There has never been anything good about the use of excessive force by police officers, and law enforcement officials across the United States are fully aware of the disparaging effects these incidents have in our communities.
So how is it that another incident of alleged police brutality is able to surface in our local news as if this caustic phenomenon is some new and endearing trait of law enforcement?
And to make matters worse, the incident in question occurred back in 2006.
On the front page of the Friday, February the 13th edition of the Los Angeles Times, the headline read, “Inquiry into Hawthorne police beating questioned.”
The incident took place on July 21, 2006 in Hawthorne, CA, another city in our great nation that unfortunately has a wretched history of police misconduct. What is even more appalling about this incident is the fact that when it happened, we (the public) had no knowledge that the incident even occurred.
It gets scary for us as citizens when you couple this information with the fact that incidents of police brutality, as well as other forms of misconduct, occur on a daily basis, and most often times (because we don’t always understand what the police are doing), these incidents occur right under our noses.
This particular incident of police brutality has fortunately become an issue almost three years later because the City of Hawthorne (in late January 2009) had to pay the victim Anthony Goodrow the sum of $1 million dollars to settle his lawsuit against the police department for use of excessive force.
Experts who investigated the case, along with a review of the lawsuit by the Times, revealed that the initial investigator(s) from Internal Affairs not only failed to interview Goodrow, they also failed to interview the officers involved (one of which who was the police chief’s son) as well as a number of witnesses who were able to confirm that Goodrow was kicked in his face so hard during his arrest that his jaw was broken.
The officers involved were cleared of any wrong doing based solely on their written reports.
As far as the incident itself, Goodrow, 26 (race unstated), was attending a party with his girlfriend when the police arrived to investigate a noise complaint. Goodrow’s girlfriend protested that the officers had no right to enter the party, and officers responded by taking her into custody. Goodrow verbally protested his girlfriend’s arrest, and upon taking up a defensive stance, was grabbed by police officers, placed in a choke-hold, beaten, kicked, and placed under arrest for felony resisting.
There is not one person alive who would disagree with the fact that brutality and misconduct by police officers has to come to an end. Our government needs to be more aggressive in its approach to insure that law enforcement agencies have the necessary checks and balances in place to prevent injury and/or death from befalling any citizen as a result of police misconduct. Investigations into incidents of police brutality must be thorough, and stiffer penalties need to be put in place to punish those officers who are found in violation of departmental policies and/or laws as they pertain to police misconduct.
Most importantly, recruitment and training standards need to be structured so that prospective employees can gain a true sense of the actual sacrifice that has to be made when they choose to pursue a career in law enforcement.
For example, most recruitment ads for police officer tend to highlight the salary and other benefits of the position such as medical, retirement, etc. – and strategically placed in the background is a shiny, brand new police vehicle with flashing lights, flanked by two or more smiling, neatly dressed, uniformed police officers. This is usually followed by a job description that lists the qualifications, abilities, and working conditions for the position. Very little emphasis, if any, is placed on the fact that when a recruit becomes a police officer, he or she becomes a representative of the government – not of themselves. The laws they enforce are the laws of the government – not their laws.
Incidents of police brutality and misconduct usually occur when police officers take and make their job personal. It is the number one mistake that police officers make, and most people know that when someone takes a situation personal, the outcome is rarely favorable.
Police officers need to understand that when someone breaks the law, and later resist arrest through fighting or running from the scene, the person is not fighting or running away from you – the person is fighting and/or running away from what you represent - the law. With that being said – how can a police officer justify taking an incident personally and using excessive force to subdue a suspect, when the suspect most likely knows nothing personal about the officer, and is incapable of formulating anything against the officer on a personal level?
Answer – there is no justification.
If police departments spent more time during the introduction phase of recruitment for potential candidates highlighting this one crucial aspect of law enforcement, incidents of misconduct and brutality could be significantly reduced, and recruits could make better choices when it comes to deciding whether or not policing is the right profession for them.
Not to mention the amount of money that cities could retain for more viable community-based projects instead of paying out millions of dollars in lawsuits
No comments:
Post a Comment