Police Misconduct Essay

1. The context “When any sworn police officer violates the law or behaves in ways that discredit his or her position, this is police misconduct” (Champion). Officers withhold the power to use force when stopping a criminal. But the world seems to have all different ideas on what level of force the law may use to stop a criminal or get a confession out. The media has, in the past year or so, seen fit to broadcast the police officers who have expressed what they believe is misconduct. What the world does not seem to realize is that this type of conduct has been around for centuries, however for some reason today the media has seen fit to, just now, to broadcast this controversial issue for the whole world to read. And because of the Medias hype on this issue, innocent officers are getting publicity for an act of force that is not illegal. Now do not misunderstand, police brutality is illegal however the public cannot expect an officer of the law to capture a murder by being gentle; because that criminal is going to fight back. So
The Research
Heather Donald, “well-known media commentator and writer on homeland security and policing issues”. (Donald) states in her article “police are not racist”. She explains how morals come into play with officers when performing their job. She interviews black and white officers on the issues and get their thought on the matter. When presenting the information she also ties in politics to the issue at hand.
• I will use a quote from her article to back up my stance on the issue. To be specific I will use “If you're stopped, they said, it's for a reason—you fit a description or you've done something to raise an officer's suspicion, such as hitch up your waistband in a way that suggests a hidden gun. Statistics that tabulate officer-civilian interactions by race alone grossly distort the reality of policing” (Donald) to explain that officers are not pulling citizens over because of their race. They are just performing their