. The department argued that it is typically an effort to ticket as many low-income black residents as possible in an attempt to raise local budget revenue through fines and court fees. The Justice Department explained police encounters could get downright abusive when the person being questioned by the police officers becomes disrespectful or challenges their authority.

The Department of Justice also released a statement that confronted police officers' susceptibility to implicit bias: One of the things they looked at was "threat perception failure", where an officer may believe that the person was armed and it turned out not to be the case. These failures were observed to occur more frequently when the suspect was black.

Statistics

Data released by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011) showed that from 2003 to 2009 at least 4,813 people died while being arrested by local police. Of the deaths classified as law enforcement homicides, there were 2,876 deaths; of those, 1,643 or 57.1% of the deaths were "people of color".^[185][186]

According to the police violence tracking website fatalencounters.org showed the records of over 29,000 people were killed in police interactions across the US since 2000.^[187] In 2016, police killed 574 White Americans, 266 African Americans, 183 Hispanics, 24 Native Americans, and 21 Asians. However, for every million in population, police killed 10.13 Native Americans, 6.66 African Americans, 3.23 Hispanics, 2.9 White Americans, and 1.17 Asians.^[73]

According to the 2020 Police Violence Report, 1,126 people were killed by police, of which in 16 cases police officers were charged with a crime. 620 of the deaths began with police officers responding to reports of non-violent offenses or no crime. 81 people killed by the police were unarmed.^[188]

Sam Sinyangwe, founder of the Mapping Police Violence project, stated in 2015 that "black people are three times more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people. More unarmed black people were killed by police than unarmed white people last year, even though only 14% of the population are black people."^[182] According to the Mapping Police Violence project, in 2019, there were only 27 days where police in the United States didn't kill someone.^[189]

Critics of police brutality also note that sometimes this abuse of force or power can extend to police officer civilian life as well. For example, critics note that women in around 40% of police officer families have experienced domestic violence^[190] and that police officers are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at a rate of more than six times higher than concealed carry weapon (CCW) permit holders.^[191]

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Police brutality

Police brutality

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, asphyxiation, beatings, shootings, improper takedowns, and unwarranted use of tasers.

Tennessee v. Garner

Tennessee v. Garner

Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), is a civil case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that, under the Fourth Amendment, when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, the officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless "the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others."

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. The movement and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes considered to be related to black liberation. While there are specific organizations that label themselves simply as "Black Lives Matter," such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the overall movement is a decentralized network of people and organizations with no formal hierarchy. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself remains untrademarked by any group. Despite being characterized by some as a violent movement, the overwhelming majority of its public demonstrations have been peaceful.

Shooting of Michael Brown

Shooting of Michael Brown

On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson, Missouri

Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 census, the population was 18,527.

Law enforcement

Law enforcement

Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term encompasses police, courts, and corrections. These three components may operate independently of each other or collectively, through the use of record sharing and mutual cooperation.

White Americans

White Americans

White Americans are Americans who identify as white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. According to the 2020 census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented a national white demographic decline from a 72.4% share of the U.S.'s population in 2010.

African Americans

African Americans

African Americans are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslaved Africans who are from the United States.

Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino regardless of ancestry. As of 2020, the Census Bureau estimated that there were almost 65.3 million Hispanics and Latinos living in the United States and its territories.

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States. There are 574 federally recognized tribes living within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. As defined by the United States Census, "Native Americans" are Indigenous tribes that are originally from the contiguous United States, along with Alaska Natives. Indigenous peoples of the United States who are not listed as American Indian or Alaska Native include Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, and Chamorros. The US Census groups these peoples as "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders".

Concealed carry

Concealed carry

Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon, either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's presence from surrounding observers. In the United States, the opposite of concealed carry is called open carry.

Protest march in response to the Philando Castile shooting, St. Paul, Minnesota, July 7, 2016

Minneapolis high school students protesting the shooting of Michael Brown on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge

A 2001 publication noted that local media rarely reported scandals involving out-of-town police unless events made it onto a network videotape.^[192] According to a 2002 analysis, there is often a dramatic increase in unfavorable attitudes toward the police in the wake of highly publicized events such as the Rampart scandal in the late 1990s and the killings of Amadou Diallo (February 1999) and Patrick Dorismond (March 2000) in New York City.^[193] A 1997 study found that when viewers are shown footage of police arrests, they may be more likely to perceive the police conduct as brutal if the arresting officers are Caucasian.^[194]

Public opinion polls following the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the 1992 killing of Malice Green in Detroit indicate that the incidents appear to have had their greatest effect on specific perceptions of the way local police treat black people, and markedly less effect on broader perceptions of the extent of discrimination against them.^[195]

To draw attention to the issue of police brutality in America, multiple basketball players for the NBA, including Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, wore shirts labeled "I Can't Breathe," referring to the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York City Police Department on July 17, 2014.^[196] Concerned African-Americans also started a movement referred to as "Black Lives Matter" to try to help people understand how police are affecting African-American lives, initially prompted by the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, and further sparked by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014.^[197][198] In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback then playing for the San Francisco 49ers, started a protest movement by refusing to stand for the national anthem at the start of games,^[199][200] receiving widespread support and widespread condemnation, including from President Donald Trump.^[201]

