Police Abuse of Power Have You Ever Been a Victim?

This kind of treatment is inhumane and should never be tolerated or accepted.

What is Police Brutality?

•Police Brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers.

• Widespread systematic police brutality exists in many countries and ours is no exception.

Forms of Police Brutality

Police misconduct in the form of brutality exists in many forms:

• False Arrest• Intimidation• Racial Profiling• Political Repression• Surveillance Abuse• Sexual Abuse• Police Corruption

What Causes This Injustice?

•Officers may have an agenda other than protecting and serving, I.E. race, religion, political view, or socio-economic status

•Gradual progression towards apathy and aggression

Police Brutality Statistics

• American police have killed more with bullets than have been killed in all the wars and terrorist attacks since Vietnam.

• American police have killed more people with bullets since 2000 than were killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Few of these killings have been resolved by a jury trial.

Famous Cases of Police Brutality

• Most recently a case in New Orleans where a man was beaten for no apparent reason. They kept telling him not to resist when he wasn’t.

http://74.52.1.82/videos1/051012-new-orleans-police-brutality-video.wmv

Famous Cases of Police Brutality

Officers Involved in Abner Louima the Abner Louima Case

Famous Cases of Police Brutality

• After a traffic stop on March 31, 1991, Rodney King was beaten and arrested by LAPD. Many believe it was a racially motivated incident. It eventually caused the LA riots and mass protests in 1992

How Did It Come To This?

• After interviewing ex-officers they said it was due to the miscreants they dealt with on a daily basis

• A single moment or a compilation of times may evoke this kind of behavior

• A general dislike of the Police by the majority of the population cause officers to become lets empathetic to people over the long run, causing abuses of power

How Did It Come To This?...continued

• Under-appreciation for serving and protecting the community builds a foundation for Police indifference

• When officers are too nice people take advantage of them and they are forced to resort back to being hostile

What Does Catholic Social Teaching Say?

• Vengeance, anger and selfishness are not the ways of the Church

• Against the theme of “Life and Dignity of the Human Person”

• Violates the “Rights and Responsibilities” theme

• CST shows us how to be better Catholics in this constantly changing world

• Police Brutality/Abuse of Power is perceived as a wrong against society as a whole

What Solutions Can We Implement?

• State, federal and local authorities should ensure that abuses including torture, brutality and other excessive force by police officers will not be tolerated and officers will be held accountable for their actions as well as brought to justice

• Police departments should be required to keep detailed records on the use of force and to report publicly at regular intervals, providing statistical data on shootings and other use of force, in-custody deaths and injuries

More Solutions

• All police departments should introduce training programs designed to minimize the risk of unnecessary force and death or injury in certain common situations, including vehicle pursuits and coping with mentally ill or disturbed individuals. Training programs should also include gender issues and sensitivity to minority groups

• State, local and federal authorities should establish effective, independent oversight bodies for their respective police agencies, with powers to investigate and review complaints against the police as well as broader policy issues and patterns of concern, and to issue detailed public reports

Solutions…continued

• Meetings in schools and community town halls• Guest Speakers• Videos• Pamphlets

• Talk about this issue in schools• Talk to children about this issue• Some children think that police officers have absolute control• Teach them examples of this abuse so they can report these issues

• Screenings for police officers• We feel that the community as a whole should know who is protecting

them• Make sure that the right people are doing the right job

• Awareness of Power• Police Department should hold meetings to show the police officers

what their duties and responsibilities • Police ethics and integrity training

• Video Cameras• In order to survey various neighborhoods that have had recurring

incidents of police brutality

Who Has The Power to Make Changes?

• People (through community organizations)

• State governments/Municipalities•District Attorneys•Mayor Bloomberg/Governor Pataki•Attorney General (Elliot Spitzer)

• Federal government•President Bush•Attorney General (Alberto Gonzales)

• Internal Police Commissions• Federal Bureau of Investigation