Essay Sample on No More Police Brutality in Minneapolis

Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the U.S. However, brutality towards people of color has been a trend in the city's police department. There have been several complaints about the police law enforcement agency in the city. Most of the cases reported on brutality towards people of color have ended up without conclusive solutions. The recent police brutality incident that led to the death of George Floyd has led to protests and demonstrations across Minneapolis, America, and other parts of the world. The issue has posed a great threat to the peace and unity in the state and portrays Minneapolis and America as racist nation in the global realms. Police brutality towards people of color needs to be stopped to ensure all Americans enjoy their freedoms in line with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Three Possible Solutions

Creating very strict punishments for police officers involved in police brutality towards people of color. If police brutality towards people of color is classified as a capital offense, no police will attempt to be unnecessarily brutal to people of color.

Police brutality is defined as the officers' use of unnecessary and excessive force to enforce the law on civilians and suspects (Chaney and Robertson, 2018). Therefore, body cameras should be worn by police officers as this will record their actions. The cameras should be worn from the time the police receive a call of an incident to when the encounter will be over.

Changes should be made in the Minneapolis police department to include more top-ranking officers who are people of color.

Recommended Solution Rationale

With the current outcry by the public on the laxity to address police brutality by the Minneapolis state government, creation of legislation that would categorize police brutality towards American citizens as a capital offense would absolutely change the behaviour of the police department with regard to the use of unnecessary and excessive force to enforce the law on civilians and suspects. Police are trained and have the ability to use other non-brutal methods to arrest civilians and suspects (Fridkin, Wintersieck, Courey, and Thompson, 2017). If police brutality is categorized as a capital offense with an over 20 years imprisonment term, then it is expected that police officers will shy away from handling civilians and suspects with unnecessary and excessive force.

The use of body cameras to record all actions at the operation scene should be mandatory cases where police officers turn off the cameras while on duty should be considered as an offense. The information collected by the police body camera should be used as evidence when cases of police brutality are received. According to Worden (2015), the cameras will enhance police transparency in their actions when they deal with civilians and suspects.

Changing the composition of the entire Minneapolis State police department to include over 50 percent of people of color shall enhance the inclusivity of people of color in police. If elements of racism existed in the police force, then including more people of color in the police will minimize the notion of racism.

Benefits of the Solution Implementation

Classifying police brutality as a capital offense will minimize police misconduct, and reported brutality cases would reduce. Wearing of body cameras will minimize the commitment to police misconduct. The court systems will also have reliable and credible sources of evidence in cases related to police misconduct. Stereotyping will also be minimized in the police department if over 50 percent of the police are people of color.

Conclusion

Finding solutions to police brutality calls for collaboration from different stakeholders. The police department should be willing to accommodate new legislation and policy reforms from activists, civil rights movements, the public, and advocates.

References

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2018). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.

Fridkin, K., Wintersieck, A., Courey, J., & Thompson, J. (2017). Race and police brutality: The importance of media framing. International Journal of Communication, 11, 21.

Worden, R. E. (2015). The causes of police brutality: Theory and evidence on police use of force (Vol. 2, pp. 149-204). Routledge, New York, NY, ed.