Police Shooting
When issues of excessive use of force or police shooting affecting the police service. It can strain the bonds of connection between the police and community that they rely on to pass-on information, assistance and support. Such bonds are particular fragile especially when it concerns racial, class bias and gender comes into play. They have been efforts made in past to solve these problems such as diversity of the force to be an antidote of tension between the police departments and black communities. However, such remedies have failed due to a long history of distrust and a large cultural gap to repair. One such case the controversy surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown Ferguson County. The video tapped shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson County police officer drew worldwide attention and contributed to major riots that destroyed property and caused injuries. In recent decades, the misuse of police power and police corruption have made it a major issue of the public agenda. Even though such controversies have occurred in the past, only in the past decades has the public been keen on the problem of police misconduct and especially use of illegal of violence for law enforcement and other illegal activities that are associated with police corruption. Even though most police office do not engage in misconduct, it raises the question on how much the public can trust and control themselves. Majority of the people cooperate with the police. However, at certain times the use of force is required especially when making arrest, deal with drunkenness and disturbances. Therefore, police may be forced to use legitimate force to perform their duties. However, when it is excessive force it violates the rights of the individual. But what is termed as excessive force? This question is often debated by officers and experts. In cities where racial tension high, disputes between the police and the residents results in police officers acting in unprofessional manner. Therefore, residents find an excuses to describe what is termed as police brutality through the use of abusive language to physical force and violence. In addition, studies have shown that the shooting rates of American police apparently are associated with their external environment such as the community violence that threatens the officer safety and other internal variables such adequacy of training, administrative philosophies, police shooting policies and the intensity of police shooting reviews. Therefore, depending on the circumstances the police officer is faced him or she may be forced to use excessive force or even shoot as was the case with Michael Brown.
Historical Causes
The shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old student, by a police officer in Ferguson in Missouri revealed that they are mostly likely to be shot by police in American than any other developed country. According to data collected by the FBI 410 Americans were killed by the police – 409 were through the use of firearms. However, such a figure could be an underestimated since this data is limited to people shot while committing a crime. In comparison, the British police force actually fired a firearm three times in the same year. The number of people killed was zero. Even if by adjusting the size of the British population an American is 100 times likely to die of gun shot by an American police officer. From 2010 to date the police force in Albuquerque in New Mexico shot and killed 23 civilians more that Brits killed during the same period. The explanation of this problem is fairly simple. Britain has no gun problem and guns are rare. Police officers in Britain rarely carry firearms and only specialist firearms officers are registered to carry them and the criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a police officer was shot while on duty was in 2012, the annual number murders by shooting is less than 50. In addition, police shooting brings a lot controversies. The shooting of a known gangster Mark Duggan in 2011 resulted in riots across London that led to inquest into the matter. In contrast, it is hardly surprising that police officers result to the weapons in America. Thirty police officers were shot and killed in 2013- just a small percentage of the 9,000 murders caused by firearms each year. In addition to the racial strife and militarized police culture that’s why so many civilians are shot by police. Therefore, unless Americans reduce the number of firearms in its population and fix its deep seated social problems, shooting of civilians by police officers will continue justified or not.
Police Policy
While some shooting may be as a result of official or unofficial department policy. But all could be considered as part of the police officer dealing with extraordinary circumstance to deal with a war-like situation. In American, it the war on drugs or crime. The justification put forward by the police was the shooting was commensurate to the level of danger posed by criminals. In such cases errors may occur that results in the death of civilians therefore, count it as collateral damage in the war waged by the police against crime. In America, the official firearm policy it towards shoot “suspicious” black men act first and ask questions later. This is something that was tacitly accepted internally. In addition, departmental support due to the indirect reluctance to take discipline action against errant officers. When one expresses their opinion on issues of “excessive force” by the police one will criticized having rushed to judge as was the case with Bell shooting. (Haberman, 2008). Studies have shown that the police tend to use more force greater force against Blacks as against white suspects that could include the use of lethal force. However, America’s police aggressiveness, especially when dealing and searching black men is not based on racial profiling but based on appearances of possible suspects identified by witnesses or victims as was the explanation given by an officer in the Diallo case. However, such excessive force has a history of causing tension with the local communities and such as the Michael Brown, Bell and Diallo only aggravate tensions.
Conclusion
Police shootings in Britain and American by police officers offer a wide-range of differences in ethos, operational procedures, circumstances, firearm polices. Despite the several differences there where identifiable stands of similarities that show a common connection. First, there were allegation of mistaken identity or basic assumptions made by the police and they attempts by the police to protect the officer involved. Secondly, there where discrepancies in recorded statements giving the suspicion that the story was constructed in order to justify the shooting. However, majority of these discrepancies could be blamed on the stressful situation under which the officer was exposed to. Such cases were perceived to expose the officer to serotyping and prejudice that target minorities. Third, all
