Police Brutality in the United States

We are living in world of fear and uncertainty. Thecomplaints filed against police officers between 2002
advent of the 9/11 attack in the United States hasand 2004. However of the said cases of complaints,
created this fear and uncertainty. It has led toonly 18 led to meaningful disciplinary actions. Further
tougher laws, legislation and law enforcement toIn Milwaukee last year, Frank Jude and Lovell Harris
ensure that the life of every citizen in our land is notwere brutally beaten by three police officers who
put on the line.were not convicted. This led to public outrage in the
Today, we can see law enforcers ubiquitously. Wecity.
see police chiefs roaming around and checking allGoing back to Chicago, police brutality initiated by
corners of our cities to ensure that our feeling ofpolice officers has really become an issue of concern.
fear and uncertainty is allayed. In this scenario theyAccording to the University of Chicago report entitled
play their role as vanguard of the people."The Chicago Police Department's Broken System",
There are times, however, that this is not the case.police officers in Chicago received more police
Due to their exaggerated duty to ensure security asbrutality complaints per police officer than the national
an aftermath of 9/11, police officers tend to doaverage. It is not surprising that the Amnesty
everything to eliminate all crime plaguing the countryInternational used the high incidence rate of police
and the whole world as a whole. The other face ofbrutality in Chicago to discredit it as a possible host
the coin in this new attitude of the police however isof the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
police brutality. We often see cases of police brutalityPolice brutality is only one form of police misconduct.
on television nowadays. Statistics show that it hasThis is serious issue confronting not only Chicago but
risen in recent years.other cities in the United States. Although it is quite
According to the Department of Justice, caseshard to convict police officers for police brutality,
where police, prison guards and other law enforcersgetting a good and experience civil rights lawyer
have used excessive force to violate victim's civilmight be a key to a successful conviction or
rights have seen an increase over the last sevendisciplinary action for the culprits.
years. In Chicago alone there were more than 10,000