Writing Rhetoric and Digital Media 111-032

Justice System and Police Brutality

About the Issue
Police brutality, as we can all agree, is not a crime that should easily be looked over. Then how come we live today in a society in which so many cases of police brutality that lead to death have no indictment for the officers who commit the crimes? The view of hate crimes has grown stronger as the American society has become more and more pro equality. In the article “Justice System Advocacy: A Must for NASW and the Social Work Community” South African Supreme Court Justice, Ismail Mahomed stated that he described the division of America as being caused by the "brutality of slavery and the inhumanity of racism.”  Even if brutality isn’t a wide spread dilemma or has a solution of looking into the departments that this issue occurs at, there are still murderers walking free. Part of the reason is the trials that are held for these criminals. Factors such as the opinions of the justice system officials and citizens alike, the varying “justification” of brutality cases and the use of faulty evidence, testimony and the image of an individual officer or official of the justice system. These issues all lead to this belief that for most cases, officers are not responsible for the death of the victim involved. Clearly a change is needed for this standard where so many people are allowed to walk free.

Do Opinion's Matter?
An important factor affecting the view of police brutality is the differing views on what is appropriate action for an officer to take against a criminal. The opinions of not only citizens but also different factions of the justice system all differ on how much force should be used against criminals for police officers. Focusing on the justice system we see that according to Matthew Elicker in his opinion study called "Unlawful Justice: An Opinion Study On Police Use Of Force And How Views Change Based On Race And Occupation" he found that “lawyers and judges were more tolerant of police use of force than respondents in law enforcement occupations.” This alone shows that members not directly involved in law enforcement can view a brutality case as a justified means of conviction.

Michael Brown's Case
In the article “Ferguson shooting: Why hasn’t the police officer been arrested?” on Michael Brown’s shooting, Professor Charles Ogletree states “he shot and killed a man – shot him multiple times – and he’s walking free.”  Ogletree’s argument was based on the factor that even with all the evidence showing that Wilson fired his gun that day and that those shots did kill Michael Brown, he was able to leave that court of law free of charge. The lack of evidence shown in this case showed little bases on the idea of unlawful assault by the officer and therefore didn’t “prove” he wasn’t in self-defense justifying the non-indictment. There is no question as to why many reacted the way they did weather justified or not. This argument shows that there may need to be a change in the standards of the justice system and how cases are handled.
What this all mean?
Sadly for many cases of police brutality the claim of lack of evidence is called and allows for officers to be let free. Physical and testimonial evidence is always called to help improve chances on finding the truth. However both of these can have differing results depending on the interpretation of others. A lawyer’s job is to influence the case in their favor for the client they are defending. This means that all evidence can in some way play apart in both the conviction and the freedom of an officer on trial. Focusing on witness testimony it’s easy to see that it can be more harmful than helpful. So many witnesses are called into cases like Michael Brown all saying differing stories, many of which don’t match the main point being argued in that trial. In the case of Michael the primary story that could feasibly be heard was that Mr. Brown may or may not have assaulted the officer before the shots were fired. There were many Bias interpretations of the actual event and no one conclusion was drawn.

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Sources:

  • Elicker, Matthew K. "Unlawful Justice: An Opinion Study On Police Use Of Force And How Views Change Based On Race And Occupation."                             Sociological Viewpoints 24 (2008): 33-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Mar. 2015.
  • Lynch, Rufus Sylvester, and Jacquelyn Mitchell. "Justice System Advocacy: A Must For NASW And The Social Work Community." Social Work 40.1                     (1995): 9-12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.