Unethical Police Operations

In the second part of Parenti’s book, Lockdown America, he discusses policing practices and their proactive strategies aimed at preventing disorder. In this section of the book, Parenti advances his argument by looking at crime through the eyes of law enforcement. Parenti looks at the policies of Bratton, the New York Police Commissioner. Bratton revamped the police force in the city, rewarded those that succeeded and were aggressive in doing their job and those that did not keep up with him were fired or put on the sidelines. His goals was to be efficient on every level, and being efficient meant enforcing the law even for minor offences.

Gaines, L., & Kappeler, V. (2011). Policing in America (7th ed., p. 194). Waltham: Anderson Publishing.

To compare to the Rodney King beating, a New York 22 year old resident born in West Africa, was shot at 42 times by four New York City uncover police officers. Unfortunately, 19 of those bullets hit Amadou Diallo killing him. Diallo was returning home in the Bronx, from his job in Manhattan. From his doorway the four police officers open fire when Diallo went to get his wallet out of his back pocket. The officers believed he was pulling out a gun. All four officers, who were in plainclothes, said they approached Mr. Diallo because they thought he fit the description of a man wanted in a rape case. The officers faced prosecution on second-degree murder and other charges but were acquitted by a jury in Albany. The trial had been moved because of concerns over pretrial publicity. (Buckley, 5)

Furthermore, " The problem of police misconduct was not an exception or an aberration; it was systematic, an old 'family secret' in the LAPD. (Gibbs 1996). To add insult to injury, the federal government still not introduce the issue of race when it stepped in after the riots and charged the four police officers with violating King's civil rights. It is also critically pointed out that two of the officers were acquitted in federal court, and the two that were convicted, only received very minimal sentences of 30 months imprisonment and a waiver of any fines. As well, In comparing these sentences to four Black men involved in the attack on white motorist Reginald Denny, we are able to see several startling differences.

When certain states in America reach a stage in which someone, typically a minority, has to fear the possibility that they might not leave with their life whenever they are pulled over or interrogated by a police officer, an issue with our police system is clear. When an officer in America charged with a crime of assault or murder has a miniscule chance of those charges being pressed, the problem is even clearer. This issue is significant police misconduct, especially in states such as Chicago, that calls for a reform in the police department’s code, recruiting, training, and procedure. The alarming amount of unchecked police transgressions has evidenced a primitive lack of value for human life in the U.S. that in some states, make simply

Which relates back to what you professor Satka said about how higher ranking officers tend to take the credit from patrolmen’s work due to their position in the hierarchy. From this scene also comes another form of police corruption, and that is police brutality. Serpico brings in one of the accomplices in the attempted rape and the detective takes him into the room and completely beats down on the kid and asks Serpico if he wants part of the fun. In other words the detective used excessive amount of force in order to lay down the law and to try to get the name of the other accomplices.

In Pasco, Washington, three police officers were being violated by Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a Mexican immigrant, who was supposedly throwing rocks at the officers. The officers eventually resulted in shooting the unarmed man and Zambrano ultimately died on the scene. The three officers involved in that case were eventually not charged but the state of Washington is planning to review the charging decisions of the officers. While the federal government is investigating Zambrano’s death, the county in which the incident happened is insisting on an inquest to restore the trust with the Pasco community. The governor of Washington said, “I want to ensure that people have confidence and trust in the decision that was made in this case” (The Associated Press). The account between Antonio Zambrano-Montes and the three police officers was caught on video through a cellphone and the video went viral. The video set off many protests in the city where the incident took place. But after the decision to not charge the officers, no protests took place. In Franklin county, where the shooting occurred, prosecutor Shawn Sant believes the three officers in the case acted “in good faith and without malice” and the people of the community are “not surprised by this decision, but are disgusted and disappointed” (The Associated Press). There are no statements give by the officers involved, Adrian Alaniz, Ryan

S., & Forst, L. S. (2016). An introduction to policing (8th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Cengage Learning.

Walker, S. (2008). The neglect of police unions: exploring one of the most important areas of American policing. Police Practice & Research, 9(2), 95-112.

Should Law Enforcement Officers Be Monitored More? I. Introduction In the past and recently, people have been either directly or indirectly affected by police brutality. This societal issue is apparent in many democratic societies around the globe to include the United States.

For years, we have considered any discussions of police misconduct as taboo. After all, these are the men and woman in which we, as citizens, give the responsibility of keeping us out of harms way. We all know it is present within law enforcement in some shape or form, but we ignore its relevance in the way our criminal justice system works. Assumptions of police misconduct and corruption have long been suppressed and silenced through false litigation and system betrayal. The silencing or ignorance of police misconduct acts a strengthening mechanism which those, who engage in this type of behaviour, use as a motivational tool. It is becoming a popular belief that

Recently the US Department of Justice revealed its findings following a request by current Baltimore City Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in light of the Freddie Gray incident. According to the Baltimore Sun, the results detail gross violations of the civil rights of Baltimore City residents by the Baltimore Police Department. The probe also indicated numerous unethical policing practices by the Baltimore Police Department that was targeted at specific city demographics.

The two topics that I decided to research are the Militarization of the police which was first presented in Chapter 1 (Module 1.2) and Diversity in Police Departments presented in Chapter 3 (Module 3.5) and Chapter 7 (Module 7.4 and 7.5). I chose these two topics because they are actively being discussed, many issues and questions are centered around how militarized the police have become and how they, the police officers, handle themselves and other civilians. Another issue that has been receiving a lot of attention is the misrepresentation of certain communities within the police force. Using my Ronald G. Burns textbook and the outside sources that I’ve found, I will do an in-depth analysis each topic.

The incident was recorded by several witnesses and was followed by several demonstrations both violent and peaceful. Grant, an African- American male in his 20’s, was on the train travelling to East Bay following New Year’s Eve celebrations. He was one of several men that were detained at the train’s platform as suspects that were involved in a fight that broke out on the train. The officers involved claimed that Grant was resisting arrest and allegedly reached for something in his waistband. Assuming that he was armed, the officer shot him only to find out later that Grant was not armed. The officer was charged with involuntary manslaughter, was sentenced to two years with credit for time served and has since been paroled. (Elias & Risling, 2010)

This case represents an opportunity for the people of The State of Simpsons to determine how they will approach police overreach in the future. Two wrongs don’t make a right; it would benefit Simpson society if all criminals were charged for their crimes. It would provide greater motivation for police to follow the law if they faced criminal charges instead of merely having the evidence they obtained in violation the law