Essay Sample on Police Brutality: Aggressive Acts Causing Physical & Emotional Harm

Introduction

Aggressive acts are behaviours that involve the use of force, threats, and extortion by an individual or a group. These behaviours can cause physical and emotional harm to the victims or the families of the victims. Individuals or groups that take part in these acts aim to intimidate or demean others. News about aggressive actions has been circulating through the media platforms with the common one being police brutality in the United States. Several cases about extrajudicial killings in the US have been reported. Recently, Ryan Twyman, a 24-year-old father of three, was a victim of police brutality after he was murdered by Los Angeles sheriff (Fox 43, 2019).

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According to Fox 43 (2019), Ryan was shot dead at San Pedro in a parking lot on 6th June this year. It was alleged that a man had used Ryan's car as a weapon forcing deputies to fire several rounds of gunshots into his vehicle. The 24-year-old black man died instantly of multiple gunshot wounds. However, the Sheriff department did not find any weapon at the scene despite the murder. The department also failed to release description of crime Ryan committed, thus, garnering calls for justice as it joins cases of fatal shootings of unarmed black men at the hands of police (Fox 43, 2019).

The factors that contributed to the aggressive behavior in the Fox news report can be analysed using the General Aggressive Model (GAM). This model provides a comprehensive, integrative, and social-cognitive framework for understanding aggressive behaviours (DeWall, Anderson, & Bushman, 2018). According to DeWall et al., (2018), GAM considers the role of social, cognitive, developmental, personality, and biological factors on aggression. The model also indicates how different kinds of life experiences can promote aggressive nature. Using this model, social factors such as ethnicity and government policy influenced aggressive act by law enforcement explained in the news report.

Consistent narratives have emerged in political debates regarding extrajudicial killings of unarmed African-Americans. Several incidences of police targeting this ethnic group have occurred in the US. One of them is racial bias by American police forces to the extent that they devalue the lives of African-Americans. This scenario is true based on the history of racism in the US. The phenomenon has pushed for the establishment of the Black Lives Matter movement to encourage the press and the government to consider the issue of police brutality as a problem of racial injustice. For the case of Ryan, Fox 43 (2019) reported that the victim was unarmed, and no weapons were found at the crime scene. This leaves to the assumption that Ryan was one of the targeted African-Americans murdered in cold blood by law enforcement.

Regarding government policy, the lack of accountability in the police department triggered the killing of Ryan. It is worth noting that government policy does not require law enforcement to maintain a certain level of transparency in their community interaction (Kochel, 2019). That is why police officers may do something questionable, but fails to receive a reprimand for their actions. As a result, they choose brutal tactics to accomplish their tasks. In this situation, it can be stated that government policy promotes an aggressive personality.

One preventive measure that could have been employed to prevent the aggressive act was filing charges against the police officers who perpetrated the past killings of unarmed civilians in the US (Kochel, 2019). The charges could serve as a warning against police brutality and encourage the officers to use the right methods while dealing with suspects. Another preventing measure was to dismantle racism. The murder of unarmed African-Americans indicates racial issues in the police department that have not been addressed.

Conclusion

These issues create inequality in health, productivity, and well-being (Kochel, 2019). They ought to be resolved by advocating for criminal justice reform, banning racist policing, and supporting movements such as black lives matter. The third preventive measure that could have been employed was ending profiling. The Department of Justice could have established enforceable protections against profiling to stop police officers from intervening in the lives of civilians for no concrete reason apart from suspicion of their identity.

References

DeWall, C. N., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2018). The general aggression model: Theoretical extensions to violence. Psychology of Violence, 19(1), 75-80. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X17300830

Kochel, T. R. (2019). Explaining racial differences in Ferguson's impact on local residents' trust and perceived legitimacy: Policy implications for police. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 30(3), 374-405. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887403416684923

Fox 43 News. Retrieved 4th September 2019, from https://fox43.com/2019/06/15/fatal-shooting-of-unarmed-father-of-3-by-sheriffs-deputies-draws-outrage/