Breaking the Cycle of Police Brutality: Solutions for a Safer Society

Imagine yourself as an African American individual your walking down the street to your friends house. A police officer pulls up to the side of you and stops you, they begin pestering you with questions, they then tell you your under arrest. You begin to act frantic as your confused as to what's going on, the officer then draws his weapon and then boom. Your lifeless body lays on the ground, this is only one example of police brutality. In solutions to police brutality essay I will try to reveal this topic. 

Police brutality happens a lot here in America when will it ever end? I believe that we could stop police brutality if police officers went through more training and were taught on to react in certain situations. Situations were people are seen as not complying, resisting arrest, or whenever they appear suspicious . They also need to go over their procedures for how they handle these situations before, during, and after. If given the proper training police officers would be trusted, death numbers would drop, and more people would get justice for the deaths of loved ones, specifically the ones caused by police.

Police brutality happens everywhere, according to cop crisis there has been 2,393 Americans have been killed in the past two years by police officers. Sixteen from this year and it’s only March. A report from the Department of Justice said “84% of officers have “Witnessed fellow officers using more force than necessary”. Things like this are why people do not trust police officers. Police brutality causes people to lose trust in the one people we are supposed to trust. We are supposed to call them for help and not be afraid of what they could do to us. Especially those apart of the African American community, Patricia Timmons a mother of two told The Charlotte Observer how she watched as her husband gave her kids ‘the talk’. He asked them, “What would you boys do if the police stopped you and asked for your identification?” Her children replied with simple answers such as “I would just give it to him”. Her husband educated their children on the safest way to give it to them he said “No ,you wouldn’t. Instead you would inform the officer of the location, ask permission to get it, and very slowly obtain your license.” This was ‘the talk’ she was forced to give her sons. Trust plays a huge role in this, “Many African Americans perceive that our lives are not valued during interactions with law enforcements” Patricia Timmons told The Charlotte Observer. She is not wrong, african americans feel as if they can not trust police with their lives. They feel as if they are always a threat and are always seen as targets. She also said “The lack of trust impairs relationships with law enforcement and seen how challenging the. It is for law enforcement to serve and protect communities .” Which she is correct, with people not being able to trust police officers it makes it difficult for them to do their jobs. It’s understandable that in certain fields you work in your supposed to act a certain way, but when being a police officer they need to know how to deal with people. People who are panicking, sad, scared depressed and etc. They need to go to through training that helps with trust and need to interact more in their community. 

Police brutality kills lots of people, not only innocent people but it also kills cops. When people get fed up with police brutality they believe going out and killing cops will get the message across that it needs to stop. No, this isn't right meaning stopping police brutality would save so many people's lives. Take Trayvon Martin, he was killed by a member of the community watch named George Zimmerman. Zimmerman murdered Trayvon on February 26, 2012 because he appeared to be suspicious. If he was given proper training instead of shooting Trayvon he could have called the police and waited for them to arrive, they then could have followed protocol and Trayvon would be alive today. Zimmerman was given specific instructions to not follow Trayvon,but didn’t compile. In fact when he was on the phone with the dispatcher the dispatcher told Zimmerman “We don’t need you to do that.” When he told them he was following Trayvon. Zimmerman's at of violence was out of racism,he told the dispatcher that h e suspected Trayvon to be “up to no good” or either “on drugs”. No Zimmerman wasn’t a real cop but he was in away, and when they arrived at the scene of the crime Zimmerman wasn’t arrested immediately . It wasn’t until April 11 Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder, but he was eventually released on bail. 

Overall, such incidents easily could have been avoided if he was given more training. This is a situation where an individual was seen as suspicious, if police officers were given proper training they then could have given Zimmerman proper instructions and instructed him on what exactly to do.