Siyu Liu

Sociology 1
Professor Coleman
3/2/15
Police Brutality in America
An issue in the United States that is quickly gaining attention is the rising levels of police
brutality across the United States. Police brutality has always been a problem within this country
but has gotten more attention due to the controversial killings of young, black men such as Mike
Brown in Fergusson, Missouri. The issue of police brutality was also exemplified during the
ensuing protest when police officers were tear gassing peaceful protest and not allowing the
media the right to film the ensuing chaos that protestors and police were causing. Through a
conflict theorist point of view, it is easy to see that police use police brutality as a method to
control and suppress the lower classes and to promote social inequality in America.
One reason police brutality is harmful to society is that the police officers are never held
accountable for their actions. For example, if a police officer threatens or uses force against a
person it hardly ever gets investigated by their superiors. A whopping 99 percent of all
complaints regarding police brutality are left uninvestigated in central New Jersey, according to a
Courier News and Home News Tribune report published this week (huffingtonpost). This shows
that police officers are not held accountable for their acts because no one even bothers to
investigate the complaints. Furthermore, police brutality is allowed because the people that
investigate law enforcement officers are law enforcement officers themselves and this allows
them to cover each other up. This is called the blue wall of silence, which is a set of unwritten

rules were basically police officers will act ignorantly towards investigators to protect each other
and the badge. A recent example is the case of Marcus Jeter, a 30-year old man that was
wrongfully charged with eluding, resist and aggravated assault. After the initial investigation it
was determined that the police officers were in the wrong as they used unjustified force on
Marcus Peters and those two officers were both charged with tampering with public records and
false swearing. One officer, Orlando Trinidad was also charged with aggravated assault. The
mayor of the town then exposes the blue wall of silence through a statement. Like many of
you, I am outraged by the police dashboard video and the fact that these charges were initially
dismissed by our internal affairs division, Venezia said in the statement. I have contacted the
Essex County Prosecutors Office to request and investigation of our police departments internal
affairs division. (Augenstein). This shows that the blue wall of silence does exist and that
internal affair departments are not actually pursuing justice but are just looking out for their
police brothers. A conflict theorist would look at police brutality as a method that is used to
create social inequality. The fact that the citizen complaints are hardly investigated and that
police officers sometimes lie to cover themselves up shows that the rules and laws everyone in
society are supposed to follow do not apply to them.
Another way that police brutality causes conflict is that they are allowed to kill people
and get away with it. Another recent example, is the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed
African American. In this incident Michael Brown had a small struggle with a police officer and
then ran away but after hearing shots being fired at him, he turned around and put his hands up in
the air to surrender. Although Michael Brown surrender himself, he was still shot by Officer
Darren Wilson a multitude of times. Months later a grand jury decided that officer Wilson would
not face charges because the killing was justified in their eyes. (Reilly). The fact that the grand

jury declined to have any case brought fourth against officer Wilson shows that police brutality is
accepted across all levels of the criminal justice system. The grand jury allowing Officer Wilson
the ability to just walk free from murder or any manslaughter charge shows that police officers
do not have the same rights than the average American but that they in fact, have more rights
than anyone in this country. The fact that any police officer can justify their use of deadly force
and get away with it shows that there is social inequality between us average Americans and
those in power, such as police officers. Another fall-out effect of police being allowed to get
away with murder is that it causes social conflict. Immediately following the killing and days
after, there was massive demonstrations that turned into riots. These riots resulted in injuries for
hundreds of people, false imprisonments of innocent bystanders and the loss of businesses due to
fires. Due to the actions of one police officer, people lost their business and means of living.
Police brutality also creates social conflict in that police brutality is usually directed at
African Americans and other minority groups. The recent killings of unarmed African Americans
such as Eric Gardner and Michael Brown show that racial profiling by police officer does exist.
As a recent study by ProPublica shows, that young black males are 21 times more likely to be
shot by police than their white counterparts: The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to
2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per
million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police
(Wihbey). The data shows that police are targeting and killing young African Americans and
facing no consequences. Examining this data through a conflict theorist point of view, it is
possible to see that police brutality affects minorities the most. This is also shown in Los Angeles
where 590 homicides involved police officers in L.A. country during January 1st of 2000 and
August 31st of 2014 (Emamdjomeh). Of the 590 people killed during this time period 27% of the

people were black and 50% were Latinos (Emamdjomeh). The numbers show that people of race
are targeted and killed due to their skin color and status in society. It is becoming increasingly
evident that people of color are at a disadvantage and that the conflict between social classes is
shown through police brutality. I believe that the case of Eric Gardner shows this the best. Eric
Gardner was selling loose cigarettes as a means to make money but once the police found out
they tried to stop him and one police officer used a maneuver prohibited by his police department
and killed Eric Gardner. Yet, every now and then a story breaks about a CEO or another person
breaking tax laws and committing other white collar crimes yet those crimes are never
investigated and when they are they result in small slaps on the wrist. Police brutality shows that
small crimes committed by the lower class can result in the death while crimes committed by
powerful, rich people result in hardly any punishment because police are just another tool used
by the rich to maintain social inequality.
Police brutality is becoming a major problem in this nation because we the people allow
it to. We are not holding our politicians and leaders accountable for the actions of police
officers. We allow police officers to kill unarmed, sometimes innocent people and get away with
it. As citizens we must stop the conflict being produced by police officers by holding them
accountable for their crimes. I would rather see a person acquitted of charges than to see them
walk scot free of any charges at all. Police brutality is a great mirror of conflict theory because
all police brutality does is create conflict and social inequality. Police brutality usually focuses
on those of color or of lower class status. The actions by the police officers cause tensions and
conflict within the community and when the officers are not held accountable for their actions
innocent people are put in danger due to riots and a dangerous cycle of police brutality.
Works Cited Page

Augenstine, Seth. Bloomfield mayor alleges police cover up vows to purge police
department of bad officers. Nj.com. nj.com. 25 Feb 2014. Web. 2 Mar 2015.
Emamdjomeh, Armand. Fact-checking a chalk scrawl: How many people are killed by LAPD?
latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. 26. Nov 2014. Web. 2 Mar 2015.
Reilly, Ryan J. Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson Not Indicted In Michael Brown Dhooting.
Huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post. 24 Nov 2014. Web. 2 Mar 2015.
Wihbey, John. Excessive or reasonable force by police? Research on law enforcement and racial
conflict in the wake of Ferguson. Journalisticsresource.org. Harvard Kennedy School. 16 Feb
2015. Web. 2 Mar 2015.
99 Percent of Police Brutality Complaints Go Uninvestigated in Central New Jersey: Report
huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post. 7 Jan 2014. Web. 2 Mar 2015.