Police Brutality results in the destruction of the communities trust. Police officers are the portrait of protectors and if they turn out to be the bad guys, then who would the public trust? Who would they turn to when they need help? The fundamental purpose of law enforcement is to serve and protect the individuals of society. Rough treatment is often times afflicted upon citizens as an alternative form of discipline. Most victims of police brutality are the poor and people of color. For example on August 9th at the 70th Precinct Station House in Brooklyn, two uniformed police officers tortured a Haitian immigrant named Abner Louima by driving the wooden handle of a toilet plunger into his rectum and puncturing his small intestine. They then placed the filthy plunger in his mouth. During the attack, the cops called Mr. Louima "a nigger" and threatened to kill him if he reported the incident. Most people are aware of the recent increase in police brutality and murder, either from personal experience or from those cases that make the news. Those few cases are reported by the media as individual incidents and are explained as the actions of "a few bad cops." If police brutality were the result of a few bad cops, who were seen as disloyal to their police ethic, the offenders would be prosecuted, or at least removed from the police force. So far, out of the dozens of documented police murders in New York City since 1977, only one officer has been convicted of homicide. Police abuse remains one of the most serious human rights violations of today. In the beating of Rodney King, the officers violated the federal constitutional rights of King by using unreasonable force in arresting him. King's rights are violated by the sergeant who willfully permitted the three other officers to unlawfully assault him, therefore depriving him of his right to be kept free from harm while in official custody as it states in the United States Constitution section 242 .
