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Jacoby Muhammad
Sarah Hughes
Writing to investigate a cause
12/10/15
Police Brutality
Who gives police the right to brutalize vulnerable people? In today's society, when you
bring up Police Brutality, most people refer to the popular slogan Black Lives Matter. There has
been many cases of police taking the lives of innocent black teens. Police brutality is the use of
excessive force by law enforcements. Some examples of Police brutality are the recent cases of
Laquan McDonald, Ferguson, Trayvon Martin etc.. Even though its a controversial topic, Police
brutality for a long period of time was not spoken about so widely rather than today. As the years
went by the topic became more of a priority for the media. Causing riots, marches, and protest.
Giving police the freedom of getting away with brutality allthemore gives them the thought of not
having justice. Police brutality should not be overlooked.
Police brutality is caused by misconduct of the victim. According to Think Progress, as
of July 1st, 2015 police have killed at least 550 people. 60 of which were ill or unarmed. What
causes these crime to constantly emerge is the fact that police officers are are not being held
accountable for their actions. An example of police brutalizing a victim is the case of Jason
Harrison. March 19,2015 officers john Rodgers and Andrew Hutchins were involved in the killing
of Jason Harrison.(39- year old schizophrenic man). Jason Harrison was shot 5 times for
approaching one of the officers with a screwdriver in his hand. In the video that Caused this
issue to go viral, in the background you can hear Harrison's mom pleading for the officers not to
hurt her son. "The police had been to the Harrison home a hundred times or more without
incident, as it was well-known in the home and community that Jason was nonviolent," the suit
says McLaughlin, CNN. These officers were never charged with the death of Jason Harrison . If

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nothing is done soon, more corruptions from riots and protest will become an even bigger
problem.
Other causes of police brutality is the personality trait of the officer. If an officer is an
asshole hell most likely use excessive force because of that trait he carries. There has been
many cases where police brutality was used because of a trait of the officer. The use of
excessive forces was used in the case of Eric Garner. The famous I Can't Breathe slogan.
Officers Justin Damico and Daniel Pantaleo were involved with the death of Eric Garner. July
17th, 2015 Eric Garner was brutalized and ganged upon by multiple cops. He was eventually
put in a chokehold with his last words being I can't breathe the physical trait of unnecessary
roughness was used during this arrest.
In conclusion, police brutality should not be overlooked so the Chicago Police
Departments are making officer's record while on duty as a solution to crack down on police
brutality. There is too much violence due to police. Many victims are not getting justice because
the police department aren't being held accountable for what their officers are doing. People
want change so making officers wear body cameras are a good solution to get rid of the
problem.