In the recent rise of the incidents involving police and civilians, the spotlight is once again directed at the police. There have been a lot of questions about police brutality, their jurisdiction, and even their funding. But where and when did police brutality began?
The excessive and unjustified use of force by law enforcement against a person or a group is known as police brutality. It violates people’s civil rights and represents a severe instance of police misconduct. It was in the middle of the nineteenth century, in Britain, that the term police brutality was first used.
Government issue
A widespread failure of the criminal justice system can be blamed for the prevalence of police brutality in many countries. The criminal justice system lacks a policy to investigate many instances of police abuse. Lack of accountability and consequences for cops mistreating citizens is one sort of government failure that can lead to the normalization of police brutality. Social problems like poverty and racial prejudice can also make the effects of brutality on underprivileged communities worse. In some countries, regulations like qualified immunity, which shields officials from legal liability for using force while their acts are legal, allow for the lawful, brutal treatment of citizens.
How to measure too much force?
Force can be used by police officers legitimately. Despite being legal, police violence can nonetheless be excessive, especially when employed in conjunction with political repression. Police personnel can occasionally be overly harsh for a variety of reasons. It is believed that some cops’ psychopathy makes them more likely than others to employ excessive force. Police brutality is a term frequently used to describe the use of force by the police to further politically acceptable goals (terrorism) when, in accordance with commonly held ideals, no force should be employed at all.
There is no objective way to quantify the use of excessive force in any specific circumstance, hence police brutality is measured based on the stories of those who have seen or witnessed it, as well as the juries present at trials involving police brutality cases.
But not instances of police brutality gets to trials. There are those who suffer the reverberation knowing they could not complain. Because the moment they do, another wave of cruel treatment from the same oppressor would wash on them. And in some cases, no one would believe them anyway. While police brutality has had a long history, unfortunately, it keeps adding up to the accounts, extending the streak of this deplorable practice in the police department of every country in the world.