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Police Brutality

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Police Brutality
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The Power of the Badge: A Controversial Issue

Strong, courageous, heroic, all words that we hear and use to describe what comes to mind when we think of “Police Officers”. In elementary school, the most common phrase students would be asked was “what do you want to be when you grow up”, and the most common response would be “a police officer”; and now sadly, most are rethinking this occupational choice. The authority that most cops these days believe they have is over the top; they think that they can take advantage of everything and everybody simply by the power of their badge. Police officers need to have more discipline instead of using their supremacy for brutality; there can be many things done to prevent this prevalent issue of police officers ruthlessness and we need to start taking action now.
In our world today, police officers aren’t thought of as “heroes” anymore and that is a problem. Police officers are the people we rely on to keep us safe, people we can count on whenever there is an issue; but now fear may become a factor next time we are in danger and pick up the phone to call for help.
Various examples of police brutality have been appearing all over social media, becoming a bigger and bigger issue in our society. The serious problem here is that police officers have too much power; this power needs to be limited in order to get things back to the way they should be; fair. Minute crimes should have minute consequences; therefore there is no need for police to force such brutality on individuals that are innocent or just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, an old woman j-walking should not be struck by a Taser gun for such committing such a small crime; or a teen stealing a bag of chips at a convenient store should not be shot at an excessive amount of times or even at all. These examples may sound unreasonable, because they are; but events like this are true and do occur.
In Paul Pompa’s poem “Police



Cited: Barned Smith, John . "4 Teens Charge Police Brutality." Philly.com. N.p., 16 July 2009. Web. 1 Oct 2013. . "Law Enforcement Misconduct Statistics." Stop Police Brutality. N.p., 4 March 2013. Web. 7 Oct 2013. . MoreGovernmentLies. “Indianapolis "Officer of the Year" Attacks Man For Doing Nothing!” Online Video Clip. Youtube. Youtube, 2 August 2013. Web 1 October 2013. Pompa, Martinez Paul. “Police Dog”. American Mashup. Aaron Michael Morales. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2012. 342. Print. “Texas Manhandle”. American Mashup. Aaron Michael Morales. Upper Saddle River: Pearson 2012. 334-335. Print

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