In May and June 2020, support for the Black Lives Matter movement surged among Americans as a result of the protests and unrest that broke out across the United States following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A tracking poll by Civiqs found that, for the first time ever, more white Americans supported the Black Lives Matter movement than opposed it.^[202] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned police violence against African American communities and called for racial justice while speaking at George Floyd's funeral service.^[203][204]

While many celebrities have joined in on the "Black Lives Matter" campaign, many of the initiatives occurring in communities across the country are led by local members of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. The purpose of this network is to demand change at the local level and stop unfair punishment or brutality towards Black communities.^[205]

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Hennepin Avenue Bridge

Hennepin Avenue Bridge

The Hennepin Avenue Bridge is the structure that carries Hennepin County State Aid Highway 52, Hennepin Avenue, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at Nicollet Island. Officially, it is the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, in honor of the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin, who was the first European to see the Saint Anthony Falls, a short distance downriver. Two of the three previous structures have been suspension bridges, while a third—which existed nearly a century—was composed of steel arch spans. The original crossing, which opened as a toll bridge on January 23, 1855, is believed to have been the first permanent span across the Mississippi at any point. Other bridges were completed in 1876, 1891, and most recently 1990. Today, the bridge's main span is 190 metres (620 ft) in length.

Rampart scandal

Rampart scandal

The Rampart scandal was a police corruption scandal which unfolded in Los Angeles, California, United States, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The scandal concerned widespread criminal activity within the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. More than 70 police officers either were initially implicated in various forms of misconduct, including unprovoked shootings and beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and cover-ups thereof.

Patrick Dorismond

Patrick Dorismond

Patrick Moses Dorismond was an American security guard and father of two children who was killed by undercover New York City Police Department officers during the early morning of March 16, 2000. He was the younger brother of Bigga Haitian.

Rodney King

Rodney King

Rodney Glen King was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving while intoxicated on the I-210. An uninvolved individual, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor.

Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.

Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Andrew Irving is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was named the Rookie of the Year after being selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. An eight-time All-Star and three-time member of the All-NBA Team, he won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.

LeBron James

LeBron James

LeBron Raymone James Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in history and is often compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time. James is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and ranks fourth in career assists. He has won four NBA championships, and has competed in 10 NBA Finals. He has four MVP awards, four Finals MVP awards, and two Olympic gold medals. He has been named an All-Star 19 times, selected to the All-NBA Team 18 times, to the All-Defensive Team six times, and was a runner-up for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice in his career.

I can't breathe

I can't breathe

"I can't breathe" is a slogan associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The phrase originates from the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City Police Officer. A number of other Black Americans, such as Javier Ambler, Manuel Ellis, Elijah McClain, and George Floyd, have said the same phrase prior to dying during similar law-enforcement encounters. According to a 2020 report by The New York Times, the phrase has been used by over 70 people who died in police custody.

New York City Police Department

New York City Police Department

The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, municipal police departments in the United States.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, among others. The movement and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes considered to be related to black liberation. While there are specific organizations that label themselves simply as "Black Lives Matter," such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the overall movement is a decentralized network of people and organizations with no formal hierarchy. The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself remains untrademarked by any group. Despite being characterized by some as a violent movement, the overwhelming majority of its public demonstrations have been peaceful.

Killing of Trayvon Martin

Killing of Trayvon Martin

On the evening of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American teenager.

Sanford, Florida

Sanford, Florida

Sanford is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. It is located in Central Florida and its population was 61,051 as of the 2020 census.

Responsibility for investigating police misconduct in the United States has mainly fallen on local and state governments. The federal government does investigate misconduct but only does so when local and state governments fail to look into cases of misconduct.^[206]

Laws intended to protect against police abuse of authority include the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects individuals against self-incrimination and being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process; the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishments; the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses; the Civil Rights Act of 1871; and the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Civil Rights Act has evolved into a key U.S. law in brutality cases. However, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 has been assessed as ultimately ineffective in deterring police brutality.^[207] The federal government can place charges on police officers who commit police misconduct. These prosecutions do not often occur as the federal government tends to defer to local and state governments for prosecution.^[206] The federal government also has the ability to investigate police departments if they are committing unlawful actions. When an investigation reveals violations by a police department, the Department of Justice can use §14141^[208] to file a lawsuit. Like other tools at their disposal, the federal government also rarely uses this statute.^[206] In a 1996 law journal article, it was argued that Judges often give police convicted of brutality light sentences on the grounds that they have already been punished by damage to their careers.^[209] A 1999 article attributed much of this difficulty in combating police brutality to the overwhelming power of the stories mainstream American culture tells about the encounters leading to police violence.^[210]

In 1978, surveys of police officers found that police brutality, along with sleeping on duty, was viewed as one of the most common and least likely to be reported forms of police deviance other than corruption.^[211]

In Tennessee v. Garner (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment prevents police from using deadly force on a fleeing suspect unless the police have good reason to believe that the suspect is a danger to others.^[212]

The Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor (1989) stated that the reasonableness of a police officer using force should be based on what the officer's viewpoint was when the crime occurred. Reasonableness should also factor in things like the suspect's threat level and if attempts were made to avoid being arrested.^[213]

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court introduced the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, originally with the rationale of protecting law enforcement officials from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in cases where they acted in good faith in an unclear legal situation.^[214][18] Starting in around 2005, courts increasingly applied this doctrine to cases involving the use of excessive force, eventually leading to widespread criticism that it "has become a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights" (as summarized in a 2020 Reuters report).^[18]

On May 25, 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would ban chokeholds and carotid restraints, adopt body camera policies, limit the use of no-knock warrants to certain circumstances, and adopt updated use-of-force standards that encourage de-escalation for all federal law enforcement agents.^[215][216]

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Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, it sets requirements for issuing warrants: warrants must be issued by a judge or magistrate, justified by probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution creates several constitutional rights, limiting governmental powers regarding both criminal procedure and civil matters. It was ratified, along with nine other articles, in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment applies to every level of the government, including the federal, state, and local levels, in regard to any "person". The Supreme Court furthered the protections of this amendment through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Due process

Due process

Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law.

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights. The amendment serves as a limitation upon the federal government to impose unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants before and after a conviction. This limitation applies equally to the price for obtaining pretrial release and the punishment for crime after conviction. The phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Cruel and unusual punishment

Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase in common law describing punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to the sanction. The precise definition varies by jurisdiction, but typically includes punishments that are arbitrary, unnecessary, overly severe compared to the crime, or not generally accepted in society.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Often considered as one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by the states of the defeated Confederacy, which were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress. The amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, forming the basis for landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) regarding racial segregation, Roe v. Wade (1973) regarding abortion, Bush v. Gore (2000) regarding the 2000 presidential election, and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) regarding same-sex marriage. The amendment limits the actions of all state and local officials, and also those acting on behalf of such officials.

Due Process Clause

Due Process Clause

A Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law.

Equal Protection Clause

Equal Protection Clause

The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It mandates that individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law.

Federal Tort Claims Act

Federal Tort Claims Act

The Federal Tort Claims Act ("FTCA") is a 1946 federal statute that permits private parties to sue the United States in a federal court for most torts committed by persons acting on behalf of the United States. Historically, citizens have not been able to sue their state—a doctrine referred to as sovereign immunity. The FTCA constitutes a limited waiver of sovereign immunity, permitting citizens to pursue some tort claims against the government. It was passed and enacted as a part of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.

Police corruption

Police corruption

Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. Internal police corruption is a challenge to public trust, cohesion of departmental policies, human rights and legal violations involving serious consequences. Police corruption can take many forms, such as bribery.

Graham v. Connor

Graham v. Connor

Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court determined that an objective reasonableness standard should apply to a civilian's claim that law enforcement officials used excessive force in the course of making an arrest, investigatory stop, or other "seizure" of his or her person.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician who is the 46th and current president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.

In July 2019, the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, premiered Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson′s opera Blue about African-American teenagers as an ′endangered species′; often falling victim to police brutality.^[217]

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Glimmerglass Festival

Glimmerglass Festival

The Glimmerglass Festival is an American opera company. Founded in 1975 by Peter Macris, the Glimmerglass Festival presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles (13 km) north of Cooperstown, New York, United States. The summer-only season usually consists of four productions performed in rotating repertory. Glimmerglass is well known for producing new, lesser-known, and rare works, many of which in years past have been co-produced with the New York City Opera. It is the second-largest summer opera festival in the United States, currently led by artistic and general director Robert Ainsley, who succeeded Francesca Zambello in 2022.

Cooperstown, New York

Cooperstown, New York

Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the Central New York Region, Cooperstown is approximately 60 miles southwest of Albany, 67 mi (108 km) southeast of Syracuse and 145 mi (233 km) northwest of New York City. The population of the village was 1,794 as of the 2020 census.

Jeanine Tesori

Jeanine Tesori

Jeanine Tesori is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway musicals and five Tony Award nominations. She won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center, the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for Caroline, or Change, and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Original Score for Fun Home, making them the first female writing team to win that award. She was named a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist twice for Fun Home and Soft Power.

Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson

Tazewell Thompson, is an African-American theatre director, the former artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse (2006–07) in Westport, Connecticut and the Syracuse Stage (1992–95) in New York state. Prior to that he was an assistant director at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He is the Director of Opera Studies at Manhattan School of Music.

Blue (opera)

Blue (opera)

Blue is an opera in two acts with music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Tazewell Thompson. It premiered at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2019 and received the Music Critics Association of North America 2020 Award for Best New Opera.