What quickly emerges from these foregoing trends, though, is just how quickly even innocuous encounters such as stops for traffic offenses with ordinary citizens can escalate to the point where deadly force is required by police officers. It is reasonable to suggest that when citizens are directly involved in a violent encounter with a criminal, their views of deadly force will be vastly different from those citizens who merely read about the event in their newspapers or watch a brief account on television. People whose lives or whose families' lives are personally touched and saved by the intervention of police and their use of deadly force against criminals will undoubtedly have a highly favorable view of such use, but there will also be those who question the need because they were not there and worry that such deadly force might have been the result of overzealousness or that such deadly force may be directed against them by accident in the future. In this regard, Klinger (2004) adds that, "Our schizophrenic posture toward police shootings springs also from a deep cultural well. Our nation has a long-standing tradition of clamoring for government protection from the actions of criminals, while at the same time rebelling against the constraints that those protective activities place on our lives" (p. 8). Likewise, Alpert and Smith (1999) point out that, "The authority of the police to use force represents one of the most misunderstood powers granted to representatives of government. Police officers are authorized to use both psychological and physical force to apprehend criminals and solve crimes" (p. 481).
The duality of views about the use of deadly force by police officers extends into the courtroom itself. As Alpert and Smith (1999) point out, "It is likely that many reasonable and even highly-skilled officers would respond similarly in a given factual scenario that a jury has determined to be unreasonable conduct" (p. 482). There is also a duality of distinctions between deadly force based on its willful and intentional use by police officers and its use based on a lack of appropriate training. For instance, Smith (1994) reports that, "Discussions of police violence are often blurred by the failure to distinguish between violence that is clearly extralegal and abusive and violence that is simply the necessary result of police incompetence. This distinction is important because the causes of these two types of violence, and the motivations of the officers involved, vary greatly" (p. 485).
On the one hand, extralegal violence occurs in those encounters where police officers willfully and wrongfully use force that they know exceeds the boundaries of their official offices; on the other hand, unnecessary violence takes place during those encounters when otherwise well-intentioned police officers are unable to handle a given encounter without resorting to unnecessary force (Smith, 1994). These dichotomous perspectives concerning the use of deadly force are not restricted to the United States, of course, but they do appear to be particularly pronounced in this country due in part to the high-profile mainstream media coverage of such events and the portrayal of deadly force in contemporary entertainment venues such as television and motion pictures.
Although popular views about the appropriate role of a police force in modern America changed somewhat following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, with many Americans recognizing and accepting the need for heightened security measures, even in a free society, but the use of deadly force remains preeminent in the debate over this proper role. Indeed, a good many Americans today may not even remember the events of the last 50 years or so that contributed to this debate today. According to Klinger, "In recent years, this sense of disquiet about deadly government power has repeatedly been expressed in the form of social unrest. A good many of the major civil disturbances (and many of the smaller ones) that have erupted in our nation in the last four decades have been spawned by anger over law enforcement activity, often the use of deadly force" (p. 8).
This anger has been especially manifested by minority groups who believe they have been singled out by police officers for the use of deadly force. For example, Klinger notes that when deadly force was used against a minority member in New York City during the early 1960s, the backlash caused another death, numerous injuries and an enormous amount of property destruction. In this regard, Klinger (2004) writes, "Indeed one the first large-scale riots of the tumultuous 1960s occurred in July 1964, after an off-duty...
One police officer for example referred to the chaos as a "holocaust," far removed from the real world (Shankman et al., 2010). Alpert and Smith (2001, p. 483) note that a survey of the public showed a general perception that the police is frequently excessively violent in their contact with the public. According to the authors, the targets of reported abuse are generally lower class males, with a common factor
Criminology Theory: Why Deadly Force Can Be a Crime The use of deadly force on the part of police officers has been highlighted in recent news reports. Given less attention are the police officers who could have used deadly force but managed the situation without doing so. Specifically reported in the work of Pinzzotto, Davis, Bohrer, and Infanti (2012) is that "a large number of officers have been in multiple situations
The young man had struck the officer repeatedly before continuing to resist arrest, and finally being killed. The court found in favor of the officer. Hopkins v. Andaya is a similar case in which an officer was struck repeatedly and ignore despite several warnings. In both these cases, self-defense necessitated the use of firearms. In the case of Tennessee v Garner, on the other hand, a suspect was fleeing. According to
Excessive Psychological and Physical Force on Victims and the Public: An Exploration of Police Practices The subject of excessive use of violence by authoritative figures has been widely examined throughout history. Alpert and Smith suggest that the authority of the police to use force "represents one of the most misunderstood powers granted to representatives of government" suggesting that police officers are authorized to use psychological and physical force to apprehend
At the same time though, they are often used in cases of violent arrests and intense police operations. Also, ultrasounds weapons are used in riots and mob control as well as in violent manifestations. At the military level, these are common especially when engaging in peacekeeping operations and in the missions where the risk of hurting civilians is relatively high. Still, in these situations, police forces are also equipped with
Law Enforcement The use of deadly force by the officer raises issues of reasonableness and due process under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, respectively, as discussed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Tennessee v. Garner (1985, 471). The use of deadly force is a seizure and thus protected by the Fourth Amendment. Its use during policing activities must therefore be balanced against the rights of the suspect, by remaining within
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