39! 40! 41! Amadou Diallo was walking out of apartment when he was stopped by 4 NYPD officers. When he went for his wallet to give his identification he was met with a hail of police gunfire exactly 41 gunshots, he died clinching his wallet. Charles E. Silberman, the director of the Study of Law and Justice, a ford research project, said "Most of all, the police are called into urgent situations because they and only they are empowered to use force to set manners right." But is the use of force always right. Every year 1000's of cases are reported of police officers using excessive force to solve a conflict. Now why can this be, are people just complaining of police conduct at a traffic stop or is there a serious problem with officers going above the law and using excessive and most times lethal force to uphold the law. I'm here to shine some light on this growing problem. First, I'll discuss the growing problem; second I'll talk about if race is still a factor, and finally discuss how it happens and how we can prevent it.
Throughout the years, police brutality has been an issue that has just been swept under the rug and people try to believe that it doesn't happen or that the proper authorities have already solved it. Tell that to the 66 year old women in Elizabeth, New Jersey whose face was smashed repeatedly with a baton by a drunken officer. Or how bout in Duniway, Oregon where police were caught giving a strip search to middle school girls aging only 12 to 14, during a theft investigation. But I guess those cases were just flukes and it doesn't happen everyday to everyday citizens, well wait until it happens to you. And it will unless someone stops it. The National Emergency Conference on Police Brutality and Misconduct of the Center of Constitutional Rights says that there is a 72% rise in reports of police brutality in the US between 1992 and 2000. Every year the numbers grow and with no one to regulate this problem when will it stop.